Blog #37: The Decline of the WWE Empire

 Part Three: The Wednesday Night Wars

In February 2010, WWE debuted a reality competition show called NXT. The premise of this new show was that a stable of male and female wrestlers from the independent circuit with dreams of WWE Superstardom would compete for an official WWE contract. After much drama and soap opera todo, the competition was won by Wade Barrett.

Shortly after the competition ended Wade Barret brought a new faction to the WWE. He called it "Nexus." Nexus was composed of pretty much everyone who didn't win the NXT competiton, notably Ryback (who went by a different name at the time). So, to recap: after three months of competition for a WWE contract, most of the competitors who lost got one anyway. WWE could have saved us all three months of that melodramatic crap and just skipped right to Nexus. But that's a different rant.

After its first season, NXT moved to the WWE Network, where I lost track of it. When next I heard of it, it had become the launch platform for the C-List newbies who were trying to make their bones. Successful newbies got promoted to the WWE flagship show Monday Night Raw, or to Smackdown!. Those Superstars who began to falter were downgraded to the then off-air NXT for more training.

Fast forward a couple more years to 2019. WWE debuts NXT on television, only this time not as a reality show but as a companion to its other two wrestling shows.

NXT began as a one-hour televised event that appeared to be the final hour of their program. From the outset, it was clear that the talent on NXT were nowhere near the caliber of their flagship show counterparts. Not only were they unpolished, they didn't have their choreography as down pat as they would in the future. But that was to be expected. This was the amateur division, after all.

NXT wasn't that exciting, and it did not have great ratings, but this is WWE -- if nothing else we knew they'd soldier on. Vince had the money to sink into it until it caught on.

In October 2019, TNT debuted a new wrestling show: All Elite Wrestling. Spearheaded by millionaire Tony Khan (owner of the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars) and former WWE alumni Cody Rhodes (son of the legendary Dusty Rhodes), this new company was promoted as "A wrestling show for wrestling fans, by wrestling fans" and it promised to be all the things that wrestling fans have been wanting since WWE became "Sports Entertainment".

Cough-Cough! Linda's political agenda! Cough-Cough!

It didn't hurt that big names like Chris Jericho, Dustin Rhodes, Jake Haeger, Jon Moxley, Kenny Omega, and even the greatest wrestling commentator in the world, Jim Ross threw their support behind this new company. Also prominent were several Ring of Honor standouts such as The Young Bucks, Hangman Adam Page, and SoCal Uncensored. The ROH guys dodged a serious bullet, in my opinion: the last time I flipped over to _Ring of Honor_ in hopes of catching the Exotic Goddess Mandy Leone, I was subjected to their new "Pure Rules" format. If you're not familiar with it, you're lucky -- it's little more than theatrical high school wrestling mixed with third rate drama and second rate talent. Minion 33 1/3 happens to like it, but I think it's crap.

(Minion's Note: Hey, Dem Boys! *AEW* is waiting for you!)

AEW delivered on their promise. In just a few weeks, their show, Wednesday Night Dynamite literally exploded. Their roster was packed with talent that had been starving for a chance to show the world what they could do, and show us they did. I've been utterly blown away by the level of talent that these wrestlers have displayed. Rey Phenax of the Lucha Brothers and The Bastard Pac (formerly Neville, The Man Gravity Forgot in WWE, another snubbed talent) are two of the highest flying athletes you will ever see. The women's division is absolutely top-notch! Kris Statlander, Penelope Ford, The Bunny, and Hikaru Shida, every single one of these women are phenomenal! If you haven't seen the match between Dr. Brit Baker, D.M.D. and Thunder Rosa, you need to look it up. You won't see this kind of action in any other company.

Since AEW is funded by millionaire Tony Khan, who will never bow down to Vince McMahon, Vince could not handle this upstart company in the way he has responded to other rivals in the past such as WCW and ECW; namely, buying them out and assimilating the company's talent into his own stable before dissolving the company. Faced with its first real competition in years, WWE was forced to mount a response.

Thus began the Wednesday Night Wars.

First, WWE extended NXT to two hours to match the two-hour time slot filled by Wednesday Night Dynamite. Then, they proceeded to disrespect the ever-loving frak out of their main roster by downgrading some of their top talent to what has always been considered the amateur platform. Wrestlers like Charlotte Flair and Finn Balor, who were big name main-eventers, got sent to NXT. The then tag team champions, Sasha Banks and Bailey, made frequent appearances on NXT to compete, even though it was abundantly clear that there was no way in the Nine Hells WWE was going to let any of the NXT female tag teams win the belts.

But perhaps worst of all, WWE orchestrated the invasion of Monday Night Raw and Smackdown! by NXT talent in preparation for the 2019 Survivor Series pay-per-view. This culminated in the Black & Gold Brand's first participation in and subsequent victory at a Survivor Series event. While this was intended to show the world that the NXT talent were equal to their RAW and Smackdown! counterparts, what it really did was make the flagship show talents out to be a bunch of bitches who'd been posing this whole time. I mean, the so-called amateur talent just ran up into your house and beat everyone down on _both_ shows! And _then_ they dominated you at their first ever Survivor Series!

 This didn't make NXT look good, it just made both RAW and Smackdown! look bad.

Since then, it's only gotten worse. WWE has pumped as much promotion into NXT as it possibly can in their effort to compete with Wednesday Night Dynamite, up to and including upstaging their flagship talent with talent from NXT. After this past Wresltemania, all three of the title holders in the women's division -- Bianca Belaire, Rhea Ripley, and Raquel Gonzales -- celebrated their championship gold in the NXT ring. With the exception of Gonzales (who is the current NXT Women's Champion) all three women are recent NXT graduates. And while Raw and Smackdown! storylines continue to plunge in quality, it's clear that a LOT more effort is going into the Black & Gold Brand's story writing.

Meanwhile, AEW has only risen in quality and presentation. Not only have they had better storylines, but they've elevated talents that have been ignored by the WWE. What's even better, much of the talent that WWE has snubbed in their own roster have jumped ship to AEW. Rusev (DAAAAAY!) has emerged as Miro and already earned championship gold. Andrade El Idolo has just premiered in great shape. Matt Hardy, Christian, Tay Conti, all have come from WWE to the AEW roster. It's only a matter of time before we see Bray Wyatt and Rowan make their debut.

But possibly the most damaging acquisition that AEW has made is Aleister Black, who WWE has absolutely mishandled ever since he came from NXT to RAW. He recently arrived on Wednesday Night Dynamite as Malachi Black, and I am frothing at the mouth to see the damage he's going to do to his competition in this company now that he's going to have a chance to compete like he's meant to.

If anyone contests the absolute _ass whipping_ that AEW has been putting on WWE since its debut, you need only look to this date: April 13th, 2021. That is the date that WWE announced that they were moving NXT to Tuesday Nights.

Ring the bell, ref -- this one's over. Your winner of the Wednesday Night Wars, by an absolutely dominating knockout, is All Elite Wrestling.

To make matters worse, AEW has just announced that they are soon to debut a new show, Friday Night Rampage. I'm very interested to see how Smackdown! fares once AEW is chomping on their ratings.

One final note: WWE, I have Loved you for years, and though I hate some of the directions you are taking, I Love you still. But when you promote the Black & Gold Brand, you really lose credibility when the only reviews you display during the commercials are from your own roster. #Didn't think we'd notice?

The preceding has been a message from the IFW; who would like to remind you that being an Empire is no excuse for being lazy, disrespecting your talent, or suing your former talent for the rights to his name just because he's kicking your ass in the ratings. This message is sponsored by the memory of Brody Lee and brought to you by the number -1. Rest in peace, Brody -- there'll never be another like you.

BLOG #36: The Decline of the WWE Empire II

 Part Two: Fizzled Factions and Wasted Talents

In the world of wrestling, everybody knows that airtime is at a premium, and that not every wrestling talent is going to get spotlight every show. It is also accepted as fact that not all talent is going to wow the crowds. Sometimes a character just falls flat. This is an accepted fact of reality.

Unfortunately, WWE has fallen into the lamentable habit of completely wasting good talent and valuable airtime. Obvious fan favourites are ignored in favour of established "Family Names," or are forced into completely ridiculous storylines and scenarios that erode their popularity until they're forced to go elsewhere.

Remember Ryback? This guy went from being an anonymous musclebound meathead in Wade Barrett's Nexus faction to a fan favourite with his iconic "Feed Me More" catchphrase and wardrobe that he appeared to have raided from Rob Van Dam's closet -- no shade, here; I've always thought Van Dam's spandex were the best in the business! Ryback took WWE by storm, a physical specimen who looked like a wrestling God. You'd think that someone who looked like him, performed like him, and had such a strong fan base would have been a hands down favourite for a championship, right?

Wrong. Instead of showcasing Ryback's actual skill, WWE constantly put him in creampuff matches with local amateurs and absolute nobodies. Yes, it's cool the first couple times you see someone like Ryback dumptruck a couple of idiots, stack them on his shoulders at the same time and Shellshock them into the matt. This kind of thing is meant to establish him as a real danger to any competition he might have in the main roster.

But the creampuff matches just kept coming. And when they finally did give Ryback an opportunity at real matches, it looked like he was finally going to get his shot. But in his very first WWE Championship match at a pay-per-view, it went like this:

1) Ryback beat the ever loving piss out of his opponent.

2) His opponent tried to rally and couldn't.

3) Ryback set his opponent up for his finishing move, The Shellshock.

4) The frakking referee low-blowed Ryback!

This nobody referee low-blows Ryback, costing him his championship opportunity. Apparently, he was supposed to be a new talent hitting the roster.

Do you know how many matches this nobody referee ended up having on WWE? One. One! He lost that match and he hasn't been seen since.

Instead of giving Ryback the comeback story and the eventual championship opportunity that he deserved, WWE instead went right back to putting Ryback into creampuff match after creampuff match, until they decided they were going to turn him into the next Goldberg. They did away with his flashy graphic tights and put him in Goldberg-like black trunks. Then Goldberg announced his return to wrestling and WWE's Goldberg clone hasn't been seen since.

This is just one of the examples of great talent that WWE has wasted. It's gotten really bad since The Ascension. This tag team got months of foreshadowing, all kinds of ominous warnings about their arrival and were set up to be the next major tag team. But before their first match they come out and claim they're better than Road Warriors! Absolute BLASPHEMY! This immediately cost them any fan base they had accrued from their initial promos, something WWE had to know would happen. They ended up disappearing very shortly thereafter.

Authors of Pain. Arguably the biggest (physically speaking) tag team to hit WWE in a long time. They got the Ryback treatment: nothing but creampuff matches and then set aside without any real competition. They were made Tag Team Champions for maybe a week. I think. They didn't keep them long enough to remember.

Most recently, do you remember the months of attacks the WWE suffered at the hands of Retribution? This new faction ragdolled the ENTIRE WWE with their attacks, devastating the ring, and trashing everything in sight. Superstars were getting jumped and put on the injury list because of them.

When finally they debuted: T-Bar, Mace, Slapjack, and Reckoning were expected to bulldoze the roster in the ring. Their arrival was hailed as a new era in WWE. Instead, Reckoning (the only female of the group) got one match and lost (both her mask and the match). The other three members of the faction have lost almost every match they've been in since. All the fear they'd established in the beginning, gone. Apparently, Retribution is great at sneak attacks, but in a straight fight, they've got nothing.

It's gotten so bad that their leader and founder of the group, Mustafa Ali, go fed up with them and quit the group entirely. On the most recent episode of Raw, T-Bar & Mace got their masks ripped off, which heralds another end to a great would-be faction.

The list goes on; fan favourite talent and potentially dynamite blockbusters completely shafted by WWE's mismanagement. Eric Rowan & Luke Harper (both individually and as The Bludgeon Brothers), Adam Rose (remembered him and his sidekick, the Bunny?), Lars Sullivan, Mojo Rawley, Jinder Mahal, and Rusev _(DAAAAAY!)._

Jinder Mahal deserves special mention, because it showcases how WWE treats their talent. He was a small time player, whose lowest point was indisputably 3-Man Band. But then he disappeared for a while, only to return in spectacular fashion bigger and badder than ever. Dude was shredded! And his attitude, nothing short of vicious!

Here's the problem, though: Jinder returned just in time for Crown Jewel -- WWE's pay-per-view in the Middle East. He won the WWE World Championship prior to this premiere pay-per-view. He went on to successfully defend his title at Crown Jewel against Randy Orton. He held the title for a short time thereafter, but as soon as he lost it, he disappeared again. Why? Because WWE didn't have an impending return to Crown Jewel, not for another year. WWE didn't need him to curry Middle Eastern goodwill. This has become typical of WWE.

Two other Superstars deserve mention in this, both of whom are currently suffering this craptastic treatment: Dexter Loomis and The Fiend Bray Wyatt.

Dexter Loomis is an amazing athlete on NXT. He's got huge charisma, a unique character (a mute artist with a creepy stare and a penchant for kidnapping other Superstars), and a ton of in-ring skill. His kip-up jumping turnaround leg drop is pretty damn impressive, especially for a guy of his size. Not to mention how he's freaked out a lot of other Superstars with the way he slithers across the ring, and let's face it: his submission finishing move, Silence, is bad enough. Having him cradle your head in his lap and stroke your hair after you're unconscious is just wrong. ^_^

Why is it, then, that he has one of the worst win/loss records in NXT? The only matches he has been allowed to win have been the ones that don't forward his career in any way. The two singles Championship matches he's been allowed, he was cheated out of the win -- in neither match was he beaten straight up. The other matches he's been involved in that had championship implications, he was the third wheel and was included only for the fan base, not because he was being given an actual shot at the title. Every time he is closing in on a decisive win, "something" happens to cost him the match.

And now, the Fiend. I've been a fan of the Wyatt Family since they first arrived. In his incarnation as The Fiend, he has terrified the WWE Universe. But in his current rivalry with Randy Orton, WWE has completely wiffed. As usual, there was tons of energy put into the setup -- the Inferno Match, the voodoo, Alexa Bliss's transformation and possession, all of it -- but the execution was lackluster at best. This was supposed to be the closing of a rivalry that began when Randy Orton torched the swamp home of Bray Wyatt. But once again, WWE has shunted a great storyline into the background. They've turned this generation's Undertaker into a set piece, filling in between Bad Bunny, MVP playing mouthpiece for Bobby Lashley, and the eternal Flair fluff pieces.

As a final word on WWE's mismanagement of their talent, I have two questions. Roman Reigns, you first:

Weren't you the guy who called Brock Lesnar a "cowardly bitch" on national television for the way he conducted himself as champion? For the way he held the championship hostage and avoided wrestling unless it was pay-per-view? Aren't you that same guy who said that people who do that disrespect the traditions that you've dedicated your life to?

Then, how is what you're doing any different? You've even picked up his old manager!

This last one is for you, Jay Uso:

You call yourself "The Main Event" but the only match you've legitimately won since Roman Reigns made you quit and brought you to heel was the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale. Kudos on that, I mean it; but...when are you going to actually win some matches on your own and earn that name? Because, without Jimmy, you've proven you're not a singles competitor. You talk about "The Uso Penitentiary." I live in a real penitentiary, and let me tell you: we have a word for guys like you, who lick the heels of your betters and do their bidding because you can't stand on your own. You might as well be holding Roman's pocket when you come out to the ring. Just saying.

This rant has been brought to you by Cheshire Madness and is sponsored by IFW -- Incarcerated Fans of Wrestling; good talents tired of being mismanaged; and the hopes that WWE wises up before they really start losing out; and is still brought to you by the number 3. Thank you.

I AM The Kyle and I approved this message!