What do you think the biggest change to WWE in 2021 was? Let us know in the comments!
10 Biggest Changes To WWE In 2021
#Wrestling #Top10 #WWE
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10 Biggest Changes To WWE In 2021
#Wrestling #Top10 #WWE
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
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SportsTranscript
00:00 If you thought 2020 was crazy for both the world and wrestling, then 2021 was like 'hold
00:06 my beer because…
00:07 HAHA THE MRS WWE CHAMPION!
00:10 Go home WWE, you're drunk.
00:13 Drunk on profit.
00:14 Somehow this company has made more money than anything in the Universe ever this year, despite
00:19 making some of the most baffling changes in its history.
00:22 Some onscreen, others more in the behind the scenes business operations.
00:27 Others more silent and deadly than your uncle's post-turkey feast Windy Pops.
00:30 That's right, 2021 is nearly over.
00:33 Which means it's time to look back at the year that was.
00:36 So get ready to say 'no, no way that only happened 8 months ago'.
00:40 Because I'm Oli Davis, hailing from partsFUNknown, and these are the 10 biggest changes to WWE
00:47 in 2021.
00:48 We've got loads of end of year lists coming up, along with me vs Adam Blampied in our
00:53 twice in a lifetime fantasy booking warfare match.
00:56 So make sure to subscribe and enable notifications to always on to know first when that goes
01:01 live.
01:02 And superkick that thumbs up button and let me know what you think is the biggest change
01:06 WWE have made this year in the comments down below.
01:10 Because I'll be replying to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE.
01:13 10.
01:14 Pay-per-views on Saturdays
01:16 For years, WWE's pay-per-view schedule has been locked into Sunday nights, making for
01:21 many sleepy Mondays at work.
01:23 Haha, I'll just sit in the toilet and play Merge the Numbers for an hour.
01:27 Take that, boss!
01:28 Oh goddammit, I'm the boss!
01:30 But in 2021, WWE announced it will be consistently experimenting with Saturday night pay-per-views.
01:37 August SummerSlam took place on a Saturday, making it the first non-WrestleMania pay-per-view
01:42 on that day in decades.
01:44 And it was a gamble that worked big, with ticket sales four times the gate of SummerSlam
01:49 2019 - we're not going to count SummerSlam 2020, because the gate for that was logging
01:54 in on Zoom.
01:55 But not only will WWE's first big event of the year, Day 1, also happen on Saturday
02:00 1st January, the 2022 Royal Rumble - at least one night of WrestleMania - and SummerSlam
02:06 2022 are also all scheduled for Saturdays.
02:10 WWE President Nick Khan has explained this is actually their new strategic approach to
02:15 pay-per-views, making it easier for travelling audiences to fly in and out of the host city,
02:21 with these big shows being held in stadiums over arenas.
02:24 And at least initially, it appears to be working big.
02:27 9.
02:28 The NXT Women's Tag Team Championships
02:31 You know what WWE's biggest problem is?
02:33 They need more belts.
02:35 They don't.
02:36 Have.
02:37 Enough.
02:38 Championship.
02:39 Belts.
02:40 And 2021 saw its newest title added, unveiling the NXT Women's Tag Team Championships in
02:46 February.
02:47 The titles were awarded to Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai, before immediately being lost
02:51 to Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart, which rather predictably set them up as one of the
02:56 lowest valued championships in the entire company.
02:59 It's also seemingly stopped the main roster's Women's Tag Team Championships from appearing
03:03 on NXT, despite that being part of their concept when they were first introduced in 2019.
03:09 8.
03:10 WWE lets talent out of non-compete clauses
03:13 Be careful what you wish for, WWE superstars.
03:16 For almost five years, wrestlers have often requested they be let go from the company,
03:21 either privately or publicly, so they can spread their grappling wings elsewhere.
03:26 In 2021, that wish - along with loads of other wrestlers who hadn't asked for their release
03:31 - was granted.
03:32 Amidst the mass roster cuts this year, some released talent were let out of their contractual
03:37 30-90 day non-compete clauses early.
03:40 What a kind company WWE is, doing a favour for the talent they just fired.
03:46 You see, WWE's non-compete clauses mean released talent can't appear for other promotions
03:51 for 90 days if you're a main roster performer, or 30 days if you were coming from NXT.
03:56 This has been their standard practice for years.
03:58 But in 2021, there were a few times where talent was granted an early out.
04:03 Like Fightful Select reporting, Chelsea Green was allowed to do her first appearance with
04:07 Ring of Honor early after being released from the company on April 15th.
04:12 7.
04:13 The future endeavourers get future endeavoured
04:15 WWE releasing loads of wrestlers was a running theme throughout 2021, but it wasn't just
04:21 on-screen talent who were let go.
04:23 The corporate staff were also heavily impacted, along with entire divisions being scrapped
04:28 or merged - like the combining of two different design departments - and several high-level
04:33 executives getting dismissed.
04:34 Two of the longest running key figures in WWE's talent relations sector were also
04:40 let go - Mark Carrano and Canyon Seaman.
04:46 Carrano was reportedly blamed for Mickie James being sent her belongings in a trash bag after
04:51 she was released and was shortly after fired himself, with the backstage reaction being
04:55 described as "unanimously positive".
04:58 Sounds like a popular guy.
05:00 Seaman, meanwhile, was rumoured to have been released when Adam Cole's contract ran out
05:06 and nobody noticed, prompting Seaman to get released.
05:13 But don't worry, John Laurinaitis is now the head of talent relations, after sporadically
05:17 holding that title between 2001 and 2012.
05:20 And with all that fresh-faced experience, he's taking the company back to the dark
05:24 ages because…
05:26 6.
05:27 WWE Changes Its Hiring Process
05:30 As Vince McMahon is determined to confirm that you cannot, in fact, teach an old dog
05:35 new tricks, WWE has drastically changed what it looks for in signing new talent.
05:41 Gone are the days of seeing Indy Darling suddenly appear in the crowd at TakeOver shows, because
05:45 the current hiring mission statement is to sign big, young guys who can one day main
05:51 event WrestleMania.
05:53 While this is a mindset more fitting of the 80s, early 90s and mid-to-late 00s, one that
05:58 was thought changed by the success of CM Punk and Daniel Bryan in WWE, this does kind of
06:03 make pragmatic sense.
06:06 WWE's NXT ultimately lost to AEW in the IndyStyle Wars, and Vince consistently botched
06:12 NXT call-ups to the main roster.
06:14 At least this way, we can see Brom Breaker get pushed right to the top.
06:18 Because they can't screw Brom Breaker up, right?
06:21 Right?!
06:22 End of AEW beating NXT.
06:24 5.
06:25 See you next Tuesday NXT.
06:28 War.
06:29 Huh.
06:30 What is it good for?
06:32 Forcing WWE's third brand to be moved to a different day.
06:35 Say it again!
06:37 After counter-scheduling AEW Dynamite on Wednesday nights for a year and a half, WWE and the
06:42 USA Network finally threw in the towel in April 2021.
06:46 After NXT TakeOver Stand and Deliver, NXT moved to Tuesday nights, where viewership
06:52 has remained pretty much consistent from before, but AEW's has soared thanks to fans returning,
06:57 big signees and, arguably, now running unopposed on Wednesdays.
07:02 It was around this time that Vince McMahon, Nick Khan and Bruce Prichard made a rare visit
07:07 to the Performance Center, where everyone was reportedly reassured about the future
07:11 of the brand and thought nothing would happen to it.
07:16 4.
07:17 NXT 2.0, psych!
07:19 While the move to Tuesday signalled the end of the Wednesday Night Wars, Triple H still
07:23 had plans for his NXT-verse, or whatever it was he called it, reportedly keen to enhance
07:28 the Cruiserweights role in the show.
07:30 But NXT TakeOver 36 signalled the end of NXT as we knew it.
07:35 Vince McMahon does not like losing, and NXT lost, and lost hard to AEW.
07:41 So Vince took Hunter's prize toy from him and gave it a midlife crisis, fancy new colourful
07:47 logo, a focus on young sexualised women, and even a new name.
07:51 My Uncle Steve pulling up to Sunday dinner on a motorcycle with jet black hair and a
07:56 new 21-year-old girlfriend was more subtle than this.
07:59 NXT 2.0 debuted on September 14th, and featured a new venue, all the colour, and tons of new
08:06 stars.
08:07 The show is NXT in name only at this point, with NXT 2.0 very much maintaining a more
08:13 main roster feel, replacing long modern style matches with comedy skits and characters who
08:19 feel more at home in 1995 WWF.
08:21 They've even dropped the TakeOver name for pay-per-views, and the existing old guard
08:27 of Johnny Gargano and Kyle O'Reilly could join Adam Cole on the way out by the end of
08:32 the year.
08:33 3.
08:34 The Return of Fans
08:36 But WWE wasn't all bad, because after well over a year in lockdown, with the majority
08:42 of that in the Thunderdome, arguably the most positive change to the company and wrestling
08:47 as a whole for 2021 was you.
08:51 Yes, you.
08:52 And me too, I guess.
08:53 The fans.
08:55 After WrestleMania 37 served as a brief reprieve from no-fans WWE shows, July's Money in
09:00 the Bank served as the proper relaunch of WWE's touring schedule, injecting the shows
09:06 with real, non-recorded life once again.
09:08 Not a lot of life once you reach the third hour of Raw each week, I grant you, but it's
09:13 still better than a thousand zoom windows staring at a ring.
09:16 2.
09:17 WWE Network is Peacock
09:20 In one of the biggest deals in the company's history, masterminded by negotiator extraordinaire
09:25 Nick Khan, WWE announced early in 2021 that they would be moving the WWE Network to Peacock,
09:32 NBC's streaming service, as of the 18th March.
09:36 While this move didn't go well from a user perspective at first, with many early complaints
09:40 about the features of Peacock Premium being nowhere near as good as the Network, lacking
09:45 several of the standard functions you would expect to see on a streaming service like,
09:49 you know, a pause button, this change was worth a huge $1 billion, and marks the biggest
09:57 strategic change for WWE and the Network since its launch in 2014.
10:02 Expect to see the rights to the Network come up every five years from now on, just like
10:06 how the first broadcast rights to Raw and SmackDown are contested over.
10:10 You can say many things about WWE, but in regards to streaming, Vince McMahon has been
10:15 a visionary - first foreseeing the market shift way before other companies, and then
10:19 also realising when it's time to make deals with the bigger networks.
10:24 Expect many other smaller streaming platforms to follow this same route in the next five
10:28 years, and just like pay-per-view, Vince did it first.
10:32 1.
10:33 All of the releases
10:35 Bobby Fish Mercedes Martinez
10:38 Leon Ruff Bronson Reed
10:40 Jake Atlas Bray Wyatt
10:42 Killian Dain Lars Sullivan
10:44 Andrade Billy Kay Peyton Royce
10:46 Braun Strowman Lana
10:48 Buddy Murphy Aleister Black
10:50 Ruby Riott Nia Jax
10:53 Mia Yim Keith Lee
10:55 Karrion Kross B-Fab Ember Moon
10:58 Frankie Monet Scarlett Bordeaux
11:00 Top Dolla Isiah Swerve Scott
11:03 Tegan Nox Those are just some of the names released
11:07 this year.
11:08 And WWE really don't think there's a young star in there that could main event a WrestleMania?
11:13 Braun and Bray already kinda did.
11:16 While the biggest corporate shift is licensing the Network to another platform, the decision
11:20 to ruthlessly fire over 80 wrestlers this year marks the most harshly felt change.
11:26 Not just for the fans who got behind every one of those names and more, but for the people
11:31 who suddenly lost their jobs before their contract was up.
11:34 For the people who moved across country, uprooted families so they could work for the biggest
11:40 wrestling player in town.
11:42 Who were then fired at a time when said biggest wrestling player in town was making more money
11:47 than it had ever done before, while the outside wrestling world still hadn't recovered from
11:53 the pandemic's lockdown.
11:55 WWE firing so many wrestlers this year marks a significant change in strategy from 2018,
12:00 where they signed and hoarded talent to keep them away from competitors like New Japan
12:05 and then AEW - flooding the market with free agents, severely reducing the amount they
12:11 can charge for dates.
12:12 It's a decision not just felt onscreen with the thinning star power, backstage for wrestlers
12:17 worried they could lose their jobs at any moment, but also for the fans - many of whom
12:23 have decided they no longer want to support a company that behaves like this.
12:28 Well that was a cheery end to the list.
12:30 It's been a rough year, people, so please subscribe to partsFUNknown and share this
12:35 video around.
12:36 And let me know what you think is the biggest change to WWE in 2021 in the comments.
12:40 Check out our other videos on PFK, I've been Oli Davis, Jam That Jam.
12:45 (gentle music)