The Answer To WWE’s Problems Is Staring Them In The Face
Fans don’t want to see beloved babyfaces get the sh*t kicked it out of them, realistically. They want to see fresh storyline developments acted out by interesting stars with purpose and direction. This new impetus is cynical as all hell—Sasha threatened to walk, but was convinced to stay through the threat of banishment and or a renewed, committed push—but hey, whatever works. Finn Bálor’s recent request to take time off was granted. So was Rusev's.
As was Bray Wyatt’s, and that is the core argument here: under WWE’s loaded and flawed episodic TV model, it is virtually impossible for any performer to stay over. Bray Wyatt was absent from WWE TV for nine months. During this time, his mind, free of the numbing requirement to recite lengthy material with such tedious frequency, evidently buzzed with some of the most out-there ideas adapted to WWE screens in aeons.
The best character in all of WWE—even wrestling—would not exist, were he stuck in that awful, destructive grind. Wyatt resented it so much that it formed the very basis of the Fiend. Wyatt spent months working out how to kill off the old cult leader character, and the freedom inspired him to dream up a perfect murder.
This so-called new wrestling war, contrary to initial skepticism, is proving beneficial to WWE’s creative process. WWE, keen to rid itself of its own, rotten ‘heel company’ stigma—to retain fans and to help recruit—is, just maybe, rediscovering the old, time-tested methods of getting acts over: agency and preservation.
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