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Boy, did the Jan. 29 episode of WWE SmackDown – the home show for this Sunday’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view – falling off a cliff or what? In fact, “falling off a cliff” would imply that the last hour of that Friday night’s show was an irreproachable accident; driven off a cliff as in the final scene of Thelma and Louise is more precise (with Vince McMahon driving instead of Susan Sarandon).
The show started off well. Daniel Bryan opened things up with a solid, if not repetitive, promo before AJ Styles stepped out to set up a match between the two for later. Bayley and Bianca Belair told a great story during their great TV game. Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens delivered a silverware showdown as the final for their Last Man Standing Universal Championship game – although it was not without its camp moments.
More impressive still, Dominik Mysterio attacked Baron Corbin from behind before their match to lose him! Okay, that wasn’t good (WWE knows young Mysterio is supposed to be a babyface, right?), But the first hour gave fans more to like than not to like.
When the Bryan vs Styles match started with over half an hour to go on the show, it seemed like the good times would continue… until WWE decided to unleash all of their terrible tropes on the public.
WWE returned to the same waterless well with their fence segment.
WWE gave us about 12 and a half minutes of high-quality action between Bryan and Styles, but they couldn’t help but use the old “babyface gets distracted by music” gimmick twice in about five. minutes, first to get Sami Zayn out and later to alert fans to the entrance of the Intercontinental Champion Big E.
After that, it was only a matter of time before the non-arrival came. Then we had a fight with the aforementioned names with Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro, who was sitting ringside as a guest commentator. This led to a six-man tag and a flush and repeat of the brawl with The Miz, John Morrison, and Otis added to the fray, which inflated things to a 10-man tag.
Guess how this match ended? That’s right, with another scuffle before Braun Strowman comes out and cleans the house.
So, to recap: we’ve had multiple non-finishes and match restarts, multiple instances where music has distracted a wrestler’s attention – especially babyfaces – and multiple man-made brawls. This is what WWE thought would get fans excited for one of their biggest shows on the calendar.
Vince McMahon and his creative team have relied on this plot device for years as the latest hype for the Rumble, but as this terrible chain of events has shown that it is time for McMahon and his team to find new ones. ways to get fans excited. for the Rumble.
What should WWE do instead?
WWE must realize that the vast majority of fans know how the Royal Rumble works. They already know that it’s possible for multiple big names to be able to interact with each other during the game, so booking a segment like this before the PPV doesn’t seem necessary. It’s almost as ridiculous as when they try to correlate winning traditional wrestling matches with the momentum to win a battle royale tug of war.
Instead of scripting segments that visually emphasize the rules or aesthetics of the match, WWE should focus on the prize a wrestler receives for his victory: a world championship match at WrestleMania.
Instead of automatically filling out a big schmoz at the end of each of those homecoming shows, why not do something like ask several wrestlers to talk about what it would mean for them to win such a monumental match and to title the biggest show of the year? That way, you don’t insult your fans’ intelligence by assuming they’re neuralized after every Rumble match, and spotlighting the stars who will populate the ring at the start of the contest.
If WWE wants to add an in-ring aspect to the build, these brawls can work sparingly, but not as the conclusion of a “Why WWE Booking Is So Maddening” showcase. Something as simple as having two wrestlers in conflict before various wrestlers come down for the hubbub. This way, fans are always excited about the favorites of the match instead of giving a thinly veiled crash course for the fight.
There are probably more ways than that to effectively building the Rumble, but the consistent theme with these ideas is simplicity. With plenty of possibilities for surprises and future clashes, it doesn’t take much to get fans excited about the match, so WWE should take appropriate action going forward to ensure that a comeback segment does not. never becomes so complicated again.
Who am I kidding? They’ll probably do this shit again next year.
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