The Business of WWE

Seth Rollins also suffered a broken finger in a recent match at a live event against Erick Rowan, so he couldn’t compete in the match he was originally scheduled for against Cedric Alexander. Fortunately, his official heel turn on December 9 turned out to be excellent; better than what was originally scheduled, which was another gradual hint at what was to come. Seth has always felt much more authentic as a heel anyway.

Sometimes WWE is guilty of stretching storylines out over a little too long of a period of time, causing fans to become restless and lose interest in the result. I feared WWE was headed in the same direction with this story. A minor (or at least he would probably call it minor) injury to Seth Rollins gave WWE a reason to pull the trigger a little earlier than they wanted to, which probably turned out for the better.

A great example of the power of the element of surprise and its effect on fans emotionally when they are invested in a storyline occurred in 2018 on the night Roman Reigns announced the return of his leukemia. It took a real emotional toll on everyone in the building and watching at home, including me. This is precisely why Dean Ambrose’ heel turn later in the same night worked so effectively.

It’s been rumored for a few months now that Liv Morgan will return to WWE portraying Bray Wyatt’s Sister Abigail who he has referenced for years and she will wear a mask very similar to that of The Fiend. WWE made a bad attempt at this years ago, but it should go more smoothly having an actual woman play the character. Some addresses for Liv’s character are reportedly being designed right now.

This new Sister Abigail character should add an entirely new dimension to Bray Wyatt’s already incredibly innovative character. But then again, it might not be happening because Liv will reportedly be returning to Monday Night Raw.

WWE could use the momentum built at Survivor Series by Keith Lee to launch him into Superstardom, especially given that he was put over on-screen by Roman Reigns. He feels like he has the same level of presence about him as a singles star that The Shield had as a trio. Bask in his Glory.

Adam Cole has also been extremely impressive given the amount of travel he has had to endure over the month of November. Not a lot of human beings on planet Earth have the level of fortitude and drive to endure that and immediately go out and perform physically up to that level. Fortunately, WWE has several superstars like this.

The final NXT superstar I will mention is Rhea Ripley. What makes her so great is that she knows all elements of her character like the back of her hand and does not ever behave in a way, especially on-screen, to contradict that.

My primary takeaway from this first episode was when The Undertaker (or Mark Calloway) said “less is more.” This is incredibly true and very applicable to the superstars of today. Sure, they can’t do everything you could imagine athletically, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter if they can’t captivate and enthrall the audience. They have to make them care about their particular character and show them why their character is different from anyone else.

I personally love guys like Ricochet and want them to succeed more than anything. But, superstars need to be able to develop a mystique about them that makes the audience care and draws in the WWE universe if they want to truly get over and have longevity and marketability within the company. The process of getting over comes down to character every bit as much as, if not more than, athleticism.

CM Punk makes some very valid points regarding his criticisms of WWE. Even a WWE fan like myself has to acknowledge that he is exactly right when he says that there is too much micromanagement in WWE. Even Vince McMahon himself has to admit that sometimes he is a bit of a control freak who overthinks some elements of his product. The problem with that is the product becomes watered down at times.

For this reason, the product might be even a little better when Triple H completely takes over day-to-day operations of the company because he is a little more relaxed when it comes to this. He doesn’t seem to overthink things and just goes out there and does it.

WWE could learn a thing or two from AEW in that regard. Tony Khan and the rest of AEW management allow superstars to have much more creative freedom. That is exactly why Dean Ambrose left WWE earlier this year and is having great success in AEW as Jon Moxley. The company allows its superstars to trust their own instincts in front of the crowd and improvise a little bit by inserting just a little bit of their own material if they happen to get stuck as far as the direction of a promo.

Trust is a very powerful thing you can give someone. The best part about it – is that it is intangible. Yet another reason why one has to believe AEW has experienced so much early success is that they have Chris Jericho, a very established star, as “Le Champion” carrying the company in the right direction.

He’s so experienced and is still able to put on great matches, not to mention he has multiple other businesses. For example, AEW will have an episode of Dynamite on January 15, 2020 in Miami, Florida as part of one of Jericho’s cruises.

In my humble opinion, 205 Live as well as dark matches before Raw and after SmackDown should be done away with in order to avoid overexposure of the WWE product. Take the two dark matches that occurred after the November 15th SmackDown for instance: Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin and Daniel Bryan vs. The Fiend.

Both matchups will take place at TLC and Survivor Series respectively. Why does WWE feel the need to have matches before Pay-Per-View, taking away from the confrontation at the actual event? The elimination of these would also give superstars an opportunity to foster a better lifestyle for themselves and their families. It could also provide their bodies with some much-needed rest. Live events don’t necessarily have to be done away with because those events contribute to the overall storylines for Raw and SmackDown.

Regarding 205 Live being canceled, cruiserweights can’t be made into more of a special attraction that is only featured on NXT. More is not always better, and fan burnout from overexposure is a real thing.

The Full Gear main event on November 9th between Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley was a little gory and uncomfortable to watch at a couple of points. What drew fans to it was the palpable level of passion the two men brought. They told an absolutely fantastic story without saying a word. There hasn’t been a match with a combination of that much passion and brutality (including broken glass and barbed wire) in probably 20 years.

It’s good for Jim Ross to have gotten an opportunity to call a match with that level of brutality and brilliant storytelling. He did not call ECW back in the day, but he did call some bloody matches in WWE, the most famous possibly being the Hell in a Cell confrontation back in 2005 between Triple H and Batista

It might significantly help WWE in the company’s effort to create top stars like The Rock and John Cena if they instituted an offseason. The reason I say this is because of the WWE universe’s extremely short attention span when it comes to which superstar receives a push (I am talking primarily about people of the millennial generation and younger – and that’s okay for me to say because I’m one of them).

As soon as one superstar gets anything reminiscent of a sizable push, fans seem to turn their attention to about five other superstars who aren’t getting the same kind of love from Vince McMahon and the WWE creative team. It seems that unless your name is Becky Lynch or your last name is after a legend, then it’s virtually impossible to get over. Just look at Seth Rollins as the most recent example, or Roman Reigns.

An offseason would give fans an opportunity to take their attention away from the product and get a little bit of a break from constantly seeing the same people getting the same treatment. I know it’s not feasible, but just pretend for a minute that injuries were not a thing and the NFL season went on year-round. People would be even more sick of seeing people like Tom Brady succeed.

In my view, WWE would have two options in terms of how to execute this offseason. The first option would be to take the months of May, June and July off and resume a few weeks before SummerSlam, kind of the way the NFL does it where the Fall season is played out followed by an off-season – chronological order.

A second, and slightly different option, would be to have kind of a midseason break, in which the Fall months between SummerSlam and the Royal Rumble are taken off. I could see WWE choosing to go with the latter in order to set themselves apart from any other sporting organization. This would also be helpful in an effort to change public opinion that WWE is viewed more so as a sporting agency, which I know is a dream of Triple H’s.

WWE has already made a great deal of progress in 2019 in terms of this, and I believe instituting an offseason would make these positive effects even more far-reaching.

There were a few sizable insights that came from the November 12, 2019 episode of WWE Backstage. The biggest revelation was that CM Punk is officially contracted with FOX and is on a WWE program after departing nearly 6 years ago. He will appear starting next week, November 19, on WWE Backstage on FS1. However, this contract provides an avenue for him to potentially return to the ring for a match and WWE down the road.

It’s no surprise that The Miz and Paige have signed new contracts with WWE, but what is extremely surprising is that Johnny Gargano, or Johnny Takeover I should say, will miss NXT Takeover: WarGames because of a neck injury. WWE will need to get creative and find another way they can use Finn Balor at Takeover, because Triple H was clearly building towards a match between Gargano and Balor. I can’t see a scenario where the returning Balor is not used in some capacity.

Bray Wyatt could easily have a job as a member of the WWE creative team after he finishes his in-ring career. The reason I say this is because of how imaginative he gets with his own gimmick. Most of the promos and extras that provide his character with direction are not by the creative team but come from the mind of Bray himself. He then executes it beautifully.