Yesterday, WWE announced the date and location for the 2022 Royal Rumble pay-per-view event, which is set for January 29th from The Dome at America’s Center. This will be the second pay-per-view to come in January 2022, as WWE Day 1 is set for January 1st.
Strangely, we know more about that than we do the name of the pay-per-view coming December 12, as WWE hasn’t announced what would normally be Tables, Ladders and Chairs 2021.
I, for one, am entirely down for not having TLC return and seeing that pay-per-view replaced with something else. However, it’s just a complete unknown at this moment, as well as whether or not anything else will be announced for October, November or December.
Looking at the WWE pay-per-view schedule (and 2021 version specifically), the only things left confirmed for this year are the upcoming Crown Jewel, Survivor Series and “unknown, possibly TLC”. In years past, we’ve seen the Saudi Arabia shows accompanied by another stateside pay-per-view, but we’re almost in October and nothing has been announced yet. This seems to be the first year in a while that we don’t get Clash of Champions, for instance, which feels odd.
This got me thinking about the event names that were and currently are still missing from the 2021 WWE pay-per-view list and whether or not there are places for them this year and onward, if WWE just decided not to continue using those names anymore.
Without further ado, let’s look at some of the events on hiatus and try to find purposes for them.
The Outliers
Some of these missing pay-per-views were simply due to the pandemic, or there’s a chance they still show up this year and just haven’t been announced yet.
Super ShowDown = We can assume if the Saudi Arabia shows are going to continue and travel allows for it, Super ShowDown will come sometime in February or March of 2022.
Halloween Havoc = There’s still time to announce this as a special episode of NXT 2.0. I’m hoping they haven’t ditched this and that they’ll continue making it a yearly thing.
WarGames = If there’s one pay-per-view left in the year for a TakeOver, it will likely be called this. I’d assume it will take place sometime in November, possibly the 28th.
Tribute to the Troops = This isn’t a pay-per-view, but it’s still a special event nevertheless. Not doing this sometime in December would be shocking. They’ll record something and call it this, even if it’s just a pre-taped thing before Raw or SmackDown.
TLC = As stated, we still don’t know what the December event will be called. Since they haven’t specified that it’s TLC yet is curious, as they normally announce this well in advance. Traditionally, TLC takes place in December, so I’m assuming this will follow suit, but I’m all for choosing some of the other options here and not forcing TLC matches onto the card.
Slammy Awards = This is another special show of sorts that isn’t a pay-per-view. Last time around, it was done as a digital show on The Bump and such. Dedicating more resources than that to this is highly unlikely, so we’ll probably see it return in that fashion once more. It doesn’t really lend itself to a live in-ring product in any way.
Clash of Champions
This was the true spark for this article, as I’m surprised Clash of Champions didn’t take place at all this year.
Truth be told, the event’s lost a lot of its luster since it stopped being Night of Champions, wherein every championship belt was on the line in some fashion. Without that, there’s really no point in it.
However, what I think WWE is missing out on here is doing something called Clash of Champions Week. Heading into Survivor Series, which will be after the 2021 WWE Draft and setting up the champion vs. champion matches, they should have every title on the line for Raw, NXT, NXT UK and SmackDown. I’m talking every championship.
At the very least, it should be the Raw and SmackDown rosters who put every belt on the line to try to establish whether or not those champions deserve to represent the brands.
Of course, at least one belt should change hands, depending on the circumstances. Even if it’s the 24/7 title, it should still be at least one that gets swapped to someone new just to make it interesting. You have to keep the quality of Survivor Series alive, but you should give fans a reason to tune in for that week. Branding it something like this will make it feel more special and bump the ratings.
Alternatively, this should be what the champion versus champion matches at Survivor Series are called. They are, indeed, a clash of champions, aren’t they?
No Mercy
Considering how Extreme Rules had ONE SINGLE EXTREME RULES MATCH on the entire card and a Triple Threat match that was barely No Disqualification, WWE never should have called this past Sunday’s event that moniker.
Instead, it should have been No Mercy. That’s a generic enough name and something that is tied to the company well enough that it shouldn’t be forgotten about.
For my money, get rid of Extreme Rules. The event’s outlived its usefulness and if they aren’t going to give every match a stipulation, it serves no purpose.
Fully Loaded
I may be in the minority, but I really like the name Fully Loaded. Just like No Mercy, I think it’s versatile and can be used at any time for a generic event where you don’t have to worry about filling some kind of gimmick.
The good thing is that they can gimmick this up if they want to. It can be a “fully loaded card” in so many words. Big names, stipulations and so forth.
The likelihood this will return any time soon isn’t high, but if I were running things, it would at least be in the running for a subtitle for an NXT TakeOver event or something. Maybe it would work better as a television special, like “Fully Loaded SmackDown” instead.
New Year’s Revolution
With NXT New Year’s Evil and WWE Day 1, they’ve decided to just make new names instead of going with New Year’s Revolution.
I’m of two opinions about this. On the one hand, if you’ve already got an established name, why not bother to keep using that one? On the other hand, New Year’s Revolution isn’t so great that it bothers me a ton, even if I think it’s the best of the three.
Keep this as the live event tour, then. That’s what WWE’s done in the past.
Over the Limit
Like Fully Loaded, I think Over the Limit should be brought back, but I’m not as willing to just toss it anywhere. It could very well just be a pay-per-view in the middle of nowhere and work just as effectively, but I’ll admit that it sounds a bit cheesy.
What is exactly going over the limit? For that matter, what is the limit measuring? The limit of what?
Since we already have Fastlane, and WWE doesn’t seem to be willing to get rid of that (to my dismay), you shouldn’t have two events in the year where a speeding car is the aesthetic.
Over the Limit could be a subtitle for Fastlane, but I’m not super fond of that. Instead, I think it might work best as a special episode of SmackDown where they’re given an overrun and they go for three hours, basically going “over the limit of the normal two hour show” in a sense.
Payback
Good riddance. There’s no need for Backlash and Payback. I hate the idea of “WrestleMania Backlash” trying to cash in on the WrestleMania name, but I’ll take that over the incredibly bland sounding WWE Payback.
If you want to repurpose the name in some fashion, use it as something entirely different than a pay-per-view. Make it a new mobile game or something dumb like that.
Starrcade
Fundamentally, Starrcade under the WWE banner isn’t the same thing. Fans of the WCW event will never get what they want, which is “another WrestleMania”. It’s just not happening.
They’ve done some Starrcade live event shows in the past and I used to make the argument that this should be another NXT TakeOver event name. I’ve gotten a bit past that by now, since the end of the year is a bit swamped with Halloween Havoc and WarGames. If you had to bring it back in some way, that’s how you’d have to do it, but I don’t think there’s room for it.
Worlds Collide
This one’s a shame. I really liked Worlds Collide for what it was worth. Getting NXT and NXT UK (and at the time, 205 Live, which was its own thing) competing against each other was a lot of fun.
That hasn’t been the case for a while, in great parts due to COVID. Frankly, I don’t think it’ll be coming back at all, because enough time will have passed by that WWE will have forgotten about it.
It should, though, and it should return exactly as it did in the past. Just have NXT vs. NXT UK. That’s all you need. It could be a TakeOver event, a series of extra recordings like how it was in previous years (and like the Mae Young Classic and such), or it can be a special two-episode edition of the weekly programs. By that, I mean call it “NXT: Worlds Collide” and “NXT UK: Worlds Collide” where people go between the two shows and compete against each other. Send some US talent over to NXT UK for some matches and vice versa.
Taboo Tuesday / Cyber Sunday
Both of these names are terrible and have outlived their usefulness for specific gimmick shows. Instead, Taboo Tuesday should be at most a special edition of NXT where fans can vote on something, while Cyber Sunday should just be repurposed as a special sale for WWE Shop prior to Cyber Monday.
Armageddon / Unforgiven / Judgment Day
It’ll come off as blasphemous, but I’ve never liked any of these names. They’re too blah. I’m okay with none of them coming back in any fashion.
If they do have to come back, or if you want to know what I’d do with them if I was told that I needed to find a purpose for them and couldn’t opt for not doing that, I’d make Armageddon the name of a gimmick match of some kind, Unforgiven would be maybe a documentary series about feuds that were never settled, and Judgment Day would be the name of someone’s finisher like a new one for Karrion Kross, I guess.
Breaking Point
This was such a good name and they only used it once! The shattered glass imagery was so perfect for pay-per-view graphics, too.
If they aren’t going to ever bring it back as a generic pay-per-view that could go on at any time of the year, I’d suggest a sort of rechristening of how they name their gimmick matches. WWE can’t keep having “No Disqualification” and “Street Fight” and “No Holds Barred” and “Unsanctioned” matches along with “Extreme Rules”. It should just be “an Extreme Rules match” with a clarification of any special stipulations if it’s different from No DQ and no count-outs, which should be givens.
Likewise, if something is a submission match combined with an I Quit match, instead of calling it either of those, call it a “Breaking Point Match”—the thought being that you have to push the opponent to their breaking point. They can tap out, say they quit, or they can be knocked out.
If not that, keep bringing it back as the submission system in the video games where you can see that you’ve brought someone to the breaking point where they’re going to tap out.
Bragging Rights
Since the brand supremacy angle has been incorporated into Survivor Series, let’s call the elimination tag team matches the “Bragging Rights” matches. Yes, they’re traditional Survivor Series matches, but let’s subtitle them as bragging rights, since nobody actually wins anything.
If not, book a match for WrestleMania that is cross-branded that can be the bragging rights match.
Roadblock / No Way Out
For years, I’ve been repeating the same thing: Elimination Chamber was better when it was called No Way Out, but at the very least, they should refer to it as I do in my articles, as “the roadblock to WrestleMania” because it’s a big obstacle in the way of someone making it to The Grandest Stage of Them All.
Champions can lose their titles and not be in the main event of WrestleMania because of this. It’s definitely a roadblock.
By no means should “Roadblock: End of the Line” return in December anymore. That was a misguided idea.
Battleground
Overall, Battleground works significantly better as that cartoony brawling game rather than a pay-per-view. As simple as it is, keep that going instead of trying to revive it in any other way.
Halftime Heat
Just do it again. There you go. I don’t think WWE will be doing this any time soon while they’re still connected to FOX, but once that partnership dissolves, they should be free again to host some sort of Super Bowl Halftime Heat thing.
I’d love to see SuperBrawl brought back in that capacity, too, by the way. If you want to be cheeky about it, call it “WWE SuperBrawl: Halftime Heat” and really confuse people.
How would you like to see these pay-per-view names be repurposed? Keep the discussion going in the comments below!
