10 Very Bad WWE Ideas That Lasted For Years
Survivor Series is something the fans have to go through, not the wrestlers...
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00:00 A bad idea is a bad idea. You can try and dress it up as much as you want, but then
00:04 you're just some weirdo trying to put thoughts on clothes. Don't do it. WWE has been going
00:09 so long they sometimes feel they can write out such things, and I'm here to tell you,
00:13 they can't.
00:14 I'm also Simon from WhatCulture, please remember to eat 5 fruit and veg a day and
00:18 hit that subscribe button. And this is 10 Very Bad WWE Ideas That Lasted 4 Years.
00:24 10. The Roman Reigns Mega Push
00:26 This is even worse now, because when we eventually let into all the madness and turned Roman
00:29 Reigns heel, he has become one of the best characters in ages. All that backlash for
00:34 absolutely no reason. It really did get to a point too where everybody but Vince McMahon
00:38 was like "hmm, maybe we should do something here". I suppose bravo to Vinnie Mac for
00:42 believing he could make this work. Given it went on for about 5 years though, that just
00:47 seems a little bit silly.
00:48 You'll scratch your head when you remember WWE already knew all of this, given The Rock
00:52 went through the exact same experience, but nope. Roman would have to ignore all these
00:56 boos and poes, especially at the 2015 Royal Rumble. Dwayne Johnson was even brought into
01:00 that show to try and help and you'll wanna know what happened? Everybody jeered. How
01:05 was this not the turning point? It wasn't and it took a global pandemic to do it, but
01:09 you know what they say, for the love of everything, just listen to the fans already. Timeless
01:13 saying that one. Timeless.
01:15 9. Gimmick Pay-Per-Views
01:17 I do not like gimmick pay-per-views, and as a man who is always trying to be a Mr Positive
01:21 Pete, that is saying something. The major problem with them is that it locks you into
01:24 an idea even if that idea doesn't suit the current period, plus you take your stipulations
01:29 and run them into the ground.
01:30 The only ones that really make sense are Money, the Bank and the Royal Rumble, but Hell in
01:33 a Cell, Elimination Chamber, TLC, Extreme Rules and who knows what else are so retroactively
01:38 fitting to what WWE needs that these matches lose their fear, especially The Cell. Remember
01:43 when that one was first rolled out, people were terrified of it? Now it's just something
01:47 in June.
01:48 Now to be fair, WWE is set to reduce these in 2022, so we shall wait and see, but the
01:53 best stories build to these insane affairs and aren't just fitted in because that's
01:56 what the calendar says.
01:57 8. Really Long Pay-Per-Views
01:59 I was there. WrestleMania 35, New York, it was fun, I was pumped, and seven hours later
02:05 I felt like I'd been given a little bit too much entertainment and I wanted to go
02:08 to sleep. I know it seems silly criticising getting more bang for your buck, but I tell
02:12 you, I didn't find it very fun.
02:13 It's why Mania has now gone over two nights as I suppose WWE can't help themselves,
02:18 and the truth is anything going that long is going to be a challenge. It kinda took
02:22 away from the main event too as by that time there was no energy left and we were all totally
02:26 drained. I personally even think five hour shows push it. So going an extra 120 minutes?
02:31 Sheesh.
02:32 We've seen numbers creeping up ever since the WWE Network came into existence as watch
02:36 time is a much desired stat, but you do have to pace these things out so most people are
02:41 left wanting more. If the fan feels like they've got their fill for life, they ain't never
02:44 gonna return.
02:45 I don't know about you either, but the fear now is that we'll get two back-to-back seven
02:49 hour shows, and I will tell you, I cannot handle this.
02:53 7. Authority Figures
02:54 This was more than fine for a while, truly it was. It kinda grew to prominence during
02:59 the Attitude Era as Mr McMahon dominated proceedings, and I get why WWE wanted to keep going back
03:04 to the idea. We had success with it once, so why not again? Well the simple reason is
03:08 eventually we'd passed the point where it was still a creative endeavour, but on and
03:11 on it went.
03:12 It's even stranger as WWE has found the perfect way to present this role in 2022, and they
03:17 fired him. William Regal was awesome at this in NXT, and while Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville
03:21 do a solid job in their positions, they have now become the cliched evil bosses that try
03:26 and screw over all their employees, and it's just not needed.
03:29 You're also always going to struggle given the connections Vince had to the company,
03:32 Eric Bischoff used to do that role across the way, and Triple H was also tied into the
03:36 family legacy, so when they were being referred to as the top brass, at least you could justify
03:40 it. Really it's become a device that has run its course, so that's an area we could
03:44 discuss far more widely with WWE. Really it's time to hit reset on both Raw and Smackdown,
03:49 given they've been the same for over 20 years.
03:51 6. The Actual Authority
03:55 And surprisingly all this did indeed go past its peak when we last did it on a huge scale.
04:00 I wouldn't call the Authority a failure by any means, but there were issues. The Daniel
04:03 Bryan situation has been well documented, and there was also the fact that while Triple
04:07 H would often get his, Stephanie McMahon never would. The megalomaniac manager has to get
04:12 their conuppance at some stage, otherwise there's no payoff for the audience.
04:15 When the Bryan story was done too, we just took Roman and tried to repeat the magic,
04:19 and we've already talked about that. For better or worse, it just didn't click and
04:22 nobody else really benefited. This wasn't a Steve Austin or The Rock situation who did
04:26 come out the other side bigger than they were going in. So it was just something to do because
04:30 we did it before, or a structure we knew how to work around and within, and again, I don't
04:34 want to keep going on about it, sometimes you just gotta do something new.
04:37 5. Name Changes
04:39 I really don't care about this. I have so many real issues in my life I just can't
04:43 bring myself to get mad because WWE changes somebody's name. However, that doesn't
04:48 mean it isn't really stupid, because it is. And look, there is a reason to do it here
04:51 and there. If you've got a fresh-faced superstar and you want to create them in your own image,
04:55 awesome, go nuts, make sense. This isn't what usually happens though, because instead
04:59 we take Walter and we make him Gunther. We tell Matthew Riddle he can't be Matthew
05:03 anymore, Big E Langston loses his surname, and Brom Breaker is secretly a Steiner, but
05:07 don't you dare say it out loud. You've got to treat your audience with respect,
05:11 and this simply doesn't. You're being asked to just go with some flow, even though
05:14 some of the individuals, e.g. Walter, have been long-running champions in the same company.
05:19 It's like me being asked to be called Derek Manpower, which would be my NXT name, if you
05:23 care. You ain't gonna do it though, you're gonna go "shut up, Simon" and then I've
05:27 gotta go cry in my room.
05:28 4. Brand Warfare at the Survivor Series
05:31 Aside from another idea that's simply in need of some freshening up, WWE's decision
05:35 to just cross the lines of the brand split throughout the year has taken the concept
05:38 in November and buried it even before you get there. I mean, how can anyone be that
05:42 excited when we've seen wrestlers jump ship for the past 12 months, while also telling
05:46 us they don't care if they're on Raw or Smackdown? You can't just wave a magic wand
05:49 and say that everyone is now ready to bleed red or blue. It doesn't work, and it falls
05:53 back into that territory of "well we always do this, so we'll do it again". No. There's
05:57 also no stakes to this battle, so why would anybody put their best foot forward? It still
06:01 seems strange this doesn't tie into the Rumble somehow, much as that ties into WrestleMania.
06:05 But hey, it's not gonna happen now. We're too far down the line.
06:09 3. DX Rub
06:10 I'm gonna go out on a limb and say we're probably done with this specific one now.
06:15 Triple H has far more important things to worry about, Shawn Michaels is down in NXT,
06:18 Billy Gunn is with AEW, Road Dogg got let go, and Shawn Waltman is just being a really
06:23 good dude on the indies. So I don't think it's on the cards for a good old while.
06:27 There was this prolonged period though, where almost like clockwork, DX would get back together
06:31 and just wreck the stars of today. It happened to Damian Sandow, The Revival, Elias, we got
06:36 the opposite with Finn Balor and the club, but that was a little bit odd. I get you want
06:39 the big names from yesteryear to try and shine a spotlight on the new guys, but that's never
06:42 what really happens. It just becomes an avenue to do some nostalgia with some rookie being
06:46 merked. Given that Goldberg beat Bobby Lashley only recently, I feel WWE will stick with
06:51 this until this generation becomes the old guard, and then amazingly we'll try and switch
06:55 it. You know what too? It's probably gonna work.
06:58 2. Developmental
06:59 The idea of a wrestling developmental system is a very good one. I suppose this goes back
07:03 to Jim Cornette's vision of what OVW should be, where he taught Greenhorns what it took
07:07 to make it in the WWE, so that when the big leagues needed a new face, they could see
07:11 who was ready to give it a go. Triple H turned this into something else with NXT, even if
07:15 that did morph into a go-to promotion for awesome independent talent, but still. There
07:19 was a production line of guys and girls being prepared for their futures, and the odd success
07:23 would come through. That sentence was the problem however, as it shouldn't be the
07:27 odd success. Some reason WWE seemed to think they were pushing somebody else's talent.
07:32 Before long it literally did become a case of cutting your teeth down in Florida before
07:35 you got some buzz, when Vince McMahon would change everything about you. It begged the
07:39 question what the point of all this preamble was, and honestly, it helped nobody. Talent
07:43 felt like they were being misused, the powers that be thought they knew better. It was a
07:46 mess. It's why NXT 2.0 will hopefully breed better results, but even then, the checklist
07:51 for what makes a WWE superstar is now so specific, it takes away a lot of the fun wrestling is
07:56 all about.
07:57 Really, I could have summed this up in one sentence, let's just hope with all our hearts
08:00 Bron Breaker smashes it, otherwise, rut-row.
08:04 1. Scripted Promos
08:06 WWE began scripting their promos somewhere around the year 2000. You know what, good
08:11 for them. If somebody needs a helping hand, this should be on offer, and even Bryan Danielson
08:15 said recently he enjoyed the process. The problem is that this became mandatory for
08:19 everyone, and that's just silly. Some birds can't have their wings clipped, they need
08:23 to fly. Instead you had to break through the ceiling to get this honour, like a John Cena,
08:27 but even then he was somewhat tied. His position just meant he could riff with the material
08:31 and get away with it. When you have someone like Steve Austin saying he likely wouldn't
08:34 have been the star he was if he had to go through this though, how is that not enough?
08:38 Some of these scripts are bizarre too and make human beings sound like they've come
08:41 from another planet, and that's just not relatable. I don't think we need to draw
08:44 a line under them entirely, but picking and choosing our moments would be appreciated.
08:48 I think AEW has shown that you can get some true magic when the cuffs are off, and there's
08:52 plenty of WWE employees who could do this too, they're just not allowed. I find that
08:57 quite odd.
08:58 Know of any other bad WWE ideas that lasted for years? Make sure you let us know in the
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09:13 My name is Simon from WhatCulture, thank you very much for joining me as always, and I
09:16 look forward to talking to you again very very soon.