10 Times WWE Mocked What We Really Wanted
Insulting your investment: featuring Finn Bálor, Rusev and the REAL "Voice of the Voiceless"...
Has any company, ever, operated out of as much complete disdain to its fanbase as WWE?
It is remarkable. It is in complete reverse to the broad business model of other legacy "content creators". The prevailing trend in modern pop culture is to force-feed the consumer more of what they actually like. Have a Game of Thrones prequel. Have a Lord of the Rings prequel. Have a Sopranos sequel. Remember Boba Fett, the bounty hunter you all liked with the badass helmet? Who died in a 1983 motion picture?
He came back last year as part of a prestige television series in which he's the protagonist - in defiance of established storyline canon - because he's the bounty hunter you all liked with the badass helmet, and Disney wants to give you more of him.
Somehow, Emperor Palpatine returned. Because he was an iconic villain and people would rather watch a silly retconned version of something they like because it's a neat escape from an intolerable world.
"Somehow, Daniel Bryan returned" isn't what was said in 2015; Daniel Bryan did return, but was eliminated from the 2015 Royal Rumble match unceremoniously. Because WWE sort of hate you.
Sometimes they really hate you...
10. The Demon Fish
WWE don't just squander open goals.
They deliberately miss, kiss the badge, rip their tops off and celebrate with a knee slide in front of the home end.
Finn Bálor's Demon alter-ego was beyond inspired. It was a super-marketable gimmick, the premise behind which allowed Bálor to preserve its premium aura. And, since he was incredibly talented, he could get over as a cocksure hybrid worker in the meantime. It was so inspired in fact that it was as if he had cheated the system. He had discovered the secret of getting over in NXT and to Vince McMahon, all at the same time. The Demon King however became the Demon Fish at Extreme Rules 2021.
After coming back to life in a mid-match angle, in which he flopped about a bit, the Demon, on the crest of a comeback, scaled the top turnbuckle. It then malfunctioned, following which the Demon fell flat on his face and lost to Roman Reigns in humiliating fashion. "Let it play out" is a potent source of copium amongst the WWE fandom.
The company mocked the credibility of the Demon character so ruthlessly here that they couldn't even allow their fans the comfort of delusion.