10 Worst Things To Ever Happen To Wrestling Creatively
3. Gross Misuse Of The F*ck Finish
It is out of control in WWE and has been for years.
So many TV matches end via intentional disqualification that the shows become a miasma of pointlessness which, twinned with the lack of stakes, soul and spontaneity, makes them incredibly tedious to watch in spite of the incredible talent roster that demands you do.
Your writer wants to watch Io Shirai because she's an exceptional talent. In her last two televised singles matches, Charlotte Flair attacked her, depriving her of the opportunity to win the NXT Women's Title. The idea is to convey Charlotte's frustration at Shirai's ability to overcome her. This isn't hard to comprehend.
The lack of a definitive conclusion to these and so many other matches muddies the idea of a tier and the traceable investment it stimulates - after all that fuzz, who knows where the momentum lies - and it is done because WWE is carny. They can't tell stories anymore - what is personal and fascinating and convincing about Charlotte's conflict with Io? - and so they prolong them with this get-out.
It's not just anticlimactic or cheap or boring; it actively breaks the spell of immersion because, when you sense it is imminent - and any time a match feels too big for TV, it most assuredly is - the booking overshadows the performance.