10 WWE Stars Who Weren't Allowed To Use Their Own Ideas
All that glitters ain't sold.
Do you know what's sobering, about the state of WWE?
Even when it is incredible - even when it is at its absolute best, as an emotional entertainment machine - the company shows resistance to it. Chris Jericho's Festival of Friendship isn't included here, because it happened, obviously. But it nearly was, because it nearly didn't: Jericho had to campaign to bring it to television under his undiluted vision.
It was a phenomenal bit of business: Jericho sold the crushing heartbreak of the finale by wearing a ridiculously big, beaming smile at the very beginning. He danced around, and elongated every word to wonderful effect, so giddy at the prospect of celebrating his friendship with Kevin Owens. The prop comedy was gold, the inclusion of Gillberg inspired, and he gently broke the fourth wall to put the absurd over as real with genuine pathos. And then Owens brutalised him. After all that, it was the ultimate, heinous heel move. As sports entertainment storytelling goes, this was *******.
That grand, "Why is my name on here?" finale - the real, heart-wrenching moment - almost didn't happen because Triple H wanted a by-the-numbers attack.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful reported earlier this year that WWE is resistant to listening to talent pitches because they "insinuate incompetence on behalf" of the writers.
No.
Sh*t.
So that's that. No agency. No festivals.
And nobody gets over.
Fancy that...
10. Seth Rollins: White Attire
Seth Rollins looked pristine at SummerSlam 2015.
His all-white attire is so fondly remembered that it has become iconic. It looked striking it itself, but it also captured Rollins in the form of his career. The Rollins of 2015 was an exhilarating, super-crisp worker of awesome conditioning, stringing together fabulous, lung-bursting sequences that accentuated his slimy, escapologist character.
That gear, at that time, was simply made for him, and through all the d*ckhead Twitter posturing, the jeers, and the awful, overbooked nonsense of his 2019 main events, fans still hold a connection with that lost version of the performer. But Vince McMahon hated the attire, and so we'll never see it again. At a recent convention, a fan asked Rollins why he hasn't worn it since.
The answer was peak Vince:
"No, Vince won't let me wear it, because he's a weird old man who doesn't understand that people think it's the coolest gear they've ever seen."
Christ, he's a d*ck to everybody, isn't he? Even the master whose bidding he does, even to the cost of friendships and his actual appeal. He at least has a point this time: wearing that gear is a guaranteed pop, even for the biggest heel in wrestling.
Little buddy, if your nose is that far up Vince's insides, shouldn't it be close enough to his ear to have a word?