If WWE Was Being Honest About 2019
Charlotte Flair had a far better 2018, and every complaint you've just read and will read is as true now as it was then. WWE hasn't magically deteriorated in quality overnight; it has steadily become less inspiring than the year in which the Bobby's Sisters segment happened. These men and women didn't get over as stars because the institutional rot of silly, ineffective, over-produced creative manifested throughout 2019 as, deep breath...
Wild Card Rule; repeated passé MizTV segments; apologies to management; 50/50 booking; dog segments; overly-scripted promos in which the acts just point out the flaws of their opponents; cuckold storylines with the lamest, most implicit sex-sells element; sudden, unexplained alliances; sudden, unexplained heel turns...
...Asuka and Kairi Sane qualify under both of those last points, incidentally.
Using Asuka as a specific example of a chronic problem: she started the year by defeating Becky Lynch at the Royal Rumble. This seemed to build towards Becky's post-WrestleMania programme, but it didn't happen. She then formed a tag team with Kairi Sane via Japanese pollen (credit OSW), seemed to forget that she had a strong claim to two Championships, and then disappeared off the face of the earth. WWE seems committed to the new, heel version of the act, all of a sudden, but the sudden nature brings with it issues of trust.
How is it possible to invest in her heel work on that basis? Putting to one side the fact that she's so talented and misused that fans can't really bring themselves to boo her, she turned with no explanation. She is a performer operating in obvious accordance with a script. It doesn't feel real.
In 2019, WWE took a gigantic dump with its trousers on, and Vince McMahon laughed. This is barely a metaphor.
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