5 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (Jan 5)
Dedicated to how I'm killing you.
Think of how often, in WWE, heels get away with being heels. This is especially true of the modern era, in which elusive “heat” is chased with the fervour of a dragon-chasing junkie. On virtually every other programme, a villain wins a match via foul means with no retrospective punishment doled out. Interferences do result in disqualifications, but there’s no suggestion that those who interfere are reprimanded. They’re usually rewarded with a match against the person they’ve just kicked the piss out of.
Think of just how stupid referees are portrayed as at the best of times, even before a Special Referee gimmick match, when they are made to look especially stupid, in order to render an amateur replacement a vaguely realistic prospect. Think of how often, in 2017, heels (The Usos, Alexa Bliss, Kevin Owens) simply walked out of a major pay-per-view match with their title in tow, taking a forfeit via count-out. They weren't stripped of their titles.
You can basically get away with murder - Roman Reigns almost did - because the rules exist in order to barely exist, in order to write any old rubbish to pad out TV time. Wrestling fiction only works when the rules are enforced.
On SmackDown, where fiction goes to die, WWE just made it up as they went along…
5. INSTANT REPLAY!
On Tuesday's SmackDown, WWE dipped into its bag of selective rules and reversed a decision via instant replay.
Illegal man Chad Gable scored a pinfall win over the Usos, temporarily capturing the SmackDown Tag Team Titles - only for the referee to concede his mistake. This was the sort of rule-bending, eye-rolling stuff with which the company draws so much apathy towards it creative - 48 hours before New Japan held the floor. The timing was as poor as the craft in itself.
It would be a game-changer, if such a narrative technique became a fixture. All the stupid carny bullsh*t that has sustained sports entertainment at its worst for years would fall by the wayside. No transparent cheating - only clever cheating, the likes of which make for tremendous heels. No blue balls finishes to matches presented purely to present a sequel. Things would mean something. WWE would have to force themselves into creating compelling television, and not insult you into watching from one week to the next. WWE would force themselves into actually utilising the depths of its roster, instead of wasting all the money it has somehow accrued over the years by paying Konnor and Viktor to do absolutely bot all (that's probably not that bad, actually). WWE would not make its audience hate itself for putting up with its horrific creative.
But it won't. This only happened as an excuse to televise yet another Usos Vs. Gable and Benjamin match. Goody.