27 Sept 2015

Why I’m Cancelling the WWE Network . . . for now.


After this week’s Monday Night Raw I made the decision to cancel the WWE Network. I can usually put my trust in the company with storylines. In the past the road they’ve been on has been shaky but I’ve stuck it out, often with scant reward. But recent events culminated in an ideology I can’t be a party to. WWE doesn’t seem to care about Raw’s pathetic weekly ratings so the only place to make a stand is by removing my payment of 9.99.
The bone of my contention is the deformation of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. We all get that John Cena is the company’s main guy. I acknowledge without any gripes that this has been his year. He’s given the US Title credibility and in the process put over performers such as Cesaro and Kevin Owens. This should have existed while the main title looked strong and its champ – the supreme Seth Rollins – was given legitimacy. Never the twain shall meet.
But they did meet. There could have been other ways to get the belt back to Cena, beforehand they could have afforded Rollins one clean win over Super Cena. Now it is unclear the benefit of the whole Cena/Rollins program. Cena certainly doesn’t need a boost. It’s etched in the fans’ minds that he is the man that runs the place. All it’s done has made the World Champ looking like he’s only good enough to be top of the mid-card.
This is diabolical. Rollins on the mic has no equal right now, and in-ring he’s shown signs he could be not just the greatest of this generation but of all time. His reward for this is a match against Kane going into Hell in a Cell with a belt that’s now worthless.
This poor writing from WWE Creative – the best example of an oxymoron ever – will be masked by the interest in the PPV. Thanks to Undertaker and Brock Lesnar being on duty it’ll appear to be a successful event. In reality it will paper over the cracks.
This is the future of WWE: Poorly managed talent and badly written stories. But as long as the t-shirt sales stay up, kids are buying toys, and the Network bounces around 1.2m subscribers, Vince won’t make a change. Until then I won’t be sending him my ten British pounds each month.
Okay, I’ll probably crack before then. Maybe. Definitely Maybe.

No comments:

Post a Comment