Credit: WWE.com
I am sorry that it has been a long time, in which I shouldn't have left you without a dope gimmick to step to. The simple reason is, I haven't really had any profound wrestling thoughts that I have needed to get off my chest until now... which is that I am close to completely not caring about WWE's product. Look at what they have done at, and since WrestleMania. It seems very much like there was no real plan in place. I am honestly very offended, as a fan.
Let's start with Charlotte and Rousey. Every smart fan knows that the expected main event of next year's Mania is Charlotte and Rousey. So that made feeding Asuka's undefeated streak to Charlotte make sense right? Then it becomes sort of predictable that maybe Rousey wins the Rumble and challenges Charlotte. Especially since ONE WOULD THINK that SmackDown will become functionally the A show once it moves to FOX. (As an aside, WWE has never done right by SmackDown ever since the brand split idea became a thing.) WWE has this horrific habit now of doing dumb things to try to make the inevitable and predictable thing less so. Like "people won't see Charlotte and Rousey as main event level attractions if we book Rousey to not lose, but also not win her first title shot and at the same time, after we just fed an impressive streak to Charlotte she immediately loses the title and then loses clean to a clearly inferior opponent" dumb. Look... I don't have a hater bone in my body. If Carmella was good I wouldn't have any problems with her getting wins over Charlotte and Asuka at consecutive pay per views. She isn't, though, SO I HAVE A HUGE PROBLEM. Carmella is going to be gone from the company in a couple of years. Watch.
I recently talked to my best friend about how WWE is doing everything they can to ensure, if you hate Roman Reigns, your hate never dies, only intensifies. And if you love Roman Reigns... why? What is wrong with you? Are you touched in the head? I have never seen someone so clearly positioned as a top performer, so poorly booked, IN MY LIFE. I liken it to Lex Luger. Like... imagine if when Lex Luger celebrated getting a countout victory over Yokozuna at SummerSlam as though he had won the title, WWE had everyone he ever programmed with after that cut a promo that was essentially "You big dummy you celebrated not winning the belt like you did win the belt and you're a failure and I laugh at you HAHAHAHAHAHA" Now, it's like every SINGLE promo someone cuts on Roman Reigns is about how he "can't" beat Brock Lesnar. Mind you, I am lowkey a wrasslin historian so I am acutely aware that Lesnar took the title from Goldberg who had squashed him prior to that and defeated him in their previous Mania encounter. And that The Rock beat Austin at 19 after losing countless matches at different pay per views, including Manias 15 and 17. The buildup to Cena/Batista at 26 was that Batista had defeated Cena at SummerSlam and recently taken the title off him after a grueling match, so it made Cena the underdog. Here's the thing. Fans hate Roman. He will never be an underdog because to BE an underdog people have to want to see you win. So they could have Roman lose to Brock 23534636 times, get hit by a truck, lose his dog tragically and have his family murdered in front of him and all of these things would likely get babyface reactions. I'm still not necessarily on Team Turn Him Heel, but they definitely need to change his presentation. First, stop having him lose so often, as this is unbecoming of any top talent. Second, stop having him complain about anything on tv, because heels complain and if the fans already hate him then they are not gonna go "you, know he's right". They're acting like they've never given him a belt before and like people are just gonna pop huge once he finally gets it. Nope. the opposite is happening where I am caring less and less. They're literally doing him worse than they did Lex Luger. Jesus.
Shinsuke Nakamura is not buried, but my god. He couldn't beat Jinder Mahal and now he can't beat AJ Styles. What is with WWE and having its most over (and Roman) talents repeatedly fail to win the big one? It is like... Vince does not want anyone to be a big star. Like he doesn't want anyone to be over. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm usually not