 |
| Riddle, shown here booting another WWE signee Keith Lee, is going to WWE, but it's not good for wrestling Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
Honestly, Riddle-to-WWE was always going to be the endgame. The first time his name bubbled to the surface of pro wrestling circles was when he was part of the infamous Jessicka Havok racist tweet tryout, the one that ultimately netted WWE Johnny Gargano, Oney Lorcan, Ember Moon, The Mighty, and of course, Drew Gulak. The reason it didn't happen sooner, for whatever reason, is irrelevant. It would've been a shock had he not gotten there. Still, his signing is symptomatic of a whole other problem. WWE is sponging talent from the indies and only letting guys go they don't want around. Even people who don't want to be there like Neville are stuck waiting out their contracts, while the cycle of taking up the best of what the indies and other smaller corporate-backed promotions have to offer.
Take for example Kassius Ohno, who, as Chris Hero, was one of Riddle's biggest rivals on the indies before he was re-signed to WWE at the beginning of 2017. Ohno's original run in NXT ended in disappointment as he was released for reasons that are nebulous. While some blamed him for whatever reason, I choose to go with the reason any male performer gets released from NXT; he ran afoul of Terry Taylor or some shit. No matter what the real reason was, he went back to the indies and had one of the finest runs in the scene's history. It'll probably be the run by which all returning indie heroes (no pun intended, I swear) from WWE will be judged if they ever get their releases from said company. Anyway, after becoming the rock upon which EVOLVE rebuilt itself, WWE took an interest to him again. Could it be the company was ready to redeem the wrongs it had done by one of the greatest indie wrestlers of all-time?
LOL, no, Ohno has pretty much been NXT enhancement fodder since coming back. Outside of his return Takeover, where he competed in a big multiperson tag match against SANitY, his appearances have either been to beat guys like Fabian Aichner on weekly TV to stay strong or to put over guys like Lars Sullivan and Velveteen Dream in the opening matches of Takeover events. I don't have anything against either wrestler, but if that's all you have for Chris Goddamn Hero, then why sign him in the first place? You could say he "secured the bag" as the kids say, but how much could a wrestler possibly earn in NXT compared to the indies? It's not like WWE shunted him to the main roster right away, which is probably what it should've done for a wrestler of his age and experience level. However, Ohno's fate feels less cruel than some others.
Take for example The Authors of Pain, who ran amok on NXT's tag division during the second stage of said subset's renaissance. They got to the main roster, lost their mouthpiece in Paul Ellering, and have been floating aimlessly. The Revival got bit by the injury bug, but even when both were healthy, they haven't gotten to the level of promise they showed in NXT. Andrade Cien Almas got the hype before debuting on Smackdown before waiting a whole two months before his first program with... Sin Cara on the Extreme Rules pre-show? Samoa Joe, The Bar, Zack Ryder, and Chad Gable are all MIA. The Riott Squad is on TV mainly to work background six-man tags. Oney Lorcan was removed from a godfather role in EVOLVE and Beyond Wrestling to be glorified enhancement talent before getting onto his first Takeover nearly three years after being signed. Rhea Ripley competed in the inaugural Mae Young Classic, and her next singles match on NXT television will be... the second Mae Young Classic. Hell, the 205 Live roster is stacked with world-class talent that is shunted away in front of dead crowds on a Network exclusive whose viewership is way below even the people who watch the first-run programming on cable live (let alone via Hulu or DVR later on).
WWE has so much talent that it could probably have man a second televised promotion with just the wrestlers who aren't in programs or who aren't on television even. That problem isn't being alleviated anytime soon with all these new signings, because no one is getting released. Either you have to not pan out before you get to NXT weekly or you have to be a massive fuck-up like Enzo Amore or Colin Cassady to get your release from the company. Meanwhile, main roster television is five hours a week, which seems like a lot, but once you realize how much time WWE dedicates to the people it's actually pushing like Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan, Alexa Bliss, Seth Rollins, the other main wrestlers, and of course, the McMahons, it leaves little time for the broader roster to get theirs. The problem becomes especially egregious when the company insists on giving people like Kane or Randy Orton screen time and valuable angles that it could be using on more interesting wrestlers. NXT allocates time better, but the amount of wrestlers at the Performance Center right now compared to the TV time available between Takeover events feels disproportionate.
So WWE has a time budgeting problem, so it should probably cool it on the signings, right? Well, if you operate in good faith that WWE is trying to build a robust narrative with the best wrestlers in the world, you get baffled by the burgeoning roster. But WWE is not trying to build a robust narrative with the best wrestlers in the world. It is trying to gobble up anyone who can get over so it doesn't have to see competition spring up in front of it. That's why it operates the way it does in England, and that's why it's cooperating with Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan. Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, and Paul Levesque want worldwide wrestling hegemony, and they won't stop until they have it.
WWE gained that dominance in America after it purchased both World Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling in 2001, and after exhausting that supply, it decided it was going to develop talent almost solely from within using its developmental territories. At that time, no indie promotion had the kind of national reach that could threaten WWE even superficially, and both puroresu and lucha libre relied on tape trading rather than easily-accessible streaming. Once Sinclair bought Ring of Honor and Japanese, Mexican, and other foreign companies could stream their product, that's when the WWE philosophy in signing indie standouts and non-American wrestlers changed. Even though no company has come close to WWE's market penetration yet, it hasn't stopped the McMahons from using monopoly tactics under the guise of playing defense to prevent anyone from even getting close.
So because WWE is afraid of competition, it keeps an inordinate number of wrestlers on retainer. The end result is that the "dream" of signing with the big boys ends up costing the average performer a huge dip in probability of getting big exposure, all while working fewer dates on tape while under contract with Titan than they did before signing. Meanwhile, indie promotions scramble to fill spots left by the big stars with local trainees who may or may not be ready for primetime because WWE just doesn't release anyone into the ecosystem to compensate for what it takes. That's why, even if it was his goal all along, Matt Riddle signing with WWE hurts so bad. It's not that he'll suffer. He might not because WWE just fuckin' loves MMA dudes and he's got good size with a frame to fill it out. But he's not guaranteed to be a CM Punk/Tyler Black/Bryan Danielson success story because so many other indie standouts have signed in that mold.
It used to be that if your favorite indie guy signed with WWE, you could be happy for them making money and doing their thing in front of a ton of people. WWE has now sucked that bit of optimism out of the process. That's the sign of sickness in the industry. WWE won't see it, because it's making all the profits. But unless you happen to be a fan of the wrestler who does break through the malaise or you're just happy seeing that favorite wrestler a couple of times a year in the Mae Young Classic or wrestle once every two or three weeks on 205 Live, then man, it's a sign that wrestling isn't in a good spot even if WWE is.
1 - My guess is, the something that "changed" was the reaction to Bloodsport, which probably superseded any sort of concerns WWE had about his proclivity for weed.
