10 Ways WWE Was Made Worse By Being Lazy
Creative theft.
Things are changing. Slowly. Since Paul Heyman assumed (a degree of) control on Monday Night RAW, the programme has improved exponentially...
...from a 3 to a 6.
The strange patten of ritual, nonsensical, counterproductive bullsh*t appears to have lifted. Cedric Alexander is gradually getting over with the audience by entering spirited, fiery babyface performances and not pretending getting the piss beaten out of him was a masterplan. The Two out of Three Falls era is over, as is the relentlessly ugly campaign to bury the Revival and push Shane McMahon. There's a sense that the company is genuinely focused on harnessing the potential of its midcard.
Ricochet is a constant fixture on RAW. Cedric is being positioned as a breakthrough act. The King Of The Ring tournament feels less like a half-hearted vehicle with which to push a heel WWE is high on but not truly convinced by, and more like a real project premised on showcasing several acts and creating a sense of meaning and stakes around the product.
Heyman has thus far produced in his role as Executive Director - but he's still operating within the flawed WWE system.
Systemic change is required...
10. The Exact Same Stage Design
The cash reserves at WWE's disposal are obscene. This company can wipe its a*se with the brain matter of a Yemeni schoolchild - sorry, dollar bills - because the wealth is effectively limitless.
WWE uses this money to snort up lines of Indy talent it doesn't believe will make a difference to its own balance sheet, but so long as any other company won't profit from their signature, that is enough. WWE does not use these funds to put its own product over as a big-time spectacle.
In presentation, TV and pay-per-views are indistinguishable. The stage design is comprised of simply "a big screen". The staging doesn't condition the audience that what they're about to witness is something special, a can't-miss event promoted as if every last detail matters, because the details no longer matter. Sunday nights were once special. The bespoke staging once suggested to fans that something different was imminent.
If it felt like a minor thing then, it certainly doesn't now: it was a visual cue designed, literally, to craft an atmosphere of imminent title changes, ascending superstars - of something major happening on this night that wouldn't on any other.
On that note...