A Fresh Start in 2019 for WWE
Credit: wwe.com
With all of the televised events already taped for the rest of the year, this has wrestling fans already looking ahead to 2019. The opening of this week’s RAW was a glimpse into the new year for the WWE. Vince, Stephanie, Shane, and Triple H came out to the ring and announced that they would be teaming together to manage the RAW and SmackDown rosters. They also promised to give fans what they want and less of what they don’t. It was a good sign to see them admit this to the WWE Universe after weeks of record low viewing numbers on RAW. The thing about though, is SmackDown was a great show on its own, RAW just simply sucked. The group promised new superstar appearances, new matchups, and an overall better experience for fans. i’m excited to see the changes coming up and the new superstar appearances, but can we really expect to see drastic changes?
The people that control the shows, came out to say that the shows are bad and then proceed to announce that they are going to be in control of being in control of both shows. Right now the WWE is just a confusing mess, the McMahon’s know the business well enough to know that the fans don’t have to get everything they want, because if they do storylines and outcomes would be very predictable. But from the fan standpoints, it isn’t really about the outcomes alone, it is just the experience. The main reason that RAW is so bad right now is because the brand’s main champion isn’t present. Brock Lesnar hasn’t made an appearance on RAW since Survivor Series, which was a month and a half ago. i’m not saying he has to perform every week, but an appearance every other week wouldn't be too bad. The WWE is paying a ton for Lesnar to hold the title, but are only getting about 15 minutes of production every two months from him. I understand why they’re doing this, but a non-existent champion just doesn’t work in today’s wrestling and the sooner that WWE realizes this the better.
Currently we are seeing the domino effect of the top superstar in WWE’s leave of absence. Roman Reigns was meant to carry the title into the new year and possible a good portion of 2019. Obviously, you can’t predict the sort of thing that Roman Reigns is going through, and we certainly hope to see him back as soon as he’s physically able, but he was such a big part of WWE’s plans. The WWE needs to learn to not put so much emphasis on a single superstar. If their refresh is successful, I hope we see a product that is enticing and gets the fans invested. The Road to WrestleMania will certainly be interesting, but will we see more of the same or what we want to see? We shall see.
Yacs