On Sunday the WWE put on their main show Wrestlemania and followed it up with what usually is the best Raw of the year. There is always a lot of fallout from a mania, and this year was no exception. WWE seems to have fixed its mid card issues, and have put the main title on a full time performer. So, where do all the major players go from here, and what’s the company direction?
Leaving Raw last night Sting had to be questioning whether or not he made the right choice to come to WWE. He seemed liked a mortal lock going into WM31 against HHH, but the WWE took away his moment in favor of pushing HHH, more on that in a second. If the loss to HHH wasn’t bad enough the awkward handshake post match certainly didn’t help. It’s questionable whether it’s common to handshake a guy that just hit you in the head with a Sledgehammer. It basically undid the whole concept of the angle they had. This wasn’t about Sting respecting HHH it was about him stopping HHH from abusing his power as head of the Authority.
Within 48 hours Sting went from the guy trying to save the WWE from HHH to the guy doing comedy with Bo Dallas. This booking and angle didn’t do anything to kill the idea that Vince holds grudges against WCW talent or that HHH is always just in business for himself and not what’s best for business. Sting is left with very little heat after that match, and with the Undertaker not making an appearance to challenge him on Raw fans are left to wonder why should they care. It’s an utter waste by WWE and a shame.
WWE probably rationalized putting HHH over Sting because they are basically recharging the Authority. Going into Wrestlemania season it seemed like the WWE was going to finally end this over done angle, but instead it looks like they are committing to a least another year. The angle is drab and played out. Rollins is about the only bright spot, but that’s not to say he isn’t damaged goods. WWE has spent months making him look foolish in the Orton angle and a guy who’s always running scared.
It’s likely that the cronies will be helping Rollins retain his title for the next few months. A heel Champion can cheat, and get help to win, but he can’t be all about cheating. He has to sometimes win clean to be believable. What really hurt CM Punk when he turned heel was the fact that he couldn’t win a match without any assistance. If Rollins is the same Champion then all he is doing is being a place holder Champion. That’s really not best for business.
If the Authority is just going to back Rollins and use their crew of cronies to help him keep the belt it’s hard to imagine why people would get excited about it. While it’s assumed that Lesnar will come back later this summer for his rematch, everything that happens in the middle is just killing time. For those who point to the large reaction Rollins got winning belt as a good sign, they should temper their excitement by realizing fans were probably just happy Reigns didn’t win. The hate on Reigns at WM31 was off the charts.
The WWE has put the full court press on the Stephanie character. She’s been absolutely untouchable since turning heel in 2013. More recently she’s been vicious on all the top male talent, both heel and face. The question becomes what’s the value of that if WWE isn’t going to pay if off. At a certain point it just becomes annoying. WWE appeared to try to push the idea that Rhonda Rousey could be the one that takes the shine off of Stephanie. That sounds like a money idea, but there’s a big problem there.
Stephanie has built all her heat off the regular roster talents. To then have Rousey come in and get the payoff and the shine from downing Steph does next to nothing for the main roster. That’s been the problem with WWE the past few years. They are so obsessed with being main that they fail to help or acknowledge talent within their own organization and would rather make part time performers or celebrities look good. What it translates into is an era of low ratings and marginal crowd reactions.
Vince recently stated that he listens to his fans, but he proved Sunday and Monday that he doesn’t. If he was he would do away with the Authority angle because the ratings aren’t popping for it. WWE had five weeks of declining ratings going into the final Raw before WM31. He would have put over Sting who was the guy who got the loudest pops the past few months by a landslide. He would never have given Roman Reigns the pin on Monday to end Raw. He took a great show and ended it in a way that made no one in the live crowd happy, so where’s the energy in doing that. How they couldn’t have Orton get the pin to at least have the crowd pop for it is head scratching.
Reigns as a face is a lost cause. He’s reaching epic proportions of hate. Batista would probably get over on Reigns if he came back and this is a man whose nickname was Bootista. Reigns has rubbed smart and casual fans the wrong way. There are plenty of reasons as to why, but the WWE has the chance to make chicken salad out of chicken s***. If they flipped Reigns heel now the fans would eat it up.
The best way to do this would be to have him beat Rollins with the help of the Authority at the next PPV or the following one. While Rollins is a great bad guy he doesn’t fit the mold as well as Reigns could and right now the fans would absolutely eat it up. HHH and Steph could be Reigns’s Paul Heyman doing all his speaking. Rollins could flip back face and do tons of things, but most importantly be a solid in ring performer.
It’s unlikely the WWE will do it because they just don’t seem to like to get things right these days, which is what is worrying about the Daniel Bryan IC title situation. The key to making Bryan a successful Champion is simple. Simply match him up against good in ring performers like they did on Monday and have him win. What Bryan should not be doing is defending the title on Raw or Smackdown and he should never be losing even in tags or non-title matches. That’s how you put some shine on him and the title.
If Bryan is defending often then the belt loses value and he becomes less of an attraction. Also, if Bryan’s not speaking and cutting promo’s then his value drops as well. Why would Bryan and Ziggler have a match on Raw that was proposed as a possible match at Mania with no hype promos? In a three hour show it was amazing that WWE couldn’t find the time to give these guys a few minutes back stage to talk about their match.
It highlights a general problem with the company. There’s clearly a bias towards certain talents that they perceive are more important to allow promo time for. John Cena was allowed last night to cut a promo and then issue an open challenge to anyone in the locker room. He then beat Dean Ambrose, who needed that loss like he needed to fall off a higher ladder. Yet they couldn’t find five minutes for Bryan. HHH talks about how difficult it is to book a 3 hour show. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so hard if the promo time was handing out a little more fairly.
Really lost in the shuffle was Mizdow. He’s been one of the more over characters for WWE over the past 5 months. Yet, after his big turn on Sunday to finally split he and Miz up he gets no mic time to help connect him to the audience. Mizdow isn’t going to grow in popularity by feuding with Miz. He’s going to do that by cutting promo’s and winning good matches.
If WWE can’t change its ways then any hope of growing the audience ratings and subscribers to dramatically higher numbers is not likely. The WWE can’t keep leaning on the Rock and Undertaker to create buzz while allowing HHH and Stephanie to suck up all the heat with little chance of them paying it out to the talent that need the rub.
When CM Punk left the WWE some fans felt compassion for the WWE and not Punk. It almost like Punk was being too harsh and critical. Yet since his departure the WWE has ended the streak with a weak rationale, had a Royal Rumble so bad fans canceling the network became a hashtag, and pushed a guy that fans clearly didn’t want and who appears to be a worse version of John Cena. They are making CM Punk look like the voice of reason.
WWE needs to embrace the fact that all noise is not good noise and when it’s often boo’s over cheers to end a Raw that’s not a good thing. The next few months are really the critical months for WWE. This is the time of year where there is no major PPV until August. This is when interest counts. This is when Raw must be at its best with almost no competition. The WWE has set their course, but it remains to be seen if they can move the needle.