10 Very Bad WWE Ideas That Lasted For Years
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00:00A bad idea is a bad idea. You can try and dress it up as much as you want, but then
00:04you're just some weirdo trying to put thoughts on clothes? Don't do it. WWE has been going
00:09so long they sometimes feel they can write out such things, and I'm here to tell you,
00:13they can't.
00:14I'm also Simon from WhatCulture, please remember to eat 5 fruit and veg a day and
00:18hit that subscribe button. And this is 10 Very Bad WWE Ideas That Lasted 4 Years.
00:2410. The Roman Reigns Mega Push
00:26This is even worse now, because when we eventually let into all the madness and turned Roman
00:29Reigns heel, he has become one of the best characters in ages. All that backlash for
00:34absolutely no reason. It really did get to a point too where everybody but Vince McMahon
00:38was like, hmm, maybe we should do something here. I suppose bravo to Vinnie Mac for believing
00:42he could make this work. Given it went on for about 5 years though, that just seems
00:47a little bit silly.
00:48You'll scratch your head when you remember WWE already knew all of this, given The Rock
00:52went through the exact same experience, but nope. Roman would have to ignore all these
00:56boos and poes, especially at the 2015 Royal Rumble. Dwayne Johnson was even brought into
01:00that show to try and help, and you wanna know what happened? Everybody jeered. How was this
01:05not the turning point? It wasn't, and it took a global pandemic to do it, but you know
01:09what they say, for the love of everything, just listen to the fans already. Timeless
01:13saying that one. Timeless.
01:159. Gimmick Pay-Per-Views
01:17I do not like gimmick pay-per-views, and as a man who is always trying to be a Mr. Positive
01:21Pete, that is saying something. The major problem with them is that it locks you into
01:24an idea even if that idea doesn't suit the current period, plus you take your stipulations
01:29and run them into the ground.
01:30The only ones that really make sense are Money, the Bank and the Royal Rumble, but Hell in
01:33a Cell, Elimination Chamber, TLC, Extreme Rules and who knows what else are so retroactively
01:38fitting to what WWE needs that these matches lose their fear, especially The Cell. Remember
01:43when that one was first rolled out, people were terrified of it? Now it's just something
01:47in June.
01:48To be fair, WWE is set to reduce these in 2022, so we shall wait and see, but the best
01:53stories build to these insane affairs and aren't just fitted in because that's what
01:56the calendar says.
01:578. Really Long Pay-Per-Views
01:59I was there. WrestleMania 35, New York, it was fun, I was pumped, and seven hours later
02:05I felt like I'd been given a little bit too much entertainment and I wanted to go
02:08to sleep. And I know it seems silly criticising getting more bang for your buck, but I tell
02:12ya, I didn't find it very fun.
02:14It's why Mania has now gone over two nights as I suppose WWE can't help themselves,
02:18and the truth is anything going that long is going to be a challenge. It kinda took
02:22away from the main event too as by that time there was no energy left and we were all totally
02:26drained. I personally even think five hour shows push it. So going an extra 120 minutes?
02:31Sheesh.
02:32We've seen numbers creeping up ever since the WWE Network came into existence as watch
02:36time is a much desired stat, but you do have to pace these things out so most people are
02:41left wanting more. If the fan feels like they've got their fill for life, they ain't never
02:44gonna return.
02:45I don't know about you either, but the fear now is that we'll get two back-to-back seven
02:49hour shows, and I will tell you, I cannot handle this.
02:537. Authority Figures
02:54This was more than fine for a while, truly it was. It kinda grew to prominence during
02:59the Attitude Era as Mr McMahon dominated proceedings, and I get why WWE wanted to keep going back
03:04to the idea. We had success with it once, so why not again? Well the simple reason is
03:08eventually we'd pass the point where it was still a creative endeavour, but on and
03:11on it went.
03:12It's even stranger as WWE has found the perfect way to present this role in 2022,
03:17and they fired him. William Regal was awesome at this in NXT, and while Adam Pearce and
03:21Sonya Deville do a solid job in their positions, they have now become the cliched evil bosses
03:26that try and screw over all their employees, and it's just not needed.
03:29You're also always going to struggle given the connections Vince had to the company,
03:32Eric Bischoff used to do that role across the way, and Triple H was also tied into the
03:36family legacy, so when they were being referred to as the top brass, at least you could justify
03:40it. Really it's become a device that has run its course, so that's an area we could
03:44discuss far more widely with WWE. Really it's time to hit reset on both Raw and Smackdown,
03:49given they've been the same for over 20 years, I don't think it's going to happen.
03:536. The Actual Authority
03:55And surprisingly, all this did indeed go past its peak when we last did it on a huge scale.
04:00I wouldn't call the Authority a failure by any means, but there were issues. The Daniel
04:03Bryan situation has been well documented, and there was also the fact that while Triple
04:07H would often get his, Stephanie McMahon never would. The megalomaniac manager has to get
04:12their conuppance at some stage, otherwise there's no pay off for the audience.
04:15When the Bryan story was done too, we just took Roman and tried to repeat the magic,
04:19and we've already talked about that. For better or worse, it just didn't click and
04:22nobody else really benefited. This wasn't a Steve Austin or The Rock situation who did
04:26come out the other side bigger than they were going in. So it was just something to do because
04:30we did it before, or a structure we knew how to work around and within, and again, I don't
04:34want to keep going on about it, sometimes you just gotta do something new.
04:375. Name Changes
04:39I really don't care about this. I have so many real issues in my life, I just can't
04:43bring myself to get mad because WWE changes somebody's name. However, that doesn't
04:48mean it isn't really stupid, because it is. And look, there is a reason to do it here
04:51and there. If you've got a fresh-faced superstar and you want to create them in your own image,
04:55awesome, go nuts, make sense. This isn't what usually happens though, because instead
04:59we take Walter and we make him Gunther. We tell Matthew Riddle he can't be Matthew
05:03anymore, Big E Langston loses his surname, and Brom Breaker is secretly a Steiner, but
05:07don't you dare say it out loud. You gotta treat your audience with respect, and this
05:11simply doesn't. You're being asked to just go with some flow, even though some of
05:14the individuals, e.g. Walter, have been long-running champions in the same company. It's like
05:19me being asked to be called Derek Manpower, which would be my NXT name, if you care. You
05:24ain't gonna do it though, you're gonna go shut up Simon, and then I gotta go cry
05:27in my room.
05:284. Brand Warfare At The Survivor Series
05:31Aside from another idea that's simply in need of some freshening up, WWE's decision
05:35to just cross the lines of the brand split throughout the year has taken the concept
05:38in November and buried it even before you get there. I mean, how can anyone be that
05:42excited when we've seen wrestlers jump ship for the past 12 months, while also telling
05:46us they don't care if they're on Raw or Smackdown? You can't just wave a magic
05:49wand and say that everyone is now ready to bleed red or blue. It doesn't work, and
05:53it falls back into that territory of, well we always do this, so we'll do it again.
05:56No. There's also no stakes to this battle, so why would anybody put their best foot forward?
06:00It still seems strange this doesn't tie into the Rumble somehow, much as that ties
06:04into WrestleMania. But hey, not gonna happen now, we are too far down the line.
06:093. The DX Rub
06:11I'm gonna go out on a limb and say we are probably done with this specific one now.
06:15Triple H has far more important things to worry about, Shawn Michaels is down in NXT,
06:18Billy Gunn is with AEW, Road Dogg got let go, and Shawn Waltman is just being a really
06:23good dude on the indies, so I don't think it's on the cards for a good old while.
06:27There was this prolonged period, though, where almost like clockwork, DX would get back together
06:31and just wreck the stars of today. It happened to Damian Sandow, The Revival, Elias, we got
06:36the opposite with Finn Balor and the club, but that was a little bit odd. I get you want
06:39the big names from yesteryear to try and shine a spotlight on the new guys, but that's never
06:42what really happens, it just becomes an avenue to do some nostalgia with some rookie being
06:46murked. Given that Goldberg beat Bobby Lashley only recently, I feel WWE will stick with
06:51this until this generation becomes the old guard, and then amazingly we'll try and switch
06:55it. You know what too? It's probably gonna work.
06:582. Developmental
06:59The idea of a wrestling developmental system is a very good one. I suppose this goes back
07:03to Jim Cornette's vision of what OVW should be, where he taught Greenhorns what it took
07:07to make it in the WWE, so that when the big leagues needed a new face they could see who
07:11was ready to give it a go. Triple H turned this into something else with NXT, even if
07:15that did morph into a go-to promotion for awesome independent talent, but still. There
07:19was a production line of guys and girls being prepared for their futures, and the odd success
07:23would come through. That sentence was the problem, however, as it shouldn't be the
07:27odd success. Some reason, WWE seemed to think they were pushing somebody else's talent.
07:32Before long it literally did become a case of cutting your teeth down in Florida before
07:35you got some buzz, when Vince McMahon would change everything about you. It begged the
07:39question what the point of all this preamble was, and honestly, it helped nobody. Talent
07:43felt like they were being misused, the powers that be thought that they knew better. It
07:46was a mess. It's why NXT 2.0 will hopefully breed better results, but even then, the checklist
07:51for what makes a WWE superstar is now so specific, it takes away a lot of the fun wrestling is
07:56all about.
07:57Really, I could have summed this up in one sentence, let's just hope with all our hearts
08:00Bron Breaker smashes it, otherwise, rut row.
08:041. Scripted Promos
08:06WWE began scripting their promos somewhere around the year 2000. You know what, good
08:11for them. If somebody needs a helping hand, this should be on offer, and even Bryan Danielson
08:15said recently he enjoyed the process. The problem is that this became mandatory for
08:19everyone, and that's just silly. Some birds can't have their wings clipped, they need
08:23to fly.
08:24Instead, you had to break through the ceiling to get this honour, like a John Cena, but
08:27even then, he was somewhat tied. His position just meant he could riff with the material
08:31and get away with it. When you have someone like Steve Austin saying he likely wouldn't
08:34have been the star he was if he had to go through this though, how is that not enough?
08:38Some of these scripts are bizarre too, and make human beings sound like they've come
08:41from another planet, and that's just not relatable. I don't think we need to draw
08:44a line under them entirely, but picking and choosing our moments would be appreciated.
08:48I think AEW has shown that you can get some true magic when the cuffs are off, and there's
08:52plenty of WWE employees who could do this too, they're just not allowed. I find that
08:57quite odd.
08:58Know of any other bad WWE ideas that lasted for years? Make sure you let us know in the
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09:13My name is Simon from WhatCulture, thank you very much for joining me as always, and I
09:16look forward to talking to you again very very soon.