This one should be a no-brainer but it seems to be a bit of a lost art in the modern WWE era. Before I rant I would first like to preface this by saying we as fans have the benefit - and in many ways, disadvantage - of being fully aware that wrestling is predetermined. When you know what you're watching is a scripted performance it's much harder to get emotionally invested in it. Cue up the WWE Network and spend a few moments watching some World Class Championship Wrestling from the 1980s. You will never again witness the kind of rabid pandemonium that occurred whenever the Von Erichs would fire up the crowd. It's partially a side effect of the death of kayfabe. But it's also because WWE doesn't give us much of a reason to buy into their talent. Outside of Daniel Bryan in 2014 and CM Punk in 2011, when was the last time someone on the WWE roster truly captured the imagination of the fan base and elicited passionate support? There's smatterings of great tales being told but they're buried beneath so much filler that you'd need Nathan Drake to find them, and that's a shame. We desperately want to get hooked and lose ourselves in the story, but when they keep churning out rehashes of the aforementioned Authority angles and intelligence-insulting narratives it's virtually impossible. Wrestling doesn't have to be so hard. It didn't use to be. They have the talent; they have the knowledge. What they don't have is the vision.
Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
