We all want to run down the WWE at the first signs of failure. Some want to drop it all on HHH as the ego maniac making bad decisions behind the scenes and abusing his influence with Vince. Yet, we don't know any of that for sure. We do know that the product has stunk lately. Instead of pointing the finger at someone or something the WWE just needs to address certain problems and move on. I find they are just way too easy to fix if you really think about it.
End the Authority Angle...quick!
The Authority angle started with a ton of promise. HHH finally fulfilling the desire of every internet fan who dreads him by coming out as a corporate heel against the wrestling machine Daniel Bryan. Probably something that should have happened in 2011 with CM Punk, but better late than never.
The only problem is the follow up with the angle has been a mess. The Authority, HHH and Stephanie have muddy the waters on who they are as faces or heels. HHH and Stephanie have been reluctant to fully embrace the turn from Summerslam and the night after and it's left fans feeling confused and drained the heat out of the angle. I thought after Survivor Series they could have saved the angle, but this thing is on life support. Just a few weeks ago HHH was doing the YES chant, but followed it up by running down Daniel Bryan the next week. I'm not sure how that helps anything WWE is trying to do.
The WWE needs to keep Stephanie and HHH off TV after Wrestlemania. Usually post WM is a time for the good guys anyway. I vote for a commissioner run for Mick Foley leading up to Summerslam before pushing another big time heel angle within the company. I don't think HHH and Stephanie are flops, far from it. I just think they are uncertain of what would be "best for business right now." They are clear cut top evil heels, but because they chose to not embrace that fact the angle has flopped and we need to end it quickly before the damage their on screen persona's any further.
Start Valuing Winning and Losing Again
No Superstar is going to get over if he keeps taking loads of losses. Look at the case of Damien Sandow. He gets weeks worth of vignettes before his debut, but weeks after debuting he's the butt of a joke for DX on the Raw 1000 show. Did anyone bother to ask how that would help his career?
He won the Money in the Bank and you thought now he can finally live up to the hype, but he continues to lose matches and has to jump in a river to save his money in the bank briefcase. Now fast forward to the RAW after Hell in the Cell. Sandow comes to the ring to confront the newly crowned Champion John Cena who is fresh off his return from injury. Sandow cuts a great promo and then attacks Cena before cashing in.
It makes total sense that Sandow will beat Cena claim the title and rematch at Survivor Series, right? Nope instead after executing a really good promo and prematch attack Sandow loses to a one armed John Cena. Talk about a career killing moment. He becomes one of the few guys not to win a title with their cash in and loses to a guy with one arm. All on free TV. Why not just drag it out on into the PPV? We didn't need to see the Del Rio Cena rematch they feed us at Survivor Series.
Sandow is just one of many guys who takes too many losses, but you constantly hear the backstage rumors about how these guys disappoint and underachieve. Look at the case of Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes, and Alberto Del Rio. All guys who lose way too many matches, but then are asked to draw in the top spot. You can't get by on the mic skills alone. Superstars have to win a majority of their matches in order to keep relevant with the fanbase.
It's also worth noting that Randy Orton is not immune to this situation as well. As champion he has lost to Kofi Kingston, John Cena, Daniel Bryan, and Christian. The list goes on and on. This is all during his most recent title run. How is that supposed to make him look good and gain heat?
To me it's simple. Look at College football. As long as a team stays unbeaten or one lose they are relevant and fans stay interested, but put two or three loses on a team and nobody cares about them any more except their loyal fans. Then when you have two unbeaten teams clash the ratings go through the roof. Records matter and winning matters.
Stars that are being pushed need to win a majority of their matches especially the ones on free tv. This creates situations where the fans truly don't know who's going to win when top stars meet, which drives interest and creates heat. It also makes people care. Does anyone really believe that Alberto Del Rio will beat Batista at the next PPV? Del Rio has lost to the likes of Sin Cara (Hunico) in recent weeks, but now he's going to take on a returning Batista? Imagine if Del Rio had been unbeaten for a while then maybe it becomes a bigger deal, but the entire angle has been like going through the motions because Del Rio has been such a loss machine for WWE the last year.
WWE needs to separate it's roster better. The guys being pushed and the guys making those guys look good. The product would improve vastly and top stars would finally start drawing money for the company and get the WWE over it's dependence on a few top guys and part time stars to draw ratings and buyrates.
For those thinking that guys need to use the mic to get over are mistaken as well. You can't get over just by working the mic. Fans change the channel on guys who lose all the time cutting promo's. Why listen to the Miz he hardly beats anybody, so who cares what he has to say. The bottom line is winning matters.
Be More Straight Forward
The WWE's angle execution has become let's be tricky for the sake of being tricky. They lead you down the road and have you believing the angle will end a certain way, but then at the last second do something that you would not expect to have it be a surprise, but it comes off poorly.
My best recent example of this is the John Cena and Randy Orton's TLC match. Orton scored a clean win over Cena with no help from the Authority. Post match the Authority came to the ring and clapped for Orton. As stated earlier the Authority have since gone sour on Orton. The angle and the match made zero sense as did the follow up. I really felt like the Creative team was sitting in a room and someone said what is the least likely ending people would expect and someone said an Orton clean win.
Because it was clean it didn't help gain more heat for the Authority angle and it didn't push the Authority to new heights. Instead it hurt Cena's perception with the fans. It improved Orton's perception until he started taking losses to everyone including Cena and then looking like a child when fighting with the Authority. So nothing was really gained and more lose from this outcome that at best was surprising.
All that needed to happen here was HHH runs down as Cena gets to the top of the ladder and yanks the rope that Cena is tied too. Orton wins and we hate him more. The Authority is for sure heel and we hate them more. Cena gets some empathy from the fans because he got screwed and we are all pretty much happy with the outcome. Straight foward and just what we need.
The mustard was off the hot dog for Daniel Bryan when the WWE decided at Night of Champions that Bryan would get the win clean over Orton. So just one month removed from starting an angle that deserved a slow burn Bryan gets the payoff. Orton takes the clean loss and for 24 hours we all have that feeling they are going to strip Bryan, which they do in a really poor manner. So now Bryan has lost steam, Orton has lost more steam, and we are all really annoyed with the WWE.
So when the WWE brass says Bryan can't draw I'm forced to wonder how did they ever expect him to off that. The whole point of a slow burn angle is the big pay off in the end. We got a mock pay off, which didn't serve any valuable purpose to the heat on this angle.
If WWE would have just done the straight forward thing and screwed Bryan then we would have all been better for it. Better yet keeping Bryan away from Orton would have been better for both stars in the long run. Bryan wins the rumble and wins the title at WM30. Straight forward yes, but exactly what we all wanted in the end. Sometimes theses things are just that simple.
Overall the WWE needs to go back to older simpler formulas. They are trying too hard to give people something new when maybe we all just want the same old thing with a different packaging.
