10 Ways WWE Hasn't Learned From Its Mistakes
The Miz as WWE Champion isn't the only bit of history repeating itself...
WWE has reached the very bottom.
Mistakes are no longer mistakes in a post-FOX world. They are just complaints that aren't even screamed into a void. The detractors and the disillusioned just mutter them into an echo chamber in a half-hearted attempt to pop each other. Or, alternatively, they aren't mistakes.
The Hurt Business working Apollo Crews in a dank void of a room every week for three f*cking months wasn't a mistake; according to RedditMutant01234567, the Performance Center shows were preferable because the pesky paying fans couldn't sh*t on them. The user name isn't real but the take is. Promise.
You see that sh*t and variations of that sh*t every week because WWE has solidified a base of utterly brainwashed maniacs. And what's even worse, because you statistically like some of the wrestlers contracted by WWE, since they have signed so f*cking many of them, is that WWE doesn't need the cry-laugh emoji mutants to buy tickets to secure record profits.
They need only sit there, have SmackDown beamed into their eyes, and say sh*t like "Shinsuke Nakamura is getting the big push that week, thought he was getting buried lol" and then, when it turns out to actually be Cesaro, "Cesaro is getting the big push, thought he was getting buried lol"
WWE can't make mistakes - mistakes have consequences - but they can damn sure fail upwards.
10. Regimented In-Ring Style
Among other things - all of the things - Jon Moxley on that infamous Talk Is Jericho appearance sounded off on how WWE's micromanagement extended to the ring.
"It's like they take wrestling away from you. 'Oh, don't worry about coming up with cool things to do in your matches, 'cause we have producers who will tell you exactly what to do in your matches'."
This oppressive systemic anti-art bullsh*t made Mox feel so nauseous that he became dizzy, much less despondent. In 2019, he left a company that wouldn't allow him to be Jon Moxley - he had to be wacky Dean Ambrose, tying up collar and elbow in a grudge match - to become Jon Moxley.
Ambrose was a big WWE name, and his star power helped AEW to all but win the ongoing Wednesday Night War. You'd think this development might have caused some introspection - the success of WCW incited cultural change - but no. WWE is an homogenised content factory and Vince McMahon knows best because he built it. The end, pal.
There's something quite shocking about the sight of Shanya Baszler just casually eating chains of what is often very weak-looking offence, since the standard in the RAW Women's division is, at best, uneven. But that's how Vince wants it. Shayna spoke to Renee Paquette on Oral Sessions recently, and told the world that Vince told her not to do wrestling. So she didn't. She had a "fight" with Natayla. Vince hated it. Natalya then led her through a main roster wrestling match - "drop-down, leapfrog" - and he loved it. The ambitious people shape the world. WWE stifles them. The TV rights fee era makes change pointless, much less possible.
But one day, that mentality will lose. It has to.