Wrestling Is OBSESSED With Corruption (...And It's Got To Stop)
At NXT Deadline last December, Isla Dawn made the referee vomit black goo just by touching his leg. Authorities weren't called, and opponent Alba Fyre continued to wrestle the match as if a once-in-humankind event hadn't just occurred. She was distracted enough to be run into an exposed turnbuckle and was rolled up for the win. No wonder she's joined forces with Dawn so they can corrupt the NXT women's tag division.
Perhaps The Schism's Ava can find a partner to out-corrupt them? That seems to be her plan with Chase U's Thea Hail. Hail was kidnapped by the spooky group, and since her release she's been somewhat distracted by their corrupting gazes. It's not quite on part with leader Joe Gacy sending flesh-eating druids for Bron Breakker last year, but Steiner Screwdrivers corrupt spines before souls so he was probably best left alone.
If only wacky Performance Centre Tuesdays were a bit like the NXT of old eh? You remember that; the thing lots of people loved before Vince McMahon tried to marginalise a new competitor and Triple H was finally forced into losing for a change, and by creative powers greater than his own.
It really went south during the pandemic too. As interest in the in-ring declined at an alarming rate, the conversation moved quickly to how shoddily the company were adapting to the difficult circumstances. Either in response to that or because the creative team were so out of ideas that anything would do, the show known for serious by-god action from serious by-god wrestlers got silly. It didn't work. Tian Sha was a heavily focused-upon act when there was plenty of time for new developments on the show, bringing together the future Wendy Choo with the mostly-ignored Boa and the perpetually doomed Xia Li for more mist and magic that failed all three of them. The Garganos filmed their spooky chats over the dinner table and pulled wavy faces making serious points. Dexter Lumis' murderous stare hypnotised people. Karrion Kross was hard as nails but who cares, he can corrupt contracts so they go on fire!
The move to the multi-coloured 2.0 era was more of a necessity than many WWE hardcores will ever admit.
CONT'D...