If WWE Was Being Honest About 2020

AEW's pre-announced format, one driven by the events of the prior weeks and months, has brought into focus just how dismal WWE's storytelling model is. Dysfunctional by design, the scripting is largely terrible, the plotting unambitious and all too often rarely informs what comes next. These are known issues WWE has struggled against for several years. A new and starker problem has surfaced in 2020.

Even the individual programmes that transcend the dire format and conspire to engage fans are flawed in some way, not ruined, but undermined by Vince McMahon's latter-day short-term vision and failure to account for basic logic.

The Roman Reigns Vs. Kevin Owens feud is very good. Owens plays a hard and relatable babyface well, and is the ideal secondary character to challenge Roman's dominion over Jey Uso. An attempt is being made to dovetail short and long-term storylines to create a more immersive shared universe.

But it's nowhere near tight enough as a story to earn the sort of unanimous, unqualified praise WWE direly needs to rehabilitate its image as the actively terrible promotion that hated you for too long. On last week's SmackDown, Owens and Otis teamed up against Uso and Roman. Roman didn't enter the match. This was consistent with his character and his character's treatment of his cousin, yes, but the dynamic led to Owens and Otis, the babyfaces, double-teaming Jey.

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