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.