Why The Viking Experience Shows Vince McMahon Has FINALLY Lost It
Certain WWE management types and alumni have attempted to bargain with this development. Road Dogg and Mick Foley have each assured Wrestling Twitter that we will eventually "get used to it".
We didn't get used to the Bludgeon Brothers, because the gimmick was too dwarfing in its daftness. Erick Rowan and Luke Harper were over once, too, in their wild, action-packed series with the Usos in 2014. They sure as sh*t weren't over three years later. The stigma killed them. That is what stigmas do.
Even if the Viking Experience—the Viking. Experience.—had been called up as the War Raiders…why? Why did Vince McMahon call up not only the existing NXT Tag Team Champions, but a team Triple H had just established as division figureheads? They were the team to beat just 24 hours ago, and now they are a team that is required to lose in order to reset the division.
Where does this leave NXT’s tag team division, incidentally? The Undisputed Era are obviously a superb act. Oney Lorcan’s 205 Live duties may preclude another run at a TakeOver in tandem with Danny Burch. The Street Profits are over—but are they worthy of the TakeOver stage? Moustache Mountain excelled on it last year, but it would feel over-familiar 12 months on. The Forgotten Sons, in name and everything else, are an afterthought. And, since WWE has already raided the Independent scene and scorched the earth, there are seldom few rising acts with which to lift the boats of NXT and the flagship.
And how does NXT creative write around this? We’ve just watched a tag team tournament. Vince’s myopic bullsh*t, his criminal lack of imagination, is becoming contagious.
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