What is the definition of insanity? Josh Gibbs brings you his unique perspective on why WWE is moving dangerously close to being their very own insane asylum in his latest
If insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results each time then the WWE is certifiably insane.
Before you set your keyboards aflame to denounce my opinion as misguided or flat out wrong, allow me a few moments to explain my position. You’ll come around.
To be clear, I am not saying that all of the matches in recent weeks have been terrible. Such a blanket statement would be unfair and patently untrue. My problem lies in that the overall show results and storylines are simply not that good. This is evident by the downward spiral in ratings that have been occurring for the past several months. Yes, we have had the rare RAW that gives us a great show from start finish which was followed inevitably by a lackluster Smackdown and then another terrible RAW. It’s a roller coaster that keeps dropping you without warning, which takes all the fun out of the ride.
I get a lot of negative comments from fan boys on Twitter whenever I criticize a RAW or pay-per-view event. The comments range from slightly delusional to outright absurd:
- “The crowd doesn’t boo Roman Reigns as much anymore…he’s more popular than ever.” The use of fake and muted crowd noise for Reigns has been well-documented by several media outlets and is less of a secret than his real name (Leati Joseph Anoa’i). While it is true that Reigns plays better in some markets than others, he is still overwhelmingly disliked by the WWE Universe. I have stated very publically that I believe his treatment to be unfair and is the result of bad booking and not his level of talent. That being said, anyone who claims that they couldn’t hear the cacophony of disappointment when he won the title at Survivor Series is either lying or didn’t watch the end of the match.
- “That Divas match was awesome! You just don’t like women wrestlers.” This is my favorite argument against perfectly reasonable observations for a women’s division that is treading water and where character developments change on a weekly basis. “You didn’t like the performance of Wrestler X, therefore you hate all wrestlers of the same gender.” Female wrestlers are not and should not be immune to the same type of criticism as their male counterparts. The Divas Revolution was not a golden ticket to simply get more television time; now they have to justify it with better matches. Not all of the Divas matches have been terrible, but there is no way you can convince me there have been more good than bad. The division simply isn’t there yet and once again it is not due to a lack of talent. Are you noticing a trend?
- “I’d love to see Ric Flair wrestle one more match.” No. No you would not. You think you would because you still think this is 1995. Stop with this nonsense.
- “If you don’t like WWE, go watch TNA.” This is known as the Unabashed Loyalty Defense which demands complete and total devotion to every angle regardless of how it makes you feel. If you mindlessly gobble up everything the WWE throws your way then you’re a special kind of mark. There comes a point when you have to call a product out for being terrible if you ever want it to change. Consistent ego stroking gets us nowhere and will only serve to bring us more mediocre shows and matches. Brian James, AKA Road Dogg, took to Twitter after Survivor Series and called out fans for daring to voice their disapproval. One tweet caught my attention in particular:
@BanksBossx ok, but it’s not up to you. We, as human beings, hate when we don’t get what WE want. We can’t please everyone one at once.
— Brian G. James (@WWERoadDogg) November 23, 2015
In this instance, James misses the point entirely. No, the WWE can’t please everyone at once, but they also can’t continuously displease the people responsible for making their product a success. The fans weren’t simply unhappy with how Survivor Series ended; it was so many things before that. I respect and appreciate the difficulty that being a writer for a live weekly show must be but I also don’t think it should be an excuse for consistently poor performance. A few bad shows here and there is to be expected but repeatedly bad matches and questionable books is a trend towards the negative.In contrast to James’ point of view, Mick Foley recently posted this to his Facebook page:
“There’s a difference between playing to win, and playing not to lose: one breeds confidence, the other breeds fear. It’s the difference between cutting the type of promos Stone Cold Steve Austin and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson gave, and the cookie-cutter approach all too often employed these days by WWE creative. One style allowed for creativity and emotion. The other calls for memorization and recitation.”
Anyone who has been a fan since before the Attitude Era understands exactly what he means. Foley isn’t saying that the WWE should go back to the old ways and attempt to pull cheap parlor tricks for pops and laughs, but instead place more trust in their wrestlers to do what they should be doing better than any other promotion.
Professional wrestling is sports entertainment which means that both aspects are equally as important. Most of us remember the CM Punk pipe bomb incident not for what he said but how he said it. His anger and frustration felt real. The speech felt genuine because to a certain extent it was and yet the whole thing was a complete and total work. To this day you can still find people who think that Punk sauntered out there on his own and started bad-mouthing the company as if no one would notice and because it’s live television they were powerless to stop him. That is exactly what the WWE wanted you to think. Punk sold it and we bought it because it felt real.
Despite the overall ratings being in decline, Vince isn’t panicking. As the head of the company, he needs to maintain a level head and convince others to do the same. His investors, however, are looking for answers which doesn’t bode well for the brand but may bode well for us. Yes, the WWE makes money in plenty of other areas such as merchandise and ticket sales but television ratings matter to the networks and their advertisers. Nothing forces change in a company like a sustained decline in revenue.
For some fans, the WWE remains a constant in their lives because it is one of the few things from their youth that is still here. Toys get lost, clothes get donated, but the WWE has been here in one form or another since 1980. When you’ve been so close to something for so long it can be hard to see it as anything but infallible, especially when it invokes such happy memories from our childhood. The true measure of devotion to something is the ability to remain loyal through the good times and the bad. This doesn’t mean you allow bad things to happen without criticism the same way you don’t allow good things to happen without praise.
As we move closer to WrestleMania, I do have confidence that the shows will get better, but there will be more painful matches to endure before that happens. Until the overall product gets better, we can all bask in the glow of The New Day who continue to be the best thing every single week.