10 Quick Fixes For WWE In 2019
3. Clean Up The Dirty Finishes
Uprooting an entire booking philosophy doesn't really qualify as a quick fix, admittedly, but even if WWE continues to make every major programme a two-match minimum, they don't have to roll the di of f*ck finishes to move up the board. They don't have to make the referees look incompetent, or have the heel cheat so obviously to get to the next pay-per-view. If anything, they really shouldn't do this; it exposes the whole thing as a cynical and unimaginative and incoherent exercise in lifting money from our pockets.
Say WWE wished to extend the AJ Styles Vs. Shinsuke Nakamura programme for three pay-per-views without delivering a title switch. There are ways of accomplishing this without making AJ Styles look like a godd*mn moron.
AJ and Nakamura wrestle their match at 'Mania, and it goes much the same way - only, Nakamura doesn't turn heel. Yet. They tentatively shake hands. On the next episode of SmackDown, Nakamura wins a Fatal 4-Way match to once more become the #1 contender. Styles receives this with an emotionless shrug. He's not flippant, or scared. Nakamura, however, is incensed by this.
Styles, unwittingly raising his temperature, remains unrepentant. Businesslike. He's beaten Nakamura before, he reasons. He can do it again. And he does, but not after just, just kicking out of a rapid-fire spray of Nakamura's deadliest weapons. This is when Nakamura turns - when his best shots, plural, have failed him. On the next SmackDown, Nakamura annihilates Styles. Styles, in the face of this personal affront, demands that Paige gives him his vengeance, setting up a justified stipulation rubber match.
Obviously, this doesn't account for the fourth match, but maybe just don't propagandise Saudi Arabia as a rule of thumb.