Following the 2014 Hell in a Cell pay-per-view where a “Ghost” interfered in the main event (bringing Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose’s career-defining feud to an unceremonious close) the WWE’s flagship series gradually devolved into a predictable variety show that served rote promos, frayed story-lines, a disjointed tone, incoherent “comedic” segments, unimportant matches, and inconsistent characterization. These issues led to increased viewer-discontent, the stunted growth of a variety of talents, and stalled Superstar-ascents that were, during the Spring & Summer of 2014, nothing short of meteoric.
These issues persisted all the way through to the final episode of 2015.
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Last week, I thought it was too big a logical leap when, after screaming at Roman Reigns to leave the ring, Stephanie McMahon suddenly wanted Roman Reigns to get back into the ring simply because he’d turned his back on her (despite the fact that he was actually doing what she’d initially wanted). Roman’s “Act of Defiance” was so milquetoast and childish (made all the more ineffective by how amused & pleased with himself he was) that the scene quickly sapped him of the gravitas and the momentum he’d established the previous week.
Read MoreIt is very hard to watch a television show that mocks itself. It’s even harder to watch a television show that mocks the viewer for watching it. This week (and for far too many weeks in 2015) the WWE committed both of those sins at the same time. While I doubt Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn sit in an underground lair twiddling mustaches and ominously petting white cats while thinking, “How can we insult everyone watching our show” it’s very difficult to not feel that way for many WWE viewers. It’s far likelier the reason a great episode of RAW (like last week’s) is consistently followed by an abysmal episode of RAW (like this week’s) is due to a self-fulfilling prophecy many storytellers & television producers fall prey to; we can’t top that, so let’s try something different, or just accept this won’t be as good.
Read MoreTwo weeks ago, on this website, I proclaimed that I would not be watching or writing about Monday Night Raw again until January 5th, 2016. Without malice, I needed to step away from WWE and regain some perspective rather than harp on the same few criticisms every week.
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The kind of pro-wrestling I’ve been advocating for on The Work of Wrestling home-site & podcast for the past twelve months already exists.
It can be easily found by taking a trip into the past.
Last night, instead of watching RAW, I perused the WWE Network in search of something historically significant. I watched a few Attitude Era episodes of RAW. I watched a bit of WCW Nitro.
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