Dispatches from the Lake: Quality vs Quantity

Will feuds come out of this fracas? Recent history says no.
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Can we all agree that after watching the treading water-fest that was Battleground that there are way too many pay-per-views/special events with the WWE? They had this same problem the last few years. It only really bothered me during that stretch of fall where we would get three pay-per-views over the course of what seemed like two weeks, but holy flying spaghetti monster, what the hell has happened since WrestleMania? John Cena won his 15th title, and the Shield broke up. Four people on the show have had narratives move forward. WHY AM I STILL WATCHING THIS?

Truth be told, I haven’t watched the last few RAWs, and I’ve been nuts with the real life that I haven’t had a chance to sit down with everyone’s favorite recap-fest, Superstars. I usually carve out anywhere from five to ten hours for wrestling in any given week. I’ve got RAW, NXT, Superstars, and then random other stuff. On a special event week, that jumps up three hours. That is a ridiculous amount of time to fill.

I feel your pain, WWE. I'm sympathetic to your plight. It’s hard to come with fresh stuff for that much TV time, but you could at least look like you’re trying? If you wanted to focus on the build to SummerSlam, why not try something new with Battleground? Why not do a tournament for the Intercontinental Title that fills the whole show? You’re not worried about buy rates for pay-per-view anymore, so why not experiment a bit? Then, the RAW episodes leading to Battleground could have dedicated some of their time to play in matches for the bracket. Or hell, you could have used time on Smackdown, Main Event, or Superstars for play in matches. You could have drawn some eyes over to the secondary shows and to the Network.

But getting back to the event, what really makes me nuts is that there were potential feuds aplenty during the battle royale last night, but I can pretty much guarantee that none of them will be followed up on. With all this time to fill, all the great talent they have, WWE will drop the ball. That’s not me wanting them to. That’s me looking at the years of evidence and making an educated guess. Remember when two guys had a rivalry, it was more than just oh, these two have fought on every show of ours for the last thousand years? Stuff used to happen, and that’s honestly all I’m asking for, STUFF. It doesn’t even have to be good. Just create a plot beyond "John Cena wins, lol," and advance that each week leading up to your big shows. THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.

Also, if Cena dares to call a show as static and status-quo-tastic as last night’s change, I’m driving down to Tampa and razing his giant, empty, coke dealer compound to the ground. Change? CHANGE? Are you kidding me? When he said that during his post show interview, I’m pretty sure I had a rage stroke. Cena isn’t Superman. He’s Bizarro. Take anything that comes out of his stupid face in that context.

The whole point here is if WWE is only going to treat the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, and SummerSlam like they’re important, then get rid of the rest of them. They’re pointless. Remember Survivor Series last year? They ran the entire show again on RAW the following night. Thanks for making me feel like an idiot for plunking down my hard earned cash for a show I could have watched for free the next day. If the script for RAW is the script from the previous night’s event, then get rid of the event.

I’ve said this in my Superstars reports, but I really think it needs to be repeated ad nauseam. WWE, you have a locker room filled with talent. USE IT. Let’s get to the promise of actual change that WrestleMania promised a few months ago, because I’m running out of reasons why I’m still bothering with anything outside of NXT.