Where Vince McMahon Is Going Wrong With WWE

The scintillating, full-throttle match quality remains outstanding. The layered storytelling within the Women's division has created one of the best divisions in the game. And while NXT does WWE main roster tropes - it's an in-house WWE production, so of course it does - they are handled very well, more often than not. Contrast the finish to Adam Cole Vs. Finn Bálor with literally every main roster distraction finish ever. Johnny Gargano emerged without entrance music to confront the man who wronged him. Bálor, the heel, was distracted, and not the dumbass babyface of the week. Everybody was shocked by this development because it was framed as a real shock and not a storyline contrivance. The referee even sold it. Cole, the modern day opportunist, capitalised on the development not by rolling him up but by smashing him in the balls.

NXT is a logical, distinct entity that consistently thrills its loyal audience. RAW, to use the word uttered most on it, has genuine forward-thinking momentum for the first time in years.

These developments are linked by the fact that Vince McMahon, it seems, has only editorial control over them. He has delegated creative duties to Triple H and Paul Heyman respectively, and it's no coincidence that RAW has improved as Heyman's influence on it grows so evidently. Vince in July of last year claimed that he can't "get into the weeds" anymore, and it was a lie, but where there was truth to it, there was also beauty.

The move to FOX has christened SmackDown as his baby, and SmackDown on FOX is a quintessentially Vince McMahon production. It's mostly coherent, possibly because he's aware that chaos is a bad look, but it's also badly formulaic and goofy. He is trying hard to impress by creating a coherent show in his preferred vision, but that vision is awful.

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