Credit: WWE.com
This of course, is not addressed to WWE creative, this is my love letter to all the marks that read my stuff. I appreciate you all, by the way. I'm sorry I've been quiet for a good week or so, I have had a lot to chew on as a fan of wrestling the past week. I think the Superstar Shakeup was good to both brands, for different reasons that I will articulate later. I am old, but not old enough to remember the territory days, and Vince going national then signing most of the big names from the different territories. I AM old enough to remember that a similar thing happened again with ECW and WCW going out of business. It's so crazy to me, as someone who has always appreciated history... seeing history repeat itself as it does. For the marks, right now is a time where it seems WWE is signing EVERYBODY. I am excited, but it is measured. I need my fellow marks to chill.
Wrestling is so different from what it was when I was a kid. That is both good, and bad. The pace of the matches and the depth of the movesets these guys and gals bring to bear is unprecedented. I'm going to keep this positive and all about my love for the performance art that is wrestling. When I say it's different, pertaining to the topic at hand, I remember when fans weren't so smart they're stupid. You could debut a guy as a jabroni that got no entrance and then later have them become something. Fans didn't talk about how the new guy who's had a cup of coffee on the roster is being buried and how irreparable the harm is, that they're losing matches now. WWE recently booked Matt Hardy to win the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal, then Jeff Hardy won the US Championship. I remember when those dudes were jobbers. And I remember accepting that Michael Hayes started managing them and they got pushed as a serious tag team after that. The Revival has been on the main roster a year now, and both of them have been injured, and I perpetually see people complaining they haven't been pushed to the tag titles yet. If you as a fan, believe in their talent... why not be patient and give the cream time to rise to the top?
Literally before Stone Cold Steve Austin became Stone Cold Steve Austin, he was The Ringmaster. We really forgave that. We actually gave a cat time to LITERALLY get whipped by Savio Vega, to become one of the biggest stars in the history of the business. Everytime someone debuts in WWE now, with the talent pool being deeper than its ever been, aside from the possible exceptions aforementioned... I see people saying things like "I haven't been that impressed with Nakamura since he was called up" You can insert names like Asuka and Bobby Roode... I blame our culture that puts such a premium on instant gratification. I can't honestly say the names I just mentioned HAVE blown me away. NONE of them have been on the main roster for years. Nakamura debuted at last year's Backlash. I'm shocked he isn't already a world champion. Finn Bálor became the first Universal champion inside of a month. AJ Styles became champion in a little over half a year. Maybe it took about a year for Kevin Owens. WWE does not make fans wait long for their faves to be crowned... unless you're a Roman Reigns fan. I digress.
At a time where the roster is cluttered with highly touted, highly decorated veterans, all in their 30s and 40s, you literally cannot push all of them. They all cannot win matches. Someone has to do jobs. It is not a burial for Rusev to lose to all of the stars that are bigger than him and people who are getting a push like... ugh... Jinder Mahal. It's just the nature o the beast. I wish he would have won that match at Mania. I don't believe at present, that he has a win at Mania. They started him out very strong, then after he lost to Cena, nothing was the same. Again, it's the nature of the business. One minute you are a champion and seemingly unbeatable, the next you are barely on the card, doing jobs. What's good for Roman Reigns is good for the Rusev, amirite? Earlier, I said "wrestling is different". A major difference is that, for some reason, Vince seems to think losing makes you more likeable. DO NOT INVOKE THE NAME DANIEL BRYAN, PLEASE. They didn't have Bryan losing because they wanted him to be liked, they just wanted the other person to go over. Marks overlook the fact that Bryan hit the Grand Slam in five years after some months of doing jobs, to fit some narrative that WWE was holding him back.
WWE didn't hold back in that Shakeup. I fully expected them to clean house and shift AJ Styles, Charlotte Flair and The Usos to Raw and send Finn Bálor, Braun Strowman, Bayley and The Revival to SmackDown. None of that happened. I'm liking WWE not doing things we marks can predict. I haven't seen ANYONE saying they expected SmackDown to get stronger, because nobody expected that. I DO expect a year of marks complaining that with all this star power no one is really getting focused on, no one is getting character development, and everybody on the roster isn't in the main events. I say: Believe in the talent, give them a chance.