Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Did WWE REALLY Reboot Team Hell No's Story Arc Last Night?

Didn't we already see disgruntled Daniel Bryan?
Photo Credit: WWE.com
Hey, remember when Daniel Bryan and Kane got over their pettiness and actually formed a bond in friendship? Yeah, good times were had by all who stuck with the story of them being uneasy allies forced together by their anger management therapy but becoming real, actual best friends through the process. It felt like there was no more bickering between the two, especially in the face of the threat posed by The Shield and then Rhodes Scholars.

Except last night, Bryan was there to blame Kane for losing their non-title match to Rhodes Scholars, and they were back to arguing amongst themselves like petulant manchildren. I'm sorry, didn't we already see this part of the story? Why are we on reruns? Is it because WWE is so chronically inept at spinning yarns that they don't seem to care? Are they panicking because they want RATINGZ????

In all honesty, I think the reason they're rebooting the whole thing, from the tension back to having Dr. Shelby come back for a "4 month progress report" is that they want to catch the crowd up that's coming back for Mania season. It makes sense from a total eyeballs-on-the-screen standpoint, because hey, gotta get the people who stopped watching after SummerSlam a primer, right? Well, that's all well and good except for two reasons.

One, you can't really undo story elements just for convenience's sake. It'd be like the Hobbits being back at the Prancing Pony after getting Frodo to Rivendell because Tolkien wanted to hammer home what happened at Weathertop again for fear that the reader might have scanned through his requisite 20 pages of describing the goddamn foliage. It doesn't make sense from a character standpoint at all, unless you're saying that all the growth Bryan and Kane went through in November and December was fake.

Second, and here's the most important one, THAT'S WHAT FUCKING RECAPS ARE FOR. For a company that is quick to recap events that happened twelve seconds prior, they really don't hit story points well for anything that doesn't involve CM Punk, The Rock, or petulant trust fund baby John Cena. Is there any reason why Cena dropping feces on Dolph Ziggler and AJ Lee is worth showing a billion times, but recapping in earnest the relationship between Kane and Bryan isn't?

Then again, it's not like Team Hell No hasn't gotten that treatment in the past. I vividly remember their travails being documented by the production team. So why is it that we don't get continuation on their growth now? Do they think that the seasonal New Year-to-Mania fans can't dive right in and catch up with storyline developments with recapping? I call bullshit on that assumption.

Wrestling is an entertainment form built on people ducking out and diving back in. If it wasn't, companies would run seasonal schedules with an offseason. It's an unprecedented artform compared to every other medium it gets compared to, and it provides unique challenges and problems. When you tell a story, you stick to it. People aren't going to not watch just because they're diving in midstream. If that was the case, there'd be very few new wrestling fans ever.

Then again, it's not like WWE is a company known for great storytelling otherwise. Still, it's an especially egregious offense to reboot a story in the middle of it. Bryan and Kane deserve better. Even if the segments are entertaining (and I have no doubt they will be), the fact that we will more than likely have seen them before will take something away from them. I know we're supposed to sweep it under the rug cuz "it's just wrestling," but maybe we should demand better from all wrestling companies. Only then will the form get the respect it deserves, but I think that's a whole other can of worms that deserves its own post.