There comes a time in one’s viewership of WWE that one begins to question the point of said viewership. Wrestling, at its very best, is a weird and maniacal entertainment medium with stunts and no stunt doubles, acting and no actors, and fighting with no fighters, and yet it somehow works when tied together with a story that almost anyone can get behind. Without that story, nothing else has changed, but the absurdity of professional wrestling is no longer obscured by something tangible or compelling. It just is. 

There are times where it feels like the support of the product isn’t for creative but the cast, justifying quality of everything based on just a handful of the ingredients and the work put in. The mother sauce is still spoiled, recycled gloop that would have been fine when it was used the first time many years ago. There are new and exciting ingredients added to the mix, an attempt to obscure the fact that the entire recipe needs an overhaul, but it doesn’t change the feeling at the end of its consumption. Nothing was achieved, no movement was made, everything of importance is saved for shows that matter [those with state sponsorship]. 

WWE is at a point where it is charging more than it has ever done for tickets, always has some form of media availability to tout its superiority in both sports and entertainment. But that’s only when the world and its sponsors are watching. There is a tangible sense of, “Let’s get this show out of the way so we can get to the good bit,” and it’s quite grating that, even in writing this, it will be accepted and lauded by those who blindly parade a company that exploits them. There is no reason for any weekly show, let alone a go-home show, to feel so shallow. 

It feels as though there could be a weekly unraveling of stories, characters and interpersonal dynamics; organic reactions, catalytic plot points, and real tangible development. We could be reading into the smallest dialogue in the days between shows, trying to unearth where the story is headed only to be genuinely and earnestly surprised by whatever the result winds up being. Everything is predictable, down to the fact that there will be at least one secondary finisher near-fall, followed by another secondary finisher near-fall, followed by a primary finisher ending the match for whomever the victor. And not in a good, “Oh I can see where this is going, that’s cool,” way. Rather a, “Oh yeah I’ve seen this one before, get a new idea please,” way.

Happy Halloween!

Written by Max Everett