Busy Week!

John Cena’s recent comments about WWE not necessarily replacing him as the face of the WWE with one particular superstar, but instead using multiple different stars to fill the void created by his departure in order to satisfy the multitude of demographics within WWE’s global audience are very telling. The latest example of that was on display on Raw this week with Roman Reigns not being featured as an integral part of the show.

WWE appears to be entering a new era in which the company is not reliant on one particular star, but instead relying on more of a cooperative group effort from everyone. This truly seems to be an exciting time for the company, and they will constantly be motivated because of the emergence of AEW.

A significant amount of progress is being made by Baron Corbin each week in the heel department. He is starting to fill the void that The Miz left as the man in WWE who is universally disliked by the audience, which is an extremely important role to fill. The entire WWE audience can invest their collective energy into the same emotion they are feeling towards a particular person, Corbin in this case. This is truly one of the primary reasons I personally believe WWE has such a magnetic quality. It’s like Sami Zayn says – people feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves.

The women’s division has been losing steam in the last eight weeks or so. There seems to be way too much of a concentration on three or four of the women – and the rest is just being discounted. Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, and Bayley (And to a lesser extent Nikki Cross and Lacey Evans), seem to be the small group of women right now getting much of any attention and the rest are being discounted. This needs to be fixed quickly, otherwise some of these women may ask for their release from WWE, and no one could blame them because it would be justified. Many superstars are already asking for their release – it doesn’t need to get any worse.

The tag team division is a complete joke – almost to the point where it is unwatchable, and Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins are not doing WWE any favors to change that perception from fans.

The only watchable teams are The New Day and The Usos. On a more upbeat note, Bray Wyatt’s Firefly Funhouse is starting to pick up more steam. Maybe creative is allowing Wyatt to give a little more input and exercise more freedom in what he presents to the audience on a weekly basis because his creativity level is very high.

Categories RAW

HIAC Would Be Nice

A Hell in a Cell match between Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler for the WWE championship would be a nice change of pace for two reasons. The first is simply that a Steel Cage match took place at Money in the Bank last month between Shane McMahon and The Miz, so it would just be nice for the WWE universe to see some variety being used.

The second reason this would be nice is that it would add more of a surprise factor. For the past 10 years, WWE has made it so that Hell in a Cell matches have only taken place at the HIAC pay-per-view. It worked well from the genesis of this structure in 2002 until 2009 when important rivalries between superstars always seemed to culminate inside Hell in a Cell as opposed to having them only take place once a year.

The exact same thing seems to be going on between Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross as the storyline that transpired about two years ago between Alexa and Nia Jax (speaking of her, let’s all wish her the absolute best in her recovery from injury).

WWE seems to be recycling old storylines rather than choosing a new one in this scenario. Shane McMahon is also being featured far too much as a centerpiece of WWE programming, as much if not more than Roman Reigns, who did not even appear on SmackDown. Shane simply does not possess the magnetic quality which his father obviously had. This seems to be hurting the company because they have a plethora of superstars on the roster who are far more talented than Shane at this point and deserve an opportunity to show what they can do.

Side Note: I stand corrected about the tag team division. Daniel Bryan and Rowan, as well as Heavy Machinery, are very entertaining. I have absolutely no idea what that dance Otis does is supposed to be, but it adds a tremendous amount of comic relief.

Ali’s Comments

Ali made some public comments last week pertaining to 205 Live and the general lack of respect it gets from WWE management, which is a damn shame because there are some incredibly talented performers. Ali referred to 205 Live as the “redheaded stepchild” of WWE, citing that the performers on the brand work incredibly hard and are extremely precise with their every movement in the ring, but are never appreciated as much for their efforts for whatever reason, and he’s not wrong at all.

This was a little bit of a down episode of NXT this week, but that can be excused as the first couple of episodes right after a Takeover event are always a little bit quiet.

One thing that is exciting, however, is that Matt Riddle is reportedly set for a very sizable push in the coming months (most likely because of his MMA background, because WWE tends to gravitate towards superstars with MMA backgrounds). It would be silly to argue whether he deserves it, because he obviously does. He is very good in the ring and he has a certain level of magnetism about his personality that cannot be taught and is exactly what WWE wants.

Categories NXT