“The wheel is going to keep turning and I understand that. Vince McMahon is going to make money despite himself. He’s a millionaire who should be a billionaire. You know why he’s not a billionaire? Because he surrounds himself with glad-handed, non-sensical, douchebag yes men, like John Laurinaitis, who’s going to tell him everything he wants to hear, and I’d like to think that maybe this company will better after Vince McMahon is dead.”
CM Punk, 27/06/2011 – WWE Raw
The above promo sparked a revolution in WWE that I personally think inspired NXT, the formation of the Shield, the new WWE performance centre, the 2014 mega push of Daniel Bryan and the constant flow of experienced international wrestling stars that now grace WWE and also CM Punk’s 434 day WWE world title reign from December 2011 to January 2013.
Many argue that WWE do what WWE like and that talent has no say in what path the company choices to take from a creative standpoint. When Punk made that speech in 2011 John Cena was riding high just like he is now, he was a recognised champion, just like he is now, he was featured prominently as the start of the show, just as he is now. When you look at the core of WWE not much has really changed since management allowed Punk to bear his heart and soul to a point all those years ago. CM Punk has now departed the company, Daniel Bryan is on the shelf long term and WWE is once more struggling with the same old stars propping up the company.
Since the formation of NXT we have been introduced to a plethora of talent from all the across the US, Europe and now Asia, NXT has been the one breath of fresh air in WWE and it has gone so far that now NXT is recognised by many as it’s own brand, separate from WWE and as many would argue a much better product than WWE itself. This new brand can of course be attributed to none other than career killer and all around business man Triple H, now the COO of WWE. In his new position of COO Triple H claims he saw the problems within wrestling and wanted to make a change to how WWE operated especially when it came to producing new talent or improving the skills of those already know to wrestling fans due to performing for independent promotions the world over.
So as well as NXT WWE in 2014 created the WWE performance centre designed to nurture talent and improve certain areas of a wrestlers repertoire where it was required. These decisions have no doubt helped WWE in their search for the next big thing and to bring more talent through capable of performing at a high level. I truly believe the words of CM Punk struck a cord in WWE management, not that Triple H, Vince or anyone else will ever admit it. So decisions were made and individuals forged ahead in making WWE or the wrestling business a better place, this new initiative opened the doors to a world of talent who five years ago would have never made it even for a call up in WWE, the likes of Seth Rollins, Cesaro, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Dean Ambrose were all signed to contracts and given a golden opportunity.
Apart from Sami Zayn due to a few consistent injuries each man named above made it onto the WWE main roster and thrived under the bright lights, changed it seemed had come to WWE and the future looked bright. However fast forward to Autumn 2015 and the WWE isn’t looking such a pleasant place, although talent is being pushed prominently and being featured it really doesn’t seem like much has changed. Seth Rollins won the WWE title at Wrestlemania 31, he has since defended at every WWE PPV in the main event and in every one of those performances he stood out and arguably stole the show, that was until he clashed with company man John Cena at Summerslam. It was in this match that WWE made clear who was still the star of the show, yes Seth also captured the US title but that was after outside interference which cost Cena the match.
Yes talent is being pushed but it’s false, their pushes don’t really push them further than where they are right now. Kevin Owens walked into WWE and defeated John Cena on his first night, three months later Kevin lost the feud and every thing was as it should be, thankfully due to Kevin being a superior worker he survived, Rusev who also tangled with Cena during the Wrestlemania season is still recovering. Cesaro is another uber talented superstar who came to WWE a proven, competent, well-travelled wrestler with a reputation which enabled him to be fast tracked to the main roster. He debut well and had a great initial run before WWE completely screwed up his character, once recovered he formed a great tag team in late 2014 with Tyson Kidd who unfortunately suffered an injury in early Summer, Cesaro with the momentum gained from that had a great singles run before once more WWE ripped him away from his top feud with Kevin Owens and saddled him with Big Show and Bo Dallas.
In the aftermath of this weeks Raw news broke that ratings were down, many attributed this to other factors of American culture be it sport or other forms of TV entertainment. This could be the truth but one must also look at the 3 hours of Raw WWE produce every week, is the product engaging, does it serve the public, is it what people want? There are many questions that can be asked to try to solve the issue at hand but surely it’s that fact that WWE just needs to go back to old school formulaic booking that is proven.
For example after Cesaro’s recent run of excellent performances why couldn’t he have somehow managed to get a championship shot through a No1 Contenders match? How refreshing and original would it be and not only that think of the quality of the match itself. WWE set out storylines months in advance and segments are planned very meticulously yet that can become boring and predictable, which is an area WWE find themselves in now. Seth vs Kane at HIAC on PPV?? Please when was the last time Kane did anything relevant or meaningful?
NXT is fast becoming the WWE product the fans want to see, simple original storylines
that have a start, middle and end. It’s not even that fans are becoming sick of talent it’s just the writing and booking that is the problem. Another example of WWE’s poor booking decision is Sheamus holding the MITB briefcase, surely that could have gone to someone like Dean Ambrose, Kevin Owens, Roman Reigns, a fresh face would have added something extra not the predictable choice like Sheamus is. Also another trend with the MITB winner it to make them stupidly week when building them to dethrone a current champion, Sheamus went from Celtic Warrior to Celtic pussycat in the space of 24 hours.
The Sheamus cash in and subsequent title reign doesn’t feel me with any hope going forward, I truly believe he won the briefcase because WWE either don’t trust their younger talent or they had no other ideas on the day. What other reason would there be, Sheamus isn’t someone that is going to draw in the crowd for a monthly PPV or set the world on fire with an exciting title reign, he is and will always be a transitional champion. With talent like Cesaro, Owens, Ambrose, Rusev, Bray starting to make waves and knock on the door it won’t be long before WWE becomes over crowded again and maybe the draft will come back in to use, WWE do have resources now to split the brands again. Imagine if Smackdown became the home of the IC and Tag Titles and if Raw was the home of the World and US title, stars could be grown and nurtured without being lost in the shuffle.
I understand WWE have to answer to higher-ups and money men but the options are there for WWE to revamp the product once more and move into the next era, with NXT now thriving and the performance centre training the talent of tomorrow the possibilities are endless.
@Ciaran_1986
Recent Comments