What do you think is the biggest way WWE has changed for the better? Let us know in the comments!
There are loads of reasons WWE is not as good as it once was but what are some ways that the company has changed for the better? Adam Blampied is running down ten of them.
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
There are loads of reasons WWE is not as good as it once was but what are some ways that the company has changed for the better? Adam Blampied is running down ten of them.
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Yes, you read the title of the video correctly. Despite WWE doing their level best to drive
00:05away as many of their diehard fans as they could in 2021, despite committing a babality
00:09on the greatest part of their product, despite releasing swathes of talent, some of whom
00:13fans had hoped would be the future of the company, and despite the abject losses of
00:17a group literally called The New Day on a show literally called Day One, which is on
00:22the nose as metaphors get, we're starting this year with a purely positive WWE list.
00:27Why? Well, partly because Oli Davis told me to, and who am I to argue with my sinewy
00:31weak-tea-loving, incredibly intense content overlord, but also to provide a much-needed
00:35sense of balance and something to anchor our continued 2022 coverage of a wrestling company
00:40that otherwise makes supporting it sincerely tricky. Whether it's the golden era of the
00:4480s, the vibrancy of the Attitude Era, or the lunacy of ruthless aggression, WWE fans
00:49consistently compare the Big Dub to its past glories. And yes, in many ways the current
00:53product is worse, but it's always worth remembering that WWE has improved themselves
00:57in a number of different ways over the past decade. How many ways? Well, I'm Adam Haling
01:02from PartsFarKnown, and here are 10 ways WWE have changed for the better.
01:06And do you know the one way you can help us change for the better? It's by liking and
01:11subscribing. It helps us get bigger and better and 2022 and other buzzwords. Subscribe, please.
01:2210. Actual Finishes
01:23Mostly. The 80s were a hell of a time to be a wrestling fan. The rock and wrestling connection,
01:28the numerous amazing characters that made up the mid-card to Hulkamania, the incredibly
01:32deep tag division, those were all good. But do you know what was also synonymous with
01:36wrestling in the 80s? No f***ers ever losing. Seriously, for modern fans who've got used
01:41to a satisfying match conclusion on pay-per-view, 80s WWE is borderline unwatchable, with at
01:47least 75% of matches ending with the old standard double count-out followed by brawl to the
01:52f***ing back. Guys like Roddy Piper and Jim Duggan refusing to ever do a job. Even the
01:57Attitude Era was plagued with endless DQs and run-ins. It's why we get up in arms over
02:01finishes like Rhea Ripley vs Charlotte Hell in a Cell last year or The Fiend vs Seth Rollins
02:05because they're far and away the outliers in this day and age. Say what you want about
02:09some of the more questionable pay-per-view results we get today, at least WWE don't end
02:13the main event of WrestleMania on a f***ing DQ anymore. Here's looking at you, WrestleMania
02:178, you monstrous turd.
02:19And speaking of WrestleMania, number 9, Two Night WrestleManias. Please, please, please,
02:24please, please, please WWE keep the Two Night WrestleMania forever. For Manias 32-35, WWE's
02:32granddaddy of them all lost its goddamn mind in its old age, with each show clocking it
02:36at an unwatchable 5 f***ing hours, not even taking the pre-show into account. That is
02:41too much wrestling for one sitting. Please, and thank you, and f*** you. For four straight
02:47years, WrestleMania was an exhausting slog that dampened even the most hardcore fan's
02:51enthusiasm for even the dreamiest of dream matches. The prospect of instead having two
02:55three-hour shows to blow off the year's feud is an absolute godsend. Allows for multiple
03:00main events, affording that prestigious platform to stars who otherwise wouldn't receive it,
03:04gives extra time to certain matches that might otherwise be short-changed on a single card,
03:07and gives us a bloody break to recharge our batteries. This is a positive change, please
03:12keep it WWE, we beg of you.
03:148. Better Athletes
03:15Once upon a time in the 1980s, the average WWE midcarder was a barrel-chested, unshaven
03:20man who'd smoke a cigarette to warm up, plod down to the ring, have his high spot
03:24of the match be an arm drag, before wandering away to drink a hotel dry and fight a policeman.
03:29A lot of that was excused, because guys like Jake Roberts or The Ultimate Warrior were
03:32amazing characters, but there's no denying that today's roster is top-to-bottom premier
03:37athletes, and also Omos is there. Even the main event of today, previously the home of
03:41slow giants who taunted more than they tussled, is now whip-fast and crazy agile. The day-one
03:47result is mind-boggling, but you can't deny that all five men gave it socks. Even after
03:51all the releases, WWE's roster is packed to the gills with super-athletes. If only
03:56the big dub would let half of them achieve their full potential, every PPV, sorry, Premium
04:00Live Event, could be the wrestling show of the year.
04:037. A Better Mix of K-Fabe and Reality
04:05Ever since the pipe bomb, reality and fan expectation have been a fundamental part of
04:10WWE's storytelling, the fact isn't always to WWE's liking. Daniel Bryan's road to
04:14WrestleMania 30 was not the plan and let them never convince who it was, but by and large,
04:19the fact that fans are smarter, more opinionated and more willing to enforce their opinions
04:22on the WWE product is a good thing. It gave us The Man Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks vs. Bianca
04:27in the main event of Night One WrestleMania, and numerous other examples of fans forcing
04:31WWE's hand. Compared to previous generations where the fans had next to no say in who was
04:35in the main event, today's product is still occasionally, not always, but occasionally
04:38willing to bend its course based on who the fans decree is most deserving.
04:426. Roman Reigns
04:47And talking about fans receiving their ultimate vindication, we hate to say we told you so,
04:52except no we don't, we love to say we told you so, and after years of the toxic culture
04:56growing and booing around perennially miscast oob babyface Roman Reigns, WWE finally turned
05:01him heel and we f***ing told you so. With the possible exception of Bryan Danielson
05:06and Adam Page, heel Roman Reigns is still, and has been for 17 months, the best thing
05:10in professional wrestling. Genuinely, it feels like WWE hasn't had a character this compelling,
05:15this right place, right time, this big match reliable since Austin or even Hogan. Promos,
05:19wrestling, merch, main events, sheer star power, there's nothing else quite like the
05:23Tribal Chief. God knows who's going to be capable to beat him for the Universal Championship,
05:27which you could argue is a problem, but it's also WWE's problem to solve because whoever
05:31does is going to be a f***ing megastar because of it, unless it's Brock Lesnar. It shouldn't
05:35be him, you guys. Please. Please.
05:38Number 5. More POC champions. Since the inception of the WWE Championship in 1963 right up until
05:442018, which is 55 years for anyone who's not so hot on their Steiner math, there was
05:49precisely one black WWE champion. In the last two years, there have been three. At a time
05:54where AEW's president has found himself embroiled in a Twitter controversy over a perceived
05:58lack of diversity in his top stars, whichever side of that argument you fall on, the same
06:02cannot be levelled at WWE these days. In the last few years, WWE's had a Samoan wrestler
06:07as its biggest star, booked a WrestleMania main event between two black women, crowned
06:10every member of the New Day in one case, literally. It may have taken WWE a long time to become
06:15as diverse as it has, but it's as inclusive a roster as possibly there's ever been in
06:20the history of wrestling, and in terms of motivating the stars of tomorrow, that is
06:23a wonderful thing. Likewise,
06:25Number 4. Fewer stereotypes. Okay, look, finding 10 ways WWE has improved is difficult, to
06:30the point that yes, I'm dedicating an entire entry to congratulating WWE for not being
06:34as offensive as it used to be. Well done WWE, big gold star for you. Among the problematic
06:38tropes that used to be everywhere but are currently nowhere in WWE's product, sneaky
06:42Japanese salt-throwing bastards, black and Samoan people having harder heads than everyone
06:47else, Mexicans riding lawn mowers, people doing blackface, Islamic people summoning
06:51terrorists through prayer, foreigners screaming death to America, and Vince McMahon saying
06:55the N-word on pay-per-view. Sorry, premium live event. Sure, WWE occasionally still showcases
07:01a heel whose main crime is being proud of the country they come from, but by and large,
07:05things are better these days. Mostly. A bit. And speaking of divisions who've received
07:09a million percent more respect than they used to,
07:11Number 3. Women's Wrestling. Cast your minds back 10 years. In 2012, women's wrestling
07:16was an irrelevance. At WrestleMania 28, the only women's match was Beth Phoenix and Eve
07:21Torres vs. Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos. At SummerSlam 2012, there wasn't even a women's
07:27match at all. It was truly the era of the Divas Championship piss break match. In the
07:32years since then, the NXT women's division changed the game, the women's revolution happened,
07:36there have been women's Money in the Bank matches, Royal Rumble, two separate WrestleMania
07:40main events. We have the luxury of complaining that stars like Becky Lynch or Charlotte Flair
07:45win too often on pay-per-view, sorry premium live event, when 10 years ago such a complaint
07:49would be unheard of. By far and away, credible women's wrestling, belts that mean something,
07:54stars capable of shouldering pay-per-views, WWE's women's division is by far the company's
07:58most visible change for the better. But also whatever it's doing with it's women's tag
08:02championships like, Jesus, what the f*** are you doing?
08:05Number 2. A healthier locker room. Ah yes, says The Undertaker, leaning back on the throne
08:10in his ranch, wearing one of his right wing tees and sipping on a cold glass of guns and
08:14cigarettes. The olden days, when men were men. The Undertaker came under fire last year
08:19for bemoaning the fact that WWE's locker room has gone soft, and that nowadays the wrestlers
08:23were more concerned with playing video games and indulging in the more traditional backstage
08:27antics, i.e. getting addicted to pain medication, carrying weapons and lamping each other in
08:31the face. While WWE still fosters a general sense of paranoid misery in it's locker room,
08:36don't fix what isn't broken I guess, at least there's been a significant drop off in drug-addled
08:40macho bulls***. Over the years, a prevalence of high-level athletes and good old-fashioned
08:44nerds has given rise to a locker room that's more focused on clean living and PS5s than
08:49on self-medication and rage. And as DDP himself would say, that's not a bad thing, that's
08:55a good thing.
08:56And number 1. Protecting the wrestlers' brains. WWE doesn't let it's wrestlers crack each
09:01other over the head with steel furniture anymore. Not much more you can say about that really.
09:05Between the wellness policy, a healthier locker room and far more concussion awareness leading
09:08to hard bans on head and brain based offence, hopefully we're going to see far fewer wrestlers
09:13dying in their 60s. I don't really have a joke to follow that bit up, so here's a lovely
09:17picture of a corgi instead. Isn't that lovely?
09:20There are lots of criticisms that can rightfully be hurled in WWE's direction, from their seeming
09:24hatred of tag team wrestling, the women's midcard stuttering recently, the Saudi shows
09:28and just everything else. But in at least this way, WWE has improved light years above
09:35where it used to be. And hell, might as well start the year with as close to a smile as
09:38we can, right? Right?
09:40And that's our list. Let's try and have a positive comment section if that's at all
09:44possible in this day and age. Let us know how you think WWE has improved the most in
09:48recent years. Make sure you subscribe to PartsFun known for more silly wrestling content. And
09:52above all, Jam That Jam. Happy New Year everyone.