10 Reasons Why WWE Needs To Implement A Clean Win Only Policy
F*ck off with the f*ck finishes.
As technology evolves, real sports increasingly utilise it in order to level the playing field, and put an end to both tainted victories and the tedious theoretical debates that inevitably result from them.
In tennis, the Hawkeye system allows players to question questionable line calls, adding both suspense and parity to the equation. In football - the real football, played with feet - goal line technology atones for the limitations of the human eye, changing the complexion of the game. Moreover, retrospective punishments for play-acting are slowly stamping out the pathetic practise of diving - the game's equivalent of wrestling's count-out forfeit. Once viewed as an obstruction of natural pacing, the instantaneous results delivered by technology create an impact both seamless and overdue.
WWE, obviously, doesn't present real sport - and the practise of cheating is fundamental to its psychology - but in an age of creative malaise, transposing this fair play culture to WWE may put an end to the rot, if only by forcing the company to get cleverer with cheating. It's no coincidence that the two most critically acclaimed eras in the history of the industry - the All Japan Pro Wrestling scene of the 1990s, and New Japan Pro Wrestling right now - operated under this ethos.
WWE, again, is far more lucrative than those leagues combined - but with a drastically meaningless sports entertainment product slowly killing fan enthusiasm, some form of rules-based consistency is sorely needed...
10. Realistically, It Should Already Be In Place
Even those wearing rose-tinted glasses, in which the beautiful visage of Jack Tunney is reflected on the lens, know that, realistically, wrestling can't rely purely on a rarely-seen administrator or unseen "board of directors" to make matches or initiate rivalries. Wrestlers require autonomy and a volatile temper in order for us to take them as wrestlers. Interference and beatdowns, used sparingly, are a crucial part of the game.
But consider Jinder Mahal and the trapezoid-sized plot holes he created throughout his 2017 run, in which he relied exclusively on the interference of his Singh Brother associates to win major matches. He used the same tactic, over and over again - without reprisal - to both dim the star power of babyfaces and make the idea of even competing absolutely pointless, much less winning and losing. Think of the maze Shinsuke Nakamura was forced to run blindly within. He lost at SummerSlam in a cloudy finish, warranting a sequel at Hell In A Cell...the one match that logically required the structure, but did not take place inside of it. He lost, following interference from the Singhs. And that was it. What's stopping any old jobber from using their six-figure salary to hire a goon and do the exact same thing?
If there were a deterrent in place - storyline fines, stripped titles and the like - the stars would only resort to flagrant cheating when their hatred or desperation spills over. In the current anything-goes regime, those who do cheat get away with it, those heels who don't are stupid for not doing it, and the babyface victims of it might as well push a rock up a bloody mountain.
It would be equally entertaining.