For the last few months, I've been shitting on Monday Night Raw and Smackdown Live like it was something I was getting paid to do. I've hated what they've been doing to most of the talent, I haven't really connected to any of the storylines, the humor of the show has always been more miss than hit but it's felt more aggressively awful recently, and the main event scene has felt extremely lackluster thanks to the awful stories they've been telling. They've derailed some organically over stars in favor of pushing others who don't deserve it, aren't ready for it, or who have already seen it. They've also created ridiculous "rules" and subjected us to the "no commercials during matches" style of programming that has led to so many good matches losing all their momentum because they have to stop them for asinine reasons.
So why am I rethinking my decision to take an indefinite sabbatical when there's still a lot, and I mean a lot, to dislike? Let's take a look at what's still not working for me.
The Women's roster has felt unimportant for a while now. Whether due to injury, absence, lack of any really significant competition, or extremely poor creative decisions, it is a very far cry from what it was going into Wrestlemania 35. Becky Lynch was the most powerful force in all of pro wrestling, male or female, and Ronda Rousey was generating a lot of cross-promotional interest. But then it all went to hell. Becky got booked in a ridiculous rivalry with Lacey Evans, a performer so clearly ill-prepared for the spotlight Vince shoved her into, and it was also a rivalry that lasted way too long. Charlotte got her Smackdown Women's title back, making her loss at Mania meaningless, and Bayley cashed in her MITB contract and won it that same night. There's also the Women's Tag division, as in it's practically non-existent. When The IIconics won, I was happy, but since then, they've had little to nothing to do, but that gave way to the hype of The Kabuki Warriors, who seemed to be getting the push to take on the world, but they've appeared maybe twice in competition? Then we suddenly had Shane Fucking McMahon as the company's top heel, a role that has been given way too much airtime and he's a terrible fit for, and his entourage of Drew McIntyre, Elias, and The Revival have been horribly utilized. There's been the poor use of Finn Balor as the Intercontinental champ who just dropped the title to Shinsuke Nakamura in the same kind of afterthought way he was treated while he was the champ. There's been this whole mystery surrounding Daniel Bryan and what he wants to tell us that doesn't seem to be going anywhere (unless, as some of the dirt sheets are suggesting, that he was the one who tried to flat out murder Roman Reigns last week). There was/is the Wild Card rule but that honestly doesn't seem to apply in the same way it was supposed to since any number of superstars will transition from show to show depending upon where the ratings deem it to be important, and that's only one example of how they're been trying to bump up their lackluster ratings. There's also this kind of gross cucking angle they've come up with for Maria and Mike Kanellis. Perhaps most importantly, there's been no real strong rivalry to get my hyped up.
And then there was Brock Lesnar winning back the Universal Championship, and I just kind of threw my hands up in the air. Last week, he beat up Seth Rollins so badly that he had to chomp down on a blood capsule in his mouth to really sell the fact that he could have severe internal bleeding. Ugh.
And then there was the Raw Reunion which was a shameless ratings grab where not only Mick Foley was the only one who had the wherewithal and good nature to put over an active roster member, but I was forced to look at Hulk Fucking Hogan, proving once again that WWE will always put profit ahead of people.
But then, Aleister Black debuted. A.J. Styles turned heel, got the US title from Ricochet, and reformed The Club with newly-anointed Raw tag champs Gallows and Anderson who are now calling themselves the "O.C." (which could apparently mean "Original Club" or "Only Club" because they're calling themselves the "only club that matters" which is kind of fair to say because Bullet Club has really gone to pieces since Kenny, Cody and the Bucks have gone to AEW), Kofi is in a rivalry with Randy Orton who legit shut Kofi's momentum down ten years ago (because he's Randy Orton and is a real-life asshole), The Fiend version of Bray Wyatt is about to do his in-ring debut at Summerslam, Ali is back in action and seems to be looking to insert himself into the title picture, and Kevin Owens has become the company's biggest, most exciting, and by far the unlikeliest babyface and is devoted to bringing down Shane.
Now the negatives still outweigh the positives for me, and I'm very hesitant to continue to devote five hours of my week to the main roster programming, but these elements I've enumerated that are working... they're working pretty damn well to get me excited. The matches between Black and Cesaro have been incredible, and work to prove that not only is Black a huge star in the not-too-distant future, but Cesaro is one of the most reliable workers they have and they have slept on him for far too long. The decision to inject some real-life, decade-past dickishness into the feud between Kofi and Orton has solidly heated this rivalry up. Styles has always worked better as a heel than as a face, and this most recent turn has made his character so much more interesting.
So this is really uncharted territory for me. I've always felt that picking and choosing which rivalries and feuds to get behind has been what the programs have wanted from me, but I've still watched the rest of the show pretty much regardless. Now I feel like I'm looking for specific stories to get behind and basically ignore the rest. I could be looking at a quality DVR rewatch of these shows, but I'm not committing to anything until after Summerslam. If some really good stories come out of that show, then I will be strongly considering coming back.
But if they're just looking to maintain the sub-par status quo, it's still going to be NXT only for the foreseeable future.
So impress me, WWE. I know you can do this. You've done it before and if you put a little more care and work into your product, you're going to be so much better off in the long run and you'll get at least one viewer back.
So why am I rethinking my decision to take an indefinite sabbatical when there's still a lot, and I mean a lot, to dislike? Let's take a look at what's still not working for me.
The Women's roster has felt unimportant for a while now. Whether due to injury, absence, lack of any really significant competition, or extremely poor creative decisions, it is a very far cry from what it was going into Wrestlemania 35. Becky Lynch was the most powerful force in all of pro wrestling, male or female, and Ronda Rousey was generating a lot of cross-promotional interest. But then it all went to hell. Becky got booked in a ridiculous rivalry with Lacey Evans, a performer so clearly ill-prepared for the spotlight Vince shoved her into, and it was also a rivalry that lasted way too long. Charlotte got her Smackdown Women's title back, making her loss at Mania meaningless, and Bayley cashed in her MITB contract and won it that same night. There's also the Women's Tag division, as in it's practically non-existent. When The IIconics won, I was happy, but since then, they've had little to nothing to do, but that gave way to the hype of The Kabuki Warriors, who seemed to be getting the push to take on the world, but they've appeared maybe twice in competition? Then we suddenly had Shane Fucking McMahon as the company's top heel, a role that has been given way too much airtime and he's a terrible fit for, and his entourage of Drew McIntyre, Elias, and The Revival have been horribly utilized. There's been the poor use of Finn Balor as the Intercontinental champ who just dropped the title to Shinsuke Nakamura in the same kind of afterthought way he was treated while he was the champ. There's been this whole mystery surrounding Daniel Bryan and what he wants to tell us that doesn't seem to be going anywhere (unless, as some of the dirt sheets are suggesting, that he was the one who tried to flat out murder Roman Reigns last week). There was/is the Wild Card rule but that honestly doesn't seem to apply in the same way it was supposed to since any number of superstars will transition from show to show depending upon where the ratings deem it to be important, and that's only one example of how they're been trying to bump up their lackluster ratings. There's also this kind of gross cucking angle they've come up with for Maria and Mike Kanellis. Perhaps most importantly, there's been no real strong rivalry to get my hyped up.
And then there was Brock Lesnar winning back the Universal Championship, and I just kind of threw my hands up in the air. Last week, he beat up Seth Rollins so badly that he had to chomp down on a blood capsule in his mouth to really sell the fact that he could have severe internal bleeding. Ugh.
And then there was the Raw Reunion which was a shameless ratings grab where not only Mick Foley was the only one who had the wherewithal and good nature to put over an active roster member, but I was forced to look at Hulk Fucking Hogan, proving once again that WWE will always put profit ahead of people.
But then, Aleister Black debuted. A.J. Styles turned heel, got the US title from Ricochet, and reformed The Club with newly-anointed Raw tag champs Gallows and Anderson who are now calling themselves the "O.C." (which could apparently mean "Original Club" or "Only Club" because they're calling themselves the "only club that matters" which is kind of fair to say because Bullet Club has really gone to pieces since Kenny, Cody and the Bucks have gone to AEW), Kofi is in a rivalry with Randy Orton who legit shut Kofi's momentum down ten years ago (because he's Randy Orton and is a real-life asshole), The Fiend version of Bray Wyatt is about to do his in-ring debut at Summerslam, Ali is back in action and seems to be looking to insert himself into the title picture, and Kevin Owens has become the company's biggest, most exciting, and by far the unlikeliest babyface and is devoted to bringing down Shane.
Now the negatives still outweigh the positives for me, and I'm very hesitant to continue to devote five hours of my week to the main roster programming, but these elements I've enumerated that are working... they're working pretty damn well to get me excited. The matches between Black and Cesaro have been incredible, and work to prove that not only is Black a huge star in the not-too-distant future, but Cesaro is one of the most reliable workers they have and they have slept on him for far too long. The decision to inject some real-life, decade-past dickishness into the feud between Kofi and Orton has solidly heated this rivalry up. Styles has always worked better as a heel than as a face, and this most recent turn has made his character so much more interesting.
So this is really uncharted territory for me. I've always felt that picking and choosing which rivalries and feuds to get behind has been what the programs have wanted from me, but I've still watched the rest of the show pretty much regardless. Now I feel like I'm looking for specific stories to get behind and basically ignore the rest. I could be looking at a quality DVR rewatch of these shows, but I'm not committing to anything until after Summerslam. If some really good stories come out of that show, then I will be strongly considering coming back.
But if they're just looking to maintain the sub-par status quo, it's still going to be NXT only for the foreseeable future.
So impress me, WWE. I know you can do this. You've done it before and if you put a little more care and work into your product, you're going to be so much better off in the long run and you'll get at least one viewer back.
Comments
Post a Comment