10 Very Bad WWE Ideas That Lasted For Years
9. Gimmick Pay-Per-Views
Even AEW fans are growing tired of WWE Vs. AEW comparisons that are favourable to their preferred promotion. A curve shouldn't be required to put it over.
But it remains a useful exercise.
Despite overdoing variations of weapons matches, the commitment with which they are worked has rediscovered the purpose of violence. You're meant to be frightened of these matches. You're meant to think that the two wrestlers involved can't stand one another. AEW might have undone the anxious aura that surrounds the Lights Out stip, by promoting what was more of a fun plunder outing at Rampage Grand Slam, but the signature gimmick match functions as it should.
Virtually every WWE gimmick match is a procession of familiar tropes stripped of any heart-pounding danger and emotional heft. They're just something WWE does when the calendar requires it with as much reason as blood: none.
It's so mundane at this point that even WWE has become self-aware (!): Roman Reigns Vs. Rey Mysterio had no reason whatsoever to exist as a blow-off, and so Vince suddenly decided to do away with it on SmackDown.
Day 1 has replaced TLC on the calendar. The days of contrived, for-the-sake-of-it violence might be fading.
Then again, WWE ran four cage matches over the span of a week earlier this year, so probably not.