Creating big stars is a biproduct of creating a compelling product is what I'm saying. The reason Rock and Austin were as big as they were was because the storylines being good allowed them to be so. You toss Rock and Austin in today's product as new blood, I don't think they live up to their late 90s legacies.
In 2011, CM Punk was on his way-- CM Punk in 2011 if anything plays to my point and proves that compelling storylines will build guys up very effectively because the dude's reactions after just a couple of months of a storyline people really liked put him among the top dogs of the company. You can say Punk's skills did it too, but Punk's always had skills, never was able to get a reaction close to that. But they pulled the plug prematurely so he got stuck where he is now rather than becoming a mega star.
SD 2009 was not compelling programming. It had a lot of good matches in a vacuum, but storylines? Nah.
Don't recall the big sell of Raw 2004 or SD 2002 offhand which is probably enough for me to say that they're not as compelling as you think they are.
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I tried to have a fierce rivalry with SuperNiceDog, but he made me look worse than a GameFAQs Contest!