WWE is so busy selling the Network, it doesn’t bother selling matches.
But the main event of this weekend’s Sunday Night Raw has my rapt attention. The result really means something.
If the babyfaces win, the heels stop running the promotion.
I usually root for the heels. Not this time. GO, TEAM CENA!
It’s been written a billion times that the evil owner/GM/authority figure who tries to throw askew the company’s competitive balance hasn’t worked since MISTER MCMAHON circa 1997. He’s still around. But he’s kind of a wax figure now.
The first time, it was shocking because it had never been done. But mostly it was shocking because an innocuous announcer that was (however unintentionally) a borderline comedy figure morphed into a convincing Satan.
Turns out he’d been practicing behind the scenes for years.
Since then, it couldn’t be done first and couldn’t be done better. So, it should not have been done again, period.
Instead, it was done ad nauseam. Never worse than by TNA’s Dixie Carter, but never good.
It’s lazy, easy (but not good) scriptwriting: Underdogs with heart battle for what’s right against corrupt administration. The people take on THE MAN.
Except top babyfaces aren’t always supposed to be mere underdogs with heart. They’re supposed to be larger than life.
When John Cena’s team kept getting laid out, what was larger than life about that?
When the “evil owner” storyline flops, all it does is create profound gaps in logic.
Why would athletes bang their heads against a wall competing in a sport where achievement comes through currying favor, manipulation of results and flat-out dishonesty? (Actually, real sports are like that occasionally. They just hide it well. It would be neat if that were WWE’s hidden message. It’s not.)
More important, why would fans watch a sport like that?
I’ve been wondering about that last part myself. So have a lot of the citizenry.
More people used to watch wrestling than currently watch wrestling. Have I ever mentioned that?
