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| This result was leaked hours before it happened on Reddit Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Add "getting spoilers for WWE pay-per-views" to the list of reasons why people shouldn't want to go to Reddit. Redditor Dolphins1925 has been giving out the results to matches for every WWE PPV event since Elimination Chamber in predictions threads. This was first brought to my attention Sunday during Money in the Bank by TWB superfan @bdbdbdbd. I didn't follow up on it, because I wanted to be surprised at the results happening. But yeah, I had no idea that this person was leaking info with 100% accuracy for the last five events.
Honestly though, as with most actions, it's not the leaking that intrigues me, but the why behind it. Wrestling is not an artform where the sheer results even matter most of the time. There are shining moments where the win or loss is what gives it definition, but most of the time, it's about the story, or about how they arrive at the decision. I think the leak itself illuminates the demand that most fans have for results, because let's face it, whether they matter or not in the long run is irrelevant to discussing them now since many fans get worked up by them in the moment. It's a fleeting market, but it's consistent. I think there's a great discussion to be had on why folks care about wins and losses so much to be had on the backdrop of this leak, but I'm not sure the right people to have it are in the correct frame of mind.
Of course, it'll be intriguing to see WWE's response to the whole thing. According to the Deadspin piece, they were not aware of it until Sunday or Monday. However, according to Dave Meltzer on his podcast, WWE has known about this for a few months and they don't care. To me, that's way more interesting than the actual leaks. If Meltzer's sources about the Redditor's sources are correct, and WWE doesn't care about results getting leaked, it throws the entire narrative of kayfabe on its head. It's an implicit admission by the company that the result doesn't matter, it's how they get there.
But that raises an even more frightening consequence that if they're more focused on how they get there, it only puts more of an intense spotlight on how terrible WWE Creative is as a collective body. The not caring about wins and losses shines through in their bullshit parity booking, but if they're not putting effort into the finishes themselves, and if they're not doing a good job telling the stories, then what the fuck are they doing in Stamford? Whether it's a fault of the writers, Vince McMahon being too much of a control freak, or something in between the two is irrelevant.
Of course, there's a huge caveat at play here. Talking about sources who are dishing about sources is problematic because now, we're diving into a whole rabbit hole of poring through anonymous sources, especially when Dolphins1925's source has a hundred percent accuracy rate and any anonymous sources that the dirt sheets have are at a clip lower than that, no matter what percentage. Barry Petchesky, the writer at Deadspin, actually reached out to WWE and got the shut down answer at first. Then, they replied glibly about Dolphins1925 having "Nostradamus" levels of accuracy. Then again, do you think that they would speak on the record about their scripts leaking? Furthermore, the Site That Shall Not Be Linked (via Cageside Seats) is reporting that WWE officials are now pissed at the leaks, and that they are looking to crack down on them. So now you three sources all reporting three different things about how the company feels about the leakage. And you wonder why I don't trust dirt sheets.
Either way, I feel like this is the biggest story to hit the mainstream about wrestling since, well, He Who Shall Not Be Named, if only because it could be the final thing that allows WWE to let go of the wrong sporting tropes they've clung to for so long. Of course, letting PPV finishes leak is a bad business practice anyway, and I'd hope that they'd sew it up. Again, I'm a process over results guy, but that doesn't mean there isn't something for the element of surprise. This could end up being a signpost moment for WWE if they handle it right, but then again, asking blind faith for WWE to handle something correctly is a risky proposition.
