10 Wrestling Worst Nightmares Right Now
It's 2021 and things can only get better! Unless they don't...
This is the real worst nightmare. We are all still - still - in the worst nightmare.
There'd have been a time where the language in a title of a list like this would have been a bit of the auld internet hyperbole we've all become acceptant of in the digital age. "Oh no, they're going to push Roman Reigns again now he's recovered from a life-threatening bout of leukaemia", the inexplicable WrestleMania 35 mixed reaction seemed to imply. This was the "worst nightmare" once upon a time.
Your writer didn't share those specific sentiments but was just as guilty of similar gripes. Said nightmare was a dark match at an Allstate Arena Monday Night Raw taping between Drew McIntyre and The Fiend in November 2019. 'The Scottish Warrior' hadn't yet heated up, while Bray Wyatt's new gimmick was already cooked after a disastrous series with Seth Rollins. Oh to trade five more minutes in that capacity crowd for the last year of stasis.
All of this is to request the benefit of some context here. The following list assumes that wrestling will still be this mutated crowdless version for a little while longer, and what right now would make an already-difficult situation even worse.
Keep gritting your teeth, be safe, and enjoy the shows. Unless...
10. Peacock Retools The WWE Network
Industry outsiders couldn't see the negatives about the WWE Network's face-melting move to Peacock. It was yet more money for the company, a cheaper service for fans in general, and lots more of what we all already like.
Spoken like people that haven't watched Raw since the company's last billion dollar deal.
WWE's creative will surely devolve further now that it's been objectively proven as money-spinning like never before. And with the Network itself out of Vince McMahon's hands, just who's to say there will be more of what we already like?
Peacock could view minuscule numbers against your favourite NWA card as a reason to obliterate the entire section from the archives. Events could be shortened or cut to save bandwidth. The whole thing could be reimagined to only focus on new content, leaving those that want the amazing full service paying substantially more than the vaunted $9.99 for the privilege.
The Network in its original form was a strange but beautiful beast. The super-service model always felt like a ticking time bomb. NBC taking the controls from WWE may result in a much speedier detonation.