Vince Russo was on the Steve Austin Show this week talking his usual talking point of the WWE relenting to its’ Internet fanbase and how wrong that is. I agree with aspects of this, but only so much as that there is certainly an Internet fanbase that blindly wants their favorites pushed and in position to have good matches no matter the implications of it – think Daniel Bryan getting an immediate push to the top versus the on-screen hazing that led to him being the most over guy in the world.
There is an insane amount of good current wrestling available to any fan these days, from WWE TV matches to VOD services to YouTube and beyond. But what the Internet fan – I *THINK* – might prefer more than a bunch of good wrestling, which is something they are absolutely spoiled on, is good week-to-week storytelling and interesting characters. NXT has a bunch of great wrestling talent that Vince Russo would probably scoff at, but it also has character build and week-to-week stories that he’d probably be totally into. Week-to-week NXT TV matches aren’t always great, but they move stories forward, guys are over, and everything seems to matter. With Russo’s usual talking points, I assume he doesn’t watch it.
The WWE business model has changed… strategic sponsorships, TV deals, and digital content trump week-to-week TV ratings and the product being “hot.” A common trope of the IWC is clamoring the WWE to “go back” to the Attitude Era, but as with a lot of things in the world, discussion of that is typically black-and-white and the gray areas aren’t paid attention to. The wrestling in the Attitude Era for the most part stunk, but the characters were over, TV ratings were up, and the merchandise was everywhere. And I posit that more than athletic indy talent being pushed, that that’s all anyone really wants – over characters, storytelling that matters, and so forth. Remember when Ryback was the most over guy in the company??
There are folks who think the Roman Reigns push sucks because he’s not a good wrestler or longform talker, but I think the response to him would be a lot more positive if his push wasn’t a guarantee that the stale way WWE pushes guys and tells stories isn’t going to change anytime soon. Roman the Destroyer, whether he was in the Shield or kicking Triple H’s ass at TLC, was a guy folks could get behind. Roman the Tater Tots Catchphrase Guy or Roman the Guy Who Got his Nose Broken isn’t going to cut it.
In the end, all wrestling fans really want is a mixture of decent wrestling, occasional great wrestling, and interesting characters. Right? Right!? Modern day WWE, with an incredibly talented roster filled with great wrestlers and characters alike, is giving us a lot of wrestling beyond decent – it’s a lot of GOOD wrestling – but it doesn’t feel right. And that’s because the characters aren’t interesting or over. And that’s where Russo has his point.
I say all this because WWE TV was filled with so much good TV wrestling this week that it’s sad to say the TV isn’t firing on all cylinders right now – and it isn’t. We got Finn Balor vs. Neville, Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks twice, AJ Styles running around, random C-level Zack Ryder matches that are legit great, and a Rusev/Sheamus vs. Usos tag that I had to convince myself not to put on here.
But it was Dean Ambrose and Kevin Owens who had my favorite match this week.
Ambrose and Owens are two of the best “characters” to come out of the current wave of guys known for their indy work coming to the WWE. And so while they had a really, really good match on SmackDown, it was the added aspect of their character work that pushed this match from really good to great.
SmackDown was seriously great this week. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks was WAY better than their RAW match and was getting to the level of their TakeOver title match before the Charlotte run-in, Rusev/Sheamus vs. The Usos was really good, and AJ Styles vs. Kofi Kingston was a lot of fun.
But this match stood out. Why? Characters, man.
This had all the stuff you want in a good wrestling match – Ambrose’s selling of the ribs, teases of Ambrose’s finisher, Owens playing a monster and Ambrose an underdog, everything building to a big finish.
But outside of that you have Dean Ambrose, who is finally being pushed to his strengths. He’s the crazy underdog who never stops fighting. He’s the guy who had the audacity to challenge Brock Lesnar to a Street Fight at WrestleMania. He’s a guy who’s really, really hurt, and he comes into this match making everybody constantly know he’s really, really hurt.
Then you have Kevin Owens, who is a guy WWE clearly trusts to mostly do what he wants, who is such a bully toolbag that he can have great matches whether he’s talking shit during chinlocks on Jack Swagger during WWE Main Event or main eventing SmackDown, playing his part as the dickhead who’s going to tear apart the everyman hero Dean Ambrose.
And so, this match is really good. But both these guys’ story development wills it to being really great.
Vince Russo has a point. But so does the Internet. It ain’t all black-and-white. Here’s the gray area match that proves it.
