If that's how he feels, glad for him. It is true in a lot of respects. I think my view is that they pushed an unpopular star, but then refused to give him the tools to increase his popularity. Disappointing, boring matches, bland foreign heel gimmick. Just cheap heat that went nowhere. In short, the same problem with a lot of Vince's WWE: settling for fine and appeasing Vince when they could've tried something new and it could've been great.
When I was 15 (so around the time GTV was a storyline) fruit of the loom had these series of commercials where these guys dressed in full body fruit costumes were the commercials. Giant apples, and pears, and grapes. They also had a lesser known set of commercials. It may have only been one commercial.
It was a jacked black dude dancing with a smile on his face, wearing tighty whiteys.
I remember liking the giant fruit commercials, while my mom, my two sisters, and my girlfriend all liked the dancing jacked black dude commercials.
So I thought, why not combine the two? Dancing black guy gets put in tbd grape costume, and GTV gets revealed as Grape TV.
The hook could be that grape doesn't mind exposing your most vunerable moments, because he's a dancing grape who strips off his grape costume to his tighty whiteys. His most vunerable form. And he STILL dances with a smile.
Instead, WWF never followed up on GTV. And an opertunity to have a new sponcer going forward was lost.
15 year old me understood "the biz" better than Vince McMahon in the attitude era.
GrapeTV would have hooked men, because of the goofy grape dancing. It would have hooked the women, because every woman I knew liked a jacked black guy in his underwear dancing, and it would have hooked fruit of the loom as a sponcer. Because EVERYONE wears underwear.
GrapeTV would have hooked men, because of the goofy grape dancing. It would have hooked the women, because every woman I knew liked a jacked black guy in his underwear dancing, and it would have hooked fruit of the loom as a sponcer. Because EVERYONE wears underwear.
I like your optimism but no, no it wouldn't lol.
Dancing grapes would not have hooked men. No more than the dancing fucking turkey did years before, or the myriad of dancing idiots since. The bulk of viewers don't want to see dancing during their pro wrestling shows (unless if it's hot women due to the majority demo, and even that died out a long time ago.)
A big jacked black guy dancing in his underwear would not have hooked women, because the *literal entire show is big jacked black (and white) guys in their underwear 'dancing' around. They already got the eye candy they need, wasting a 10min segment does nothing to boost that.
FotL absolutely could have been a sponsor and would have, but WWE also wasn't hurting for sponsors.