Why WWE Wrestlers are Upset With the Company
One thing that has been making the rounds is all the wrestlers that are unhappy with WWE and their positioning or how much they have been pushed over the past few weeks, months or even years. The list is a plethora of very talented wrestlers and some of the biggest names on the roster. The Revival, Tyler Breeze, Cody Rhodes, Tye Dillinger, and now you can add Sasha Banks to that list. What has made me curious about this situation is why is this the case. Why are wrestlers getting upset with the WWE? I think there are a few reasons as to why.
One is the issue of not enough space on the card for every performer. You know what happens when you try to get a space on the card for everyone? You get a seven and a half hour show that you have to sit through. You can’t have that on every single show, hell even four hours is pushing it sometimes. There is a reason that everyone loves Takeovers, and aside from some of the best wrestling we put on by WWE all year, the length is perfect. You get roughly three and a half hours of wrestling and everyone gets plenty of time to show their stuff. And with NXT, you can get away with that. You have five matches and only four titles, and only three in NXT UK. You can’t do that on the main roster, as you have 10 titles that all deserve a chance to show what they can do. And you can’t have every match be a multiman match as that almost defeats the purpose of many instances where someone wants a fair shot at something. I think that their is so much talent in the WWE, and this leads into the next point.
One is the issue of not enough space on the card for every performer. You know what happens when you try to get a space on the card for everyone? You get a seven and a half hour show that you have to sit through. You can’t have that on every single show, hell even four hours is pushing it sometimes. There is a reason that everyone loves Takeovers, and aside from some of the best wrestling we put on by WWE all year, the length is perfect. You get roughly three and a half hours of wrestling and everyone gets plenty of time to show their stuff. And with NXT, you can get away with that. You have five matches and only four titles, and only three in NXT UK. You can’t do that on the main roster, as you have 10 titles that all deserve a chance to show what they can do. And you can’t have every match be a multiman match as that almost defeats the purpose of many instances where someone wants a fair shot at something. I think that their is so much talent in the WWE, and this leads into the next point.
I’ve said this to my friends and they agree. This is the most talented roster in WWE history. You take one look at the men’s singles division and any one of those men could be holding a title above their head and it would be believable. Same with the women’s division and the tag team division. Yes, even the likes of Ascension and Mandy Rose could win a title and be believable. That is not the issue that is making people in WWE upset. The issue is the lack of depth that we are seeing in all the divisions. Think back to when the Riott Squad first came to the main roster. We would see the same match night after night after night including Riott Squad and Naomi, Charlotte Flair, and Becky Lynch. In the build up for Wrestlemania we kept seeing matches on Raw that we weren’t invested in. There was small story progression and then we were at the event itself.
Some insight to how my mind works when thinking about wrestling. As soon as Seth won the Universal Championship from Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 35, as soon as the referee’s hand hit the mat for the count of three, I asked who is the first challenger for the Universal Championship. And that list was small, with Drew McIntyre, Baron Corbin, and that was really it. The main event scene on Raw is so thin right now, you could tear it in half like a sheet of paper. I think there are other wrestlers that could make the jump to the main event level, but that takes time, time WWE doesn’t have. I love all the talent that WWE has, but you can’t just thrust someone like Elias into the main event scene but given time, he could do just that. Look at his match against Rollins at Money in the Bank last year. Elias can hang with the big names, he just has to be built up to fit into that level.
Some insight to how my mind works when thinking about wrestling. As soon as Seth won the Universal Championship from Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 35, as soon as the referee’s hand hit the mat for the count of three, I asked who is the first challenger for the Universal Championship. And that list was small, with Drew McIntyre, Baron Corbin, and that was really it. The main event scene on Raw is so thin right now, you could tear it in half like a sheet of paper. I think there are other wrestlers that could make the jump to the main event level, but that takes time, time WWE doesn’t have. I love all the talent that WWE has, but you can’t just thrust someone like Elias into the main event scene but given time, he could do just that. Look at his match against Rollins at Money in the Bank last year. Elias can hang with the big names, he just has to be built up to fit into that level.
Another thing that you can point to as something that would make the WWE wrestlers upset is seeing the success that other promotions are having. Yes their is the rise of AEW, but I don’t want to focus on them. We will have plenty of stuff about them in weeks to come. I want to focus on the promotions that got to run at one of the world's most famous arenas. Those are Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling. Yes ROH is not on the same level as NJPW, but the top half of their card is just as good as any other. The likes of Jay Lethal, Matt Taven, Marty Scurll, Jeff Cobb, Kenny King, The Briscoe Brothers, PCO, Brody King, and others are just as good as many other promotions. During Wrestlemania weekend, while WWE was at the Barclays Center, ROH and NJPW were wrestling in front of a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden. This was the first non WWE event to be held in the arena in nearly 60 years. This was not just a shot at WWE, but a statement about pro wrestling itself. Pro wrestling is thriving, and these two promotions have been nothing short of phenomenal the past few years. Many wrestling fans have come to these promotions from the hype, myself included. These two promotions, along with AEW and many other promotions around the world are thriving and are putting on fantastic matches. That is due to the little or even no limitations put on these wrestlers. They are told to just go out there and call it in the ring without worrying about commercials or promo time. While these promotions have been having phenomenal matches, the matches on the main roster of WWE have only been good at best. What else must really be annoying to the main roster wrestlers is that there are wrestlers that are employed by WWE that have the luxury of performing without these limitations that are put on them.
Right now NXT is thriving and we have seen the so many great matches from that promotion. We have seen the talent in the performers like Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, even Hideo Itami. These guys were all thriving down there and having some of the best matches of their careers. Then they came to the main roster, and then there was nothing. Between those four, they have won two titles on the main roster. Just two! You have three former NXT Champions, and one of the biggest signings in NXT history at the time. These four have been so good, yet like many of the other NXT Call Ups, they have been so mishandled. You see guys like Johnny Gargano, Adam Cole, Velveteen Dream, and so many more are killing it on the NXT scene. And the members of the main roster see just how good the NXT product is and they want to be able to do that, but they can’t due to the limitations that they put on the main roster wrestlers. That is the overall problem, but a solution is rather hard to figure out.
There is a lot of possible solutions, from Vince McMahon stepping down as the person in charge, follow the NXT Formula of television feuds mixed with pay per view feuds, less limitations, and many other options. But the thing with trying to figure out a solution is how would it translate to being on television. There are so many variables for this issue, that you can’t just throw stuff at a wall and see what sticks. You have to have a transition period at how things have been done for a long time, that wrestlers still will be upset but eventually, if the right steps are done, then wrestlers may be happier and not as upset as they are now.
There is a lot of possible solutions, from Vince McMahon stepping down as the person in charge, follow the NXT Formula of television feuds mixed with pay per view feuds, less limitations, and many other options. But the thing with trying to figure out a solution is how would it translate to being on television. There are so many variables for this issue, that you can’t just throw stuff at a wall and see what sticks. You have to have a transition period at how things have been done for a long time, that wrestlers still will be upset but eventually, if the right steps are done, then wrestlers may be happier and not as upset as they are now.
