Akin to anything involving WWE behind-the-scenes, it is hard to pinpoint who is directly responsible. It is also hard to know whether the Road Agents are just doing their job (what they are told to do) or if they lack creativity or a blend of both. At the end of the day, Vince McMahon runs the ship, which means he is responsible for everything that goes on within the company. He gets the most credit when things are going good, and most of the criticism when things are going bad. Who he puts in charge is his responsibility. Although, this column isn’t about pointing fingers. It is about addressing the problems.
One of the main problems with WWE’s style is that it eliminates diversity. There are no longer wrestlers with a style because they all wrestle the same style. It is the main reason as to why having a Cruiserweight Division is so perplexing and is the reason it is simply not working. The WWE style is currently a Cruiserweight-esque style: high-tempo, fast-paced, reversals of reversals, high-flying moves, springboard moves, flips, flops, and so forth.
The problem with this is that it has a negative effect on the match’s in-ring psychology. In-ring psychology can be displayed in a variety of ways, although one of the best ways of doing so has always been by wrestlers adjusting to their opponent’s style. Each wrestler’s style or physical status are defined by their strengths and weaknesses, which means their opponent will try curbing their strengths and exploiting their weaknesses. It makes the match a chess match. However, when everyone wrestles a similar style, there aren’t many strengths and weaknesses left. There is simply no harmony when everyone sings on the same note.
Because the WWE formula additionally profoundly relies on back-and-forth sequences and exchanges, it vitiates the wrestlers whose strong suit isn’t wrestling that style. Randy Orton, for example, works best as a punctilious and calculated wrestler. When he used to methodically dissect his opponents’ weaknesses, as well as portray his character in the ring, he was doing his finest work. He is ultimately a compelling character, not an athletic specimen, and there are many others like him in WWE who are handcuffed because of the WWE style.
The only wrestlers who benefit from this style (or at the very least can make it work) are those who can stay ahead of the viewer’s anticipation and awe them with aesthetically pleasing spots. The action is so blistering that the viewers do not know where the match is going, thus become invested because they want to see where it goes. However, it takes a great deal athletism and skill to be able to accomplish this task. Of course, AJ Styles has shown the ability to consistently do so among others like Sami Zayn, Seth Rollins, and so forth. Still, even those three aforementioned wrestlers have the range and ability to do so much more.
Moreover, a big problem with the WWE style is that the first half of the match simply is not very good. Aside from Brock Lesnar matches, WWE’s matches never feel like they can end at any moment. When fans feel as though the match is not going to end soon, they are less invested in the match than when the match finally transitions into a period in which the end feels near. This isn’t something new. It has been going on for basically ever. The problem isn’t that the match doesn’t feel like it’s going to end at any time.
The problem is that there is no interesting story being told to keep the fan’s interest. The audience is trained to know when a match is about to end, so they are not going to bite for near-falls in most cases at the start or middle portion of the match. When there’s no urgency the match is ending and no interesting story in place, then what are the wrestlers doing? They are ideally wasting time; exactly how a large portion of WWE matches feel like, two wrestlers trading moves with each other until it is time to pick up the pace, intensity, and urgency.
Sure, wrestlers trading moves back-and-forth and being able to scout each other is a story in itself. However, it is not a very interesting one when it is the story used in 95 percent of WWE’s matches. It is akin to reading the same book again and again. As interesting as the idea is, the idea eventually becomes tiresome and overstays its welcoming.
The best part about sports games is that you do not know what you’ll see for sure. You may expect a game to play out a certain way, but then it ends up playing out a different way. Some games are blowouts. Some games are high-scoring. Some games are low-scoring. Some teams win the way you’d expect. Some teams win by way of their thought of weaknesses. The way a game plays out is a mystery.
In WWE, almost every match is an even-steven contest that follows a formula. Worse of all, most match’s objective seemingly is to be a good match. Wrestling should be about conveying stories in and outside of the ring. Therefore, a match’s objective should be to convey something first. That means having a good match should be on the backburner. The first thing that should pop into people’s mind is the story of the match, something of the likes of, “Brock Lesnar is unstoppable”, “Sami Zayn has the heart of a champion, “The Miz can only beat John Cena by cheating.” Accordingly, moves should matter. Finishers should certainly matter, and kicking out of a finisher should be a monumental moment and no doubt should ultimately serve a purpose other than to fool the crowd into thinking the match is over. It is complete style over substance thinking; hence why virtually everything in WWE is meaningless nowadays from the championships, moves, wins, losses, etc.
NXT, despite its recent flaws, is so much better than WWE is at doing this. NXT has great matches, but they do not have great matches for the sake of having great matches. Instead, their matches progress an ongoing story or character development.
For example, this week we saw The Authors of Pain come out as victors in spite of DIY and Revival working together and pulling out all stops to eliminate them from the match. It solidified that the Authors of Pain are near unstoppable, which means the team that finally conquers the seemingly unconquerable will benefit from it so much more. If the Authors of Pain were booked like, say, the Club are, then the team that defeats them for the titles doesn’t really gain anything aside from the titles themselves from it.
We also saw good storytelling in the women’s match. Asuka, as a character, has been on the fence for a while, showing glimpses of a full-fledged heel turn. However, aside from beating fan favorites in a dominant fashion and being a no-nonsense wrestler, her ring work didn’t indicate she was a heel until last week where she finally showed vulnerability and weakness and needed to cheat in order to gain her title.
WWE’s matches ultimately need more variety. They also need to have wrestlers who wrestle different styles so that there is more of an emphasis on in-ring psychology and also so that wrestlers can display their strong suits. They need to mix up their match’s formulaic ways, and they need to focus more of character development in the ring opposed to just having a great match, and matches need to end different ways from just “who lands the final death blow” wins the match.
