Report: Vince McMahon Frustrated With Product

One of the most prominent things heard at WWE creative meetings from Vince McMahon is his overall frustration with the product as of late and complaining about the company's inability to create new stars. Probably the biggest criticism the company is getting now is pushing their TV harder than PPV events in the last year or so.

One WWE source added, "Vince and his current crop of generals are so inside a bubble that they cannot even define what is logical anymore. Vince has put considerable distance between his brilliance as a promoter and matchmaker and his current path, which I can best describe as disjointed booking and promoting that even he second guesses. That's never good. The difference between Vince and others is that he's falling for the trap of buying into the crap that a lot of the wrong generals are shoveling his way. Guys like Brian Gewirtz are horrendously bad for business. Hayes is solid and consistent but he's paranoid as sh*t nowadays and also is long gone in terms of having an understanding of cultural shifts."

It should also be noted that during a creative meeting two weeks ago, McMahon actually said, "WHY CAN'T WE CREATE NEW STARS?"

credit: wrestlingattitude.com

Becaus A. it is not that easy. Fans are not just going to love/hate someone right away. Did you see the debut of Jam Master Jizzy or Jesse Master whatever the fuck they called him? 90% of the crowd didn't care and the others actually booed him while was being put over by Charlie Haas. After weeks of him being the "Word Up" segment, the fans could care less when he finally made his debut. Another one was Kizarny. Weeks of Vigenettes and then no one gave a damn and he went away very quickly.

B. They are going to have to take a leap of faith with someone, and maybe even accept a low PPV buy rate. It is unfair to say they can't create any new stars. CM Punk has been on fire since he cashed in the MITB at Extreme Rules and Morrison has been on fire since he went to SD in the draft. CM Punk has headlined 2 PPV's this summer and he is probably going to make it 3 at Summer Slam.
I think that SD is great at building stars. Just look at Ziggler, he is in a position to become the next IC Champion. Raw has more pressure to draw big ratings because it is the flagship WWE program and it is on the more popular network and that is why we have seen these guest host waste time plugging there movies, excluding Prince Jr.

C. Raw raids the star coffers of SD and ECW every summer and then those guys get buried. MVP, Kennedy, and so on. SD is able to give the time it takes to build a new star when Raw just doesn't.

Do you think that people would have bought Orton vs. MVP at Summe Slam? We may have, but Orton vs. Cena will sell far better then Orton vs. MVP, Mark Henry, or any other under card guy on the Raw roster and sense Orton/HHH is played out, they went with Orton vs. Cena.

Unbelievable. Vince really has reached a point where he probably should not be in control of the company anymore. I'm not even sure if it would be better off if Shane or Stephanie took over in his wake.

New stars don't simply get created. They have to have something memorable written for them, and have to deliver it *flawlessly*. On top of that, they have to have excellent ring skills. I agree with Concrete Jesus that Smackdown's doing it right now. Dolph Ziggler's been terrific with his quick buildup to an Intercontinental Title push against Rey Mysterio... one of the top faces in the company. CM Punk has gained tremendous heel heat against Jeff Hardy. And John Morrison... has all the tools, but they're just not giving him anything to work with. They've just got JR and Todd Grisham telling us how wonderful he is, as if his ring work doesn't speak for itself. JoMo needs to be given something story-wise that gives us a reason to care about his success. A feud with Chris Jericho would be his ticket to the top, in my opinion.

As for Raw, I also agree with CJ, in that they bury "new stars" extremely fast. Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase are likely to do the job to DX at Summerslam. MVP came out with instant face pops to face Randy Orton... then dropped completely off the radar. The Miz came out instantly and called out John Cena... and proceeded to do the exact same thing for 6 weeks straight, without ANY actual interaction. And then actually lost. Every time. We haven't seen anybody but Orton, Cena, and HHH in the title picture in... forever. They just need to give somebody new the shot they deserve, and they have to do it with a reason for us to care.

A prime target is Santino Marella. Say what you will about his schtick, but the crowd pops for him almost as much as they pop for Jeff Hardy. The Santino chants start whenever he has a match now. All they need to do is get him in a feud with a top heel to give the fans a reason to get behind him for a title push. He's too funny to leave off the show, yet they can't seem to find a match for him.

ECW is actually the best show running right now in my opinion. The Hurricane was given a month or two to have his re-debut. The buildup of Ezekiel Jackson and Vladimir Kozlov was exciting to finally see come to a close (and not in the way most of us probably expected). Goldust is making people care about Sheamus. Zack Ryder is making us hate him with one syllable repeated three times. The only things that don't make much sense to me are why the title picture is limited to the veterans right now; and if that is going to remain, why there is not a secondary title (possibly the return of the TV or European Title)? And lastly, the Abraham Washington show. this does nothing for him, and most of the time the feuds aren't even furthered by it... they just come out and stare each other down.


I got a little off-topic as I tend to do, but my point is:

To make new stars, the WWE not only needs to showcase the young talent properly, they need to put them in a feud with a high-profile wrestler of the opposite alignment. Until then, people are just going to say, "Yeah, they've got skills... but what have they really done?"

Here is what Chris Jericho has to say about this subject.

Quote :

Chris Jericho Says WWE Is In A 'Crisis'
Posted by: Wrestling-Radio.com

The Baltimore Sun has an interview up with Chris Jericho where he talks about his teaming with Edge ending so quickly, his feud with Rey Mysterio, on WWE's need to create new stars, and more. Here is what he had to say about WWE being in a "crisis period." "We're in a crisis period in WWE and we need to build new guys. When Shawn Michaels came back to Raw, he said, "Whose been built since I left?" On Smackdown we've built [John] Morrison and [Dolph] Ziggler and Cryme Tyme. The Intercontinental title has been rebuilt now with Rey Mysterio. But I can't tell you on Raw who has been built over the last six months. They better do it soon, because when this generation of performers is gone, who will replace them?"