6. When You've Signed Talent, Book Them Like Stars
Like WWE, Marvel likes to take established performers that aren't quite yet megastars and give them a massive stage upon which to deliver knockout performances to the world. Robert Downey Jnr. was playing supporting roles before Iron Man in 2008, if he could get insured to work at all now hes a household name and a cinematic icon making around $75million a year, and set to make $200million out of the next two Avengers movies. You see, Marvel treats these performers as legitimate stars. After all, the characters theyre playing are Marvels precious intellectual property. If Captain America doesnt look like the ultimate human being in every fight (even the ones hes outgunned in), then it doesnt hurt Chris Evans it hurts Captain America, or rather the audiences perception of the character. These days WWE creative on the main roster doesnt seem to have any idea how to utilise talent they hire, and sometimes seems to have no real idea as to why they were hired in the first place. Worse, theyre developing a track record for actively sabotaging their talents ability to connect with the audience, which is the one thing that will make or break a professional wrestler and the company they work for. Zack Ryder, Cody Rhodes, Wade Barrett, Dolph Ziggler, Cesaro, Damien Sandow, Dean Ambrose - those are only a few of the men whove gotten over organically, without the WWE machine and had their characters changed, their push cancelled, their title reigns cut short, their gimmicks neutered as a consequence. The WWE crowd had to hijack WWEs flagship show with their reaction to Daniel Bryan and his glass ceiling before the office finally admitted that it was the man that was over, not the Yes! chant. Imagine if Marvel had seen the size of the hit they had with Iron Man, had realised that Robert Downey Jnr. and his interpretation of Tony Stark were incredibly popular with audiences and had then failed to make any sequels to his films, stripping his involvement in the Avengers movies down to a bare minimum. Thats the attitude WWE has when it comes to audiences loving characters that theyre only supposed to like.
Jack Morrell
Contributor
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
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