10 Words That Most Accurately Describe Wrestling Right Now
7. Dispiriting
It often feels like there are two WWEs.
The first is owned by Vince McMahon, who has proven himself resistant to trends and has consistently reverted to type. That (and localisation research) is why a foreign menace caricature with bulging veins is your WWE Champion, why Baron Corbin is your Money In The Bank briefcase holder, why more over and talented performers like Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are undermined on a seemingly weekly basis. They, patently, are not McMahon guys. Owens has a gut - something commentators and his opponents are constantly ordered to remind viewers of. Zayn is perceived as an irritant for his intense quest to become better at his job. It's nothing new; this dissonance between company and consumer is something that has grown to define the very relationship.
Zayn's reward is ironic, in that he amounts to little more than jobber for the stars. He's a rare sympathetic babyface, but the line between that and total loser is as thin as his chances of achieving genuine main roster stardom under McMahon's micromanagement. Zayn is more than a punching bag. He can operate beyond the underdog archetype. In a WWE landscape in which branding matters more than substance, we might never be reminded of that. "Underdog" is already plastered over his merch. The more things change in WWE, the more they stay the same.
The second WWE belongs to Triple H. Interestingly, given his mentor, his approach to promotion seems more inspired by Eric Bischoff...