I really don’t think WWE is caring about #SpeakingOut allegation and the booking of Riddle.
They’ve brought Velveteen Dream back to TV. They brought back Austin Theory. They’ve hired Josh Briggs.
In regards to Riddle I get the impression that they believe his side of the story. It would be nice if there was more transparency, however there is a court case going on right now, so who knows whats allowed to be put out there publicly.
The dream situation has been handled poorly, I agree. If he’s innocent they should tell the public. If he’s guilty, he should be fired.
What did Austin Theory do? I heard he was suspended, but I wasn’t aware he was apart of the SpeakingOut Movement.
Thanks for posting. Who is the person tweeting? I’m assuming someone in the business?
She’s a worker, relaying what was told to her.
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This is the ‘NXT problem’. Any call-up is likely to be ‘the guy’ on NXT but when introduced to the main roster they cannot all be ‘the guy’ - in fact, very much not.
The problem is weekly television and a lack of enhancement matches but we don’t really want to go back to those days. As such, you can’t have NXT champions not just be ‘a guy’
All this being said - Keith Lee beat Orton. It’s very reminiscent of Kevin Owens beating John Cena, isn’t it?
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No it is not. Orton gets beaten on a regular basis Cena not as much.
I’ll take enhancement matches where guys win and lose over fuck finishes, DQs and no contests. At least with enhancement matches people get built
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That is the issue which is made worse because they have positioned NXT as being essentially the same level as the “main roster”. It also hurts when they do name changes or gimmick changes from one to the other, as fans already know the character in NXT. If NXT were presented as developmental and the understanding was that basically everyone on the main roster was above NXT, and WWE could tell long term stories call ups would work better, because guys could work their way up the card over time. But that isn’t really how either roster functions. The main roster doesn’t have guys gradually climb the ladder, you are either a top guy, a midcard guy, or a bottom guy. Occasionally someone will jump up rapidly through fan support, but there is never really a story of a guy who starts at the bottom, accumulates wins, and moves up the card.
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Isn’t beating up jobbers how they built up Strowman? He’s one of the few guys that did climb the ladder, even though they waited until he was cold to pull the trigger. Why can’t they just repeat that? Instead, people get slotted into a role, screw job finish after screw job finish, until they blend into the background. No wins, no losses, no stars, no compelling characters.
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Gotta say, I’m very happy that there’s websites that track this stuff now.
Since the blowoff match to the Kofi feud one year and one week ago, Randy Orton has taken a pinfall, submission, or TKO in only 3 singles matches - Edge at Mania, McIntyre at Summerslam, and Keith Lee at Payback. Before the Kofi feud, Orton didn’t lose any one on one matches going back to AJ Styles at Wrestlemania 35.
Getting a win over Orton is substantive at this point of his career and people positioned high on the card are the only ones who do it.
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Strowman never had an NXT run to speak of. He’s the exception.
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What’s wrong with squash matches? I thought the East Hampton Polo Boys were a lot of fun. There’s certainly no shortage of guys in the roster who can afford to get squashed. What are those Forgotten Sons doing? I would love to watch Keith Lee kill all three of those clowns in singles matches and inevitably get the 3-on-1 win as well. Sure it kills those guys but who cares? They’re going nowhere anyway; might as well use them to enhance someone else.
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I dont see why the two that didn’t do anything wrong should be squashed due to their association with Rykar. I’m totally cool with squash matches, but dont waste main roster talent when you can just use random jobbers.
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But it’s not just squash matches - it’s the oversaturation of the 3 hour Raw era. You burn through matchups so quickly that they have to lose much sooner than they should because you have to put them against somebody much quicker than you would have a decade ago - let alone in the golden era.
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The “jobber to the stars” era seems to be over, at least in WWE. It’s tough for them to build a wrestler who can move back and forth seamlessly between being in the “IC Title Division” and losing competitive matches to top stars like Jake Roberts or Rick Rude used to do.
The guys who do that today either become Dolph Ziggler – who has done it so long that it’s no longer effective – or they get the crowd behind them too much (Kofi, Zayn, Owens, Cesaro) and then said crowd is just pissed off when they lose and go back to the midcard. And it’s even harder now with NXT guys who have been presented as main eventers of months if not years… and even tougher if they were high-profile indy/international guys to begin with.
P.S.: This isn’t meant to absolve WWE from responsibility in any way. It’s their job to sign, train, build and book talent to be credible stars.
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If we look at things, it isn’t just an NXT call up problem though. Most signings that go to the main roster are made to look like dorks.
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It’s the debut. Vince & co think about the pop they’ll get and book them strong over an established guy and then don’t know where to go from there.
New guys like Braun are allowed to get over because they’re largely unknown.
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I think that’s a big thing - guys are on the main roster for way too long and have nothing left to do.
There has been so little turnover and talent is resigned just so they don’t go other places.
It’s a big problem because they waste years with some guys in NXT and burn through a lot of good stories and a lot of bumps just because there is no space or movement on the main roster.
That is definitely true if you look at the top guys ever their runs were generally short by the standards of today. Just look at how many guys today are like 10+ time champion or triple crown champ and it means little because the have just been around forever.