Where Vince McMahon Is Going Wrong With WWE

Roman Reigns King Corbin Dolph Ziggler
WWE.com

It's big on visual set pieces that betray suspension of disbelief.

The Miz cares more about posing in front of the the hard camera than avenging his own children. Roman Reigns, top babyface, allowed the Fiend to do whatever with his pal Seth Rollins because it created an alluring visual before the commercial break. Hey, he's a company guy, and the locker room he supposedly leads follows in kind. Until last week, only at TLC did any of his babyface peers come to his aid. The idea that the Superstars of WWE may have an interior life with multiple relationships was ruined, if it even exists, to enable the rancid visual of his dog food-smothered face.

Everything on SmackDown feels so synthetic and divorced from real emotion. It is, after all, the show on which Reigns is the top star, is positioned as such after life's random cruelty humanised him, and WWE has never leaned further into the f*cking dog thing. To reiterate:

Roman Reigns has never felt more like a human being, and Vince, supping from the vat, thinks the push needs more dog.

This inescapable feeling of fake gloss swamps and effectively defines the product at large. The scripted promos are trash when not elevated by the delivery, charisma and currency of certain exceptions. The interviewers ask questions that are either blindingly obvious or hilariously inappropriate to the situation. The commentary is beyond stilted. Exposition is demanded over emotion as a policy. Vic Joseph et al. don't gasp in astonishment when Ricochet pulls off a supernatural feat; they listlessly repeat that he's a real-life superhero. Even on this week's well-received RAW, Rusev decided to get serious and promise brutality when wearing a garish shirt in front of a green-screen tropical background. It was Rusev at his most serious, and it was impossible to take him seriously; the sports entertainment presentation, as it so often does, ruthlessly undermined him.

Is it too simple to state that the answer to 'Where is Vince McMahon going wrong with WWE?' is, simply, 'existing'?

CONT'D...(3 of 5)

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and surefire Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!