The Business of WWE

2020 has been an interesting year that has forced WWE along with the rest of the world to become new and different, and it has taken some getting used to. Some old, inefficient ways of doing things are beginning to fall away.

Roman Reigns has been on the best stretch of his career – finally turning heel – the Head of The Table – and becoming aligned with Paul Heyman. This comes after taking a five-month hiatus to take care of his newborn twins during the initial months of the pandemic. Speaking of Paul Heyman (Paul E. Dangerously in his earlier years), his client Brock Lesnar, who has participated in multiple WrestleMania main events with Reigns, is currently not under contract with WWE after dropping the WWE title to Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 36. The Beast, as Paul Heyman has said, will make his return whenever he deems the time is right. This quote was completely in character, so that leads me to believe Lesnar will be back in WWE by WrestleMania 37 in 2021.

Braun Strowman was trusted to carry the company in the first several months of the pandemic after being told in January 2019 by Vince McMahon that he was not yet ready to become a major world champion. It had to feel good for Strowman to be trusted with that big of a responsibility after being told he was not yet ready a little over a year ago – full-circle moment. Roman Reigns was originally scheduled to be put over by Goldberg and become Universal champion at WrestleMania 36 before deciding to step away for several months (totally understandable). When opportunity came knocking, Strowman was ready.

WWE effectively maintained the momentum of The Fiend and he became Universal champion again at SummerSlam (even though he only held the title for a week before dropping it to Roman Reigns). The Fiend is one of those supernatural characters like The Undertaker who doesn’t necessarily need a title to be relevant in the minds of fans.

Yet another turn of the event that was pleasantly surprising was the rise of Keith Lee. He became NXT North American champion on January 22 and held the title until July when he simultaneously defeated Adam Cole for the NXT title – becoming the first ever double champion in the black and gold brand’s 10-year history. Lee would drop the NXT championship to Karrion Kross at NXT Takeover: XXX on SummerSlam weekend in August (unfortunately, Kross had to relinquish the title less than a week later due to injury), only to be moved to Monday Night RAW the following Monday. The Limitless One’s presentation is a little bit different to say the least on the main roster, but he is still viewed highly by Mr. McMahon and is set to be a pivotal figure for WWE in the future (his biggest victory came against Randy Orton at Payback on August 31.

Drew McIntyre firmly established himself as a perennial main event superstar by defeating Lesnar for the WWE championship at the Showcase of The Immortals. This was not the only major accomplishment of McIntyre in 2020 – he also engaged in a long-term rivalry with Randy Orton from SummerSlam through the month of November. This feud encompassed three Pay-Per-View events, and it ended with The Scottish Warrior becoming a two-time WWE champion. Orton has also had the single greatest year of his career, establishing himself as a presence on the mic. The rivalry with Edge has been immensely beneficial to Randy because he has developed such a deep personal connection to Edge over the past 20 years (Edge is expected to return to action in WWE sometime early in 2021 from his triceps injury suffered in June – in The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever with Orton).

Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch became parents at the end of 2020 – Daniel Bryan also became a father for the second time. Bryan is in the midst of what he is thinking will be his final run in WWE – at least as a full-time superstar (the run will presumably end at Mania. It’s great that Big E is finally getting his renewed singles push (intuitive fans knew it was coming at some point), but it was a bittersweet moment because that means he will no longer be a member of The New Day. He will obviously always maintain a rate relationship with them, but his days of dancing with them and throwing pancakes are at least mostly over (it still might happen every now and then). On a positive note, Big E’s days of being a world champion may be fast approaching.

The Royal Rumble event this year was an excellent indicator of who was in line for major pushes throughout the year. Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Bianca Belair, Shayna Baszler, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Asuka, Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre, Randy Orton, Edge, Seth Rollins, Daniel Bryan, and The Fiend Bray Wyatt were all spotlighted the most in this event, and the rest of the year ended up showing that these were the primary superstars that would be focused on. Particularly, the story involving Becky Lynch and Asuka has been rather poetic based on the events this year, which included an unforeseen pregnancy. Asuka won the Money in the Bank contract in May before realizing it was the actual RAW Women’s championship (she has been champion for most of the time since Becky announced her pregnancy.

Disagreement between two creative teams in WWE on the finish to the NXT Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania 36

Fightful Select is reporting that there were disagreements between the creative teams for RAW and NXT (RAW overruled) as to how to book the NXT Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania 36 this past April between Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley. Sean Ross Sapp is reporting that the idea of NXT creative was to book Ripley to retain the title and add Bianca Belair to the mix so Ripley could pin Belair and that way Flair wouldn’t have to take a loss.

This would have made sense for two reasons.

• Belair was called to the main roster the very next night – and evidently she has been drafted to SmackDown (even though she made her debut on RAW with her husband Montez Ford of The Street Profits) and is on pace to become a women’s champion in 6 – 12 months.
• She was featured in a match in March with The Queen. This was a hint after looking back on the situation in hindsight – which is always 20/20 – that one booking team was pushing for Belair to be in the match.

The RAW creative team ended up winning this battle and they got their singles match between Charlotte and Rhea, with The Queen – the established star – going over.

Not to say I’m upset about that. I like Flair, but Ripley would have used the victory a lot more – a brand-new main event star in the women’s division would have been made instantly – and before she even hit the age of 25. Charlotte is only 34 years old and still building her legacy to hopefully one day catch her father with 16 titles.

Roman Reigns – Daniel Bryan may take place at Royal rumble 2021, but this is subject to change considering WWE has booked for this rivalry to take place several times over the past few years only to reverse the decision a few weeks before the rivalry is scheduled to begin

Daniel Bryan is currently penciled in to face The Tribal Chief Roman Reigns for the Universal championship at Royal Rumble in January 2021, but this may be subject to change. Daniel Bryan is a member of the WWE creative team (and is receiving excellent reviews for his work on SmackDown) so he has a lot of say in the formation of his storylines. This is also a massive feud that will draw significant attention to the company, so Vince McMahon as well as the rest of the WWE creative team are very carefully planting the seeds to make the story interesting. The company has planned for this rivalry to manifest on several occasions in the past few years, but they have never been confident enough in the formation of the story to pull the trigger.

The first time this feud between Reigns and Bryan was explored was in February 2015 at the Fastlane Pay-Per-View(during the buildup to WrestleMania 31 – Reigns’ first encounter with Brock Lesnar). This was the year The Big Dog won the Royal Rumble match despite the fact that the entire WWE universe was displeased with the result – everyone was rooting for the returning Daniel Bryan to win. As a result, a number one contender’s match was booked for the following month.

The most recent mention of booking this rivalry to take place was during the summer of 2019. There were rumors that a Roman Reigns – Daniel Bryan match may take place at SummerSlam that year. A couple of weeks before the event, WWE decided to wait on booking this blockbuster match. The company felt the timing was not quite right to build a story with a sufficient amount of continuity – perhaps because Roman Reigns had only been back in WWE for about six months after taking a hiatus due to the return of his leukemia.

Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins are essentially the only two top-tier main event caliber superstars who can carry SmackDown on FOX as well as doing all the media appearances and being the face of the brand in the immediate future. Many would also put Daniel Bryan in this category, but the reason I hesitate to do that is that the leader of the Yes! Movement is at the stage of his life where his wife and kids are the most important people in his life – which is extremely commendable. Whoever is in the position of being in the top performer in WWE is required to make certain sacrifices for their career, and Bryan is no longer in the face of his life where he feels he necessarily needs to do that.

Daniel is at the stage of his life where he feels he’s already achieved his fair share of success in WWE and doesn’t necessarily need anymore. He is already a five-time world champion and a former Money in the Bank when, so he has already experienced his share of success in WWE – now it’s time to let other guys and girls grab the brass ring.

There are about seven superstars currently in WWE who have the ability to consistently draw people’s attention to their storylines – the other five (other than The Big Dog and Seth Rollins) were all drafted to Monday Night Raw. Those guys are Drew McIntyre, Randy Orton, Braun Strowman, The Fiend Bray Wyatt, and Keith Lee. Orton has done the best work of his career in 2020, particularly on the microphone – Edge spring boarded him into this phase of his career during the first half of 2020. McIntyre has exploded in 2020 with a Royal Rumble victory in January and subsequently winning the WWE Championship from Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 36 and holding the title for well over six months to this point.

Strowman was told at the beginning of 2019 by Vince McMahon that he was not ready quite yet to hold a major title in WWE. Strowman’s vision came to fruition unexpectedly at WrestleMania 36 when Roman Reigns made the decision to put his family first and step away from WWE for several months until the world got a better grasp on exactly how to deal with this virus. Strowman was trusted to carry the Universal Championship for over four months before dropping it at SummerSlam to The Fiend.

The Fiend Bray Wyatt began 2020 as Universal Champion before dropping the title to Bill Goldberg in Saudi Arabia at Super Showdown in February – right before the pandemic. The Fiend participated in the first-ever Firefly FunHouse match with John Cena – and I guess won that match. The point is The Fiend had the momentum at the end of the match, so he redeemed himself after losing to Cena six years ago. Bray Wyatt then started a long-term feud with Braun Strowman right after this which lasted until SummerSlam when he won the Universal Championship – this title victory was essentially just to give The Fiend the accolade of being a two-time Universal Champion because he dropped the title to the returning Roman Reigns a week later.

Keith Lee is relatively new but has an enormous amount of potential if used correctly. WWE has already experimented with him at Survivor Series 2019 in which he pinned Seth Rollins and earned the respect of Roman Reigns. For the past two weeks, Lee has been working with Braun Strowman. The Limitless One has also gotten a pinfall victory over Randy Orton and interacting with his real-life friend Drew McIntyre on TV.

Going back to SmackDown, the fact that there are only two (maybe three) perennial main event superstars currently on the brand says that two, three, or maybe even four more will be established within the next year. Perhaps Kevin Owens and Big E (and maybe even Aleister Black to an extent) will be at the top of the priority list.

Mr. McMahon has been extremely patient regarding the push of Big E. Intuitive members of the WWE universe could sense immediately, “this guy is a future world champion.” Mr. McMahon felt the same way, because in 2014 he narrowed his choices down to two men to be the face of the company going forward: Big E and Roman Reigns (obviously the latter was chosen, and it worked out for the best).

While Vince McMahon opted to prioritize The Big Dog first and wanted to cement him as a perennial superstar and by far the most recognizable face in WWE (this process is almost complete as Reigns is currently in the midst of the long title reign right now). Everything is coming full circle for Reigns and he is employing a new level of authenticity. Much of this can be attributed to the alliance with Paul Heyman. WWE has been waiting to align Roman and Paul since the night The Shield first debuted at Survivor Series 2012 and interfered in the WWE Championship match. This saved CM Punk’s historic 434-day tenure with the title (which The Rock would ultimately end at the Royal Rumble in January 2013 in Phoenix, Arizona), and Punk was ironically managed by Heyman at that time.

While Roman Reigns was at the forefront of the WWE universe’s attention and simultaneously receiving all the praise and criticism that comes with being the face of the company, Big E had an underrated run as Intercontinental Champion in 2013-14 and was ultimately paired with Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods as The New Day in November 2014. Vince McMahon was somewhat leery as to whether this would resonate (I would have been as well), but WWE stuck with it and it turned into the best six years of their lives. In fairness, this team did not resonate with the WWE universe for the first nine months or so, but instead grew on fans with time. That’s all the difference when one is looking at whether a gimmick works or not – did it get time to simmer with the fanbase before it was done away with?

Big E’s eventual singles push was foreshadowed earlier in 2020 – in April to be exact, right after WrestleMania 36, when E won the SmackDown Tag Team Championships by himself to make The New Day 8-time champs (9 overall). The reason E competed alone was because, at ‘Mania, Kofi competed by himself against John Morrison and Jimmy Uso (who tore an ACL during the match and is still out right now). The Miz had an illness so he could not go for a normal tag team match, but he was good a few weeks later.

The Mafia-style storyline Roman Reigns mentioned a few weeks ago in which The Tribal Chief portrays a mob boss character and is the leader of a Samoan faction (with The Usos and maybe even a few other members) is beginning to take shape. The Tribal Chief is set to take on Jey Uso inside Hell in a Cell in what will apparently be “the highest stakes match in WWE history” (whatever that means). This will be the second match in the feud between the two cousins, who are also members of the Anoa’i family – right now Jey is buying time for his twin brother Jimmy to heal from an ACL tear he suffered at WrestleMania 36. I would guess that Jimmy might be able to return to WWE in December/January (because ACL’s typically take about 8 to 9 months to heal given the medical technology right now).

By the time Jimmy does ultimately come back, both Usos could be the first members of the stable led by Roman Reigns – being the head of the table and all! A couple of other members may or may not be added a couple of months later. WWE is placing a heavy amount of focus on The Big Dog’s rich Samoan heritage, so it would stand to reason that a potential blockbuster WrestleMania 37 main event lined up by Roman Reigns and The Rock – given the Rock’s deep connection with the Anoa’i family dating back to his grandfather Peter Maivia. If WWE is ever going to do this, now would be the time as The Great One is quickly approaching 50 years old (although with that man’s physique and training habits he might be okay to do the match even at 55).

Where does all this leave The Fiend – because originally, he was the big payoff match for The Tribal Chief’s Universal Title reign. Well first of all if The Rock is ever available to do anything with WWE, Mr. McMahon has essentially no choice other than to make it happen because it is money guaranteed. Secondly, right now The Fiend appears to be beginning a story with Kevin Owens and that will keep him occupied throughout the fall (Alexa Bliss will absolutely be heavily embroiled in that story – becoming a minion of The Fiend). Perhaps both Alexa and Bray Wyatt/The Fiend could be drafted over to Monday Night Raw so they can continue to use all their feud with KO. The rivalry between Reigns and The Fiend will likely manifest at some point (and it is still a possibility that it will happen sooner rather than later – maybe, maybe not). WWE still has quite a bit of time to make this happen considering they are 35 and 33 years old respectively.

The Tribal Chief became aware of the idea to introduce this new incarnation to the WWE universe after watching the movie Gangs of New York and being inspired by the Daniel Day Lewis’ character and how he felt justified to behave the way he did. The alliance with Paul Heyman and the idea of making Roman into the special attraction caps is It off beautifully – The Big Dog is now treated like the box office draw he is, similar to Brock Lesnar (Heyman clearly had a big role in the decision on how to present Roman given that the former executive director of Monday Night Raw has so much input on this storyline).

Reigns talks significantly more than Lesnar, as he should to develop comfortability as a heel and face of the company and Paul is taking a much more subservient role in this chapter of his career. With that said, Reigns is booked almost exactly like Brock. WWE just needs to be somewhat careful to not overexpose Reigns but rather keep doing exactly what they’re doing – because Roman has experienced overexposure several times before and that significantly hurt his development (Charlotte Flair experienced some of this a few months ago and is currently off TV).

Vince McMahon has successfully created another Brock Lesnar-type figure in WWE over the past several years who has the ability to dominate his opponents in the ring and also has the ability to generate a polarizing and authoritative aura in the form of Roman Reigns. This process began back in 2015 when Roman won the Royal Rumble match and went on to face the beast in the main event of WrestleMania 31 (and Seth Rollins became known in WWE for cashing in his Money in the Bank contract at WrestleMania – pulling off what would become known as “the Heist of the Century”). Reigns would also be placed in the main event of WrestleMania 34 three years later with Lesnar.

I would imagine Mr. McMahon had to be a little tempted to turn Roman heel at some point between 2015 and 2018 because of just how vocal a small group of the WWE universe was becoming – voicing their displeasure with The Big Dog’s creative direction around his character. Mr. McMahon stuck to his original plan – it would mean so much more if WWE waited a few years to ultimately turn Roman Reigns heel.

This is what Mr. McMahon – and most smart business people understand – that: in order to be successful in whatever business endeavor one decides to undertake, a person’s long-term aspirations can never be sacrificed for whatever he/she wants in the short-term. Smart people are masters at resisting quick gratification by always thinking of their long-term vision first.

Vince McMahon took gradual steps to evolve Roman Reigns into the Tribal Chief that he is now. Instant gratification would have told McMahon to book Roman to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from Brock Lesnar at ‘Mania 31, but Vince knew that so many more layers would be added to the story if it was extended for a few more years, and it worked beautifully. More meaning was added to the storyline when Roman took yet another lost to Lesnar at Mania three years later, and when he finally won the Universal Title at SummerSlam 2018.

Then there was the leukemia saga, which was an unfortunate and unexpected turn in Roman’s story. However, this absolutely endeared him in the eyes of the WWE universe forever. When the Tribal Chief made his most recent return to WWE at SummerSlam 2020, it was simply crazy how similar it looked to the night after WrestleMania XXVIIII in 2012 when Brock Lesnar returned to WWE to attack John Cena.

Maybe Mr. McMahon was intending to create the next Brock Lesnar all along and not the next John Cena as so many people thought. Roman Reigns did defeat John Cena in September 2017, but maybe that was just a steppingstone for Roman that made perfect sense given that they were both so polarizing along with John having been the face of WWE for about 12 years at that point in time. Vince McMahon could have thought to himself, “instead of making Cena the face of the company, what would have happened if I went with Lesnar? Now I can’t find out because I have basically a carbon copy of The Beast in Reigns, only Roman is much more committed to preserving the health of the business.”

There are several reasons why Randy Orton might be the best option to receive this accolade. The first is that Ric Flair said on Monday Night Raw just a couple of weeks before SummerSlam 2020 that he wanted Randy Orton to break his record of 16 World Heavyweight Championship reigns – not John Cena’s record – because Flair held it first.

The second reason is that John Cena is a part-time WWE superstar now, and he will be remembered for his larger-than-life persona. Cena’s natural sense of charisma will live on forever regardless of how many World Heavyweight Championships he finishes his career with. Randy Orton on the other hand has never been thrust into the spotlight with quite as much mainstream appeal as his counterpart – Orton has always been 1B to Cena’s 1A. This is similar to the dynamic between Anthony Davis and Lebron James with the Los Angeles Lakers currently. It might give Orton a little more mainstream attention and serve to make him into an even bigger star.

A third reason this might be the way to go is that Orton has much more time left in his career. Randy has made it perfectly clear that WWE is still his main priority and he still significantly values being present each week to tell compelling stories for Mr. McMahon’s company. Cena is more of a movie star at this stage of his career who occasionally comes back to WWE; it seems that now the only period John can absolutely be relied upon to come back for is the buildup to WrestleMania each year.

However, given The Viper’s level of commitment, it’s very easy to envision those several years consisting of four more world championships (Orton is already at 13 so he doesn’t need very many more).

Essentially, Cena can only be counted on to be present in WWE once a year for a WrestleMania match each year. On the flip side, Orton has at least 5-8 solid years left in his career of being a very capable and committed top star in WWE. The Viper clearly cares a great deal about ensuring the future of WWE. One can see evidence of this by looking at Orton’s previous feuds with younger superstars like Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt. It can even be seen in his rivalries right now with Drew McIntyre (first WWE Title) and Keith Lee, who is brand-new to the main roster.

A fourth reason Randy Orton could be a better choice to break Ric Flair’s record for world titles is because of his history with Flair (Cena has none by the way, so he might not be able to tell as compelling of a story on account of this. Orton was a member of Evolution with both Flair and Triple H and has a great friendship with both men both personally and professionally. Randy was also made into a star right after his incredible and bloody rivalry with Flair back in 2005.

All of this is great, but I have not yet addressed probably the most important point, and that is Randy Orton’s healthy relationship with Mr. McMahon. Let’s face it, you are not going to go very far in WWE is you are not on the same page as the boss. So long as Vince McMahon is in support of The Viper, his trajectory and stock will continue to trend in the right direction.

Technically, Otis could cash in his Money in the Bank contract that he won in May on either the WWE Champion or the Universal Champion. Otis is currently on the SmackDown brand, so it would be most logical from that perspective for him to cash in his contract on Roman Reigns. The issue is that WWE is finally electing to book Roman as a heel with more edge to his character, which is a real positive because that is the element of his WWE character that the WWE universe was so drawn to back in 2014.

Because of this, a heel Roman Reigns working with a comedic character like Otis may not do much to further the career path The Big Dog is going down with Paul Heyman. Roman Reigns may be the Universal Champion on SmackDown for quite a while (at least until WrestleMania 37, as Vince McMahon reportedly wants this to be Reigns’ long championship run – similar to when John Cena held the WWE Championship for over a year from 2006 – 2007. Mr. McMahon would like Roman to be able to cultivate that same presence on the microphone as Cena consistently did previously as the face of the company), so Otis may be better suited to potentially move to Monday Night Raw.

Another reason it might be best for Otis to move to Monday Night Raw is so that he can potentially continue his romantic storyline with Mandy Rose which has resonated profoundly with the WWE universe throughout most of 2020.

Mandy is a key reason why Otis is so popular right now. She has also blamed The Miz for orchestrating her move to Raw as he and John Morrison are involved in a storyline right now where they are intent on costing Otis his championship opportunity.

Otis coming to Monday Night Raw to challenge Drew McIntyre for the WWE championship immediately after McIntyre’s Pay-Per-View title defense against Randy Orton at Clash of Champions Gold Rush on September 27 (so on the September 28 addition of Monday Night Raw) would open the door for Randy Orton to attack Otis immediately after the bell rings.

This would make it so that:

1. Otis does not have to take a loss, and;
2. The integrity of the Money in the Bank contract is preserved since it would not be viewed as a complete failure of a Cash-in. This could also set up a third pay-per-view match between McIntyre and Orton inside Hell in a Cell (which is scheduled to take place shortly after the upcoming WWE draft in mid – October.

Otis is still super young as a WWE superstar at just 28 years old. 2020 is technically his second full year on the main roster, as he was called up in December 2018 after spending a couple of years in NXT. The most impactful thing Otis has going for him is that he has the complete backing of Mr. McMahon, who has taken a personal interest in the booking of Otis. Otis will be around for a long time in WWE, because if one has the backing of Vince McMahon, then they are guaranteed to be a long-term prospect.

Mark Henry pointed out a truth that is very evident in the wrestling business today. He mentioned one mindset in the business that many people use to have but unfortunately not many have today (a few – just not as many). It’s the unselfish nature to better the business by putting others over and not necessarily worrying about getting oneself over. In the process of working to benefit others, wrestlers will get themselves over in the process – that is a lost art. A perfect example of this is Shawn Michaels – because he got himself over primarily by making others look good in the squared circle. It’s extremely true that “you don’t necessarily need to go over by winning a match – you can get there other ways.”

The most recent example of this I can think of was at Backlash in The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever between Randy Orton and Edge. The WWE universe knew that, based on history, Randy Orton was the more naturally gifted performer. The WWE universe expected Orton to get the victory and he did. However, Edge got himself over more despite losing the match. The Rated-R Superstar displayed several brand-new moves and wrestled the longest match I have probably ever seen him compete in. Despite the fact that he got injured by tearing his triceps, he has to feel good about the fact that he achieved his goal for the match, and as a result, he is more over with the WWE universe than he was before the match (he certainly didn’t need this but it will help in this run of his career). Orton went over in the match, but Edge got himself over also with his grit.