Marvel have been running the same continuity - a shared universe - across the majority of their creative properties since around 1961, and continued to do so when they began releasing movies under the Marvel Studios banner in 2008. Thats roughly analogous to all of WWEs Superstars and Divas sharing the same wrestling promotion: potentially, all of WWEs characters can interact on each others storylines. With hundreds - thousands - of characters all sharing the same world, Marvel have had to keep their continuity and their storylines straight for decades: no easy task. Adapting these characters and stories and this universe to become their Marvel Cinematic Universe made everything a good deal easier to manage as far as the films are concerned, with less characters to deal with and streamlined backstories and origins simplifying relationships and interactions. WWEs roster of Superstars and Divas works in the same way, and WWE too need to keep their continuity straight. Its made more complicated by the fact that alignment changes in professional wrestling (from heel to babyface and back, and factoring in complications like the cool heel, the tweener, etc) can sometimes screw around with characters motivations and relationships but then Magneto has jumped around between hero and villain just as often as The Rock or Triple H. WWE likes to play fast and loose with their own history, and its terrible storytelling. Heres just one example: this time last year they ran an angle where John Cena was named the only person who could reverse a storyline stipulation banning The Authority from directly exercising their authority over Monday Night RAW. Seth Rollins ambushed, beat down and then threatened to break the neck of RAWs special guest Edge unless Cena brought the Authority back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIQHp86E15E Anguished, helpless to save Edge, Cena made the call and did as Rollins demanded. The problem was that anyone not suffering from retrograde amnesia would recall that Cena and superheel Edge were mortal enemies for most of Edges main event level run: this was the last person that Rollins should have been able to use as emotional leverage against him. It didnt help that Cena could clearly have rushed the ring at any point to save Edge - this point was proven when Rollins decided to break Edges neck anyway and Cena well, rushed the ring and saved him.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
