I worry that hard times are ahead for the WWE. It’s a reasonable worry. Primetime Television is about to make its return and I’ll admit that there are a few Monday shows that I would like to watch. And, with Monday Night Football returning WWE is about to face one of their biggest yearly competitions for ratings. Add to this that the few months after SummerSlam tend to be full of exciting summer storylines that have run their course but not left yet. (I’m looking at you, Nexus ruining the main event EVERY SINGLE WEEK) I’m not saying that I’m even close to giving up on watching WWE. For one thing, current WWE content is so much better than some that I’ve sat through that it would be absurd to give up right now when I think back to other things I’ve made it through. But I am at least aware that Raw for the next few months might start to be a bit of a struggle.
Of course, it seems that over the past month, WWE has done almost everything that they can to fight the potential difficult months. In a “throw everything against the wall, and see what sticks†kind of booking, WWE has made several fairly big changes. Complaining about how the Tag Team division is a shadow of its formal self with Nexus remains holding the belts unchallenged for months on end? Well how about some of the more promising mid card guys form not one, but two new tag teams? (Air Boom and the Awesome Truth) Have you regarded the Diva matches as nothing more than bathroom break opportunities for years now? Well how about the two divas that seem to have the most in ring skills start a crusade that seems to be voicing every single complaint you have with the diva’s division? Missing the icons you remembered watching growing up? Well now not only is Triple H back every week after having disappeared since the week after WrestleMania, but you get Kevin Nash as well. Like Zack Ryder? Well he not only got to be in a mach this week but actually was given the opportunity to pin someone as well. So many changes have happened in the WWE over the past month or so that the announcement of the newly branded Super Show (which effectively ended the brand split) was not treated as the major announcement that it should have been but treated almost as a “by the way†moment in a Triple H promo about a completely different topic.
Still, so much has happened recently that we have yet to see what, if any of it is going to have any lasting effect on the WWE. Air Boom and Awesome Truth have yet to actually face each other. While those dubbed the Divas of Doom have made bold statements, their words have been backed up by little more than sarcastic clapping at ringside. And Kelly Kelly is still the Diva champion. Even CM Punk’s revolutionary, pipe bomb dropping character is still to new to see if truly has long-term staying power as a main event attraction. But like the WWE, right now we can do little more than wait. We don’t know which of these “changes†will bring actual positive chance, and which ones will result in more of the same.  Still I appreciate what the WWE seems to be trying to do right now. I’m ok with a storyline not working ever now and then. I don’t expect each and every one of these new stories to work to perfection but the important thing is that the WWE is at least willing to try some different things. It’s the willingness to try that means we don’t get Cena vs. Del Rio main events every week for two months.
Extended Unrelated thought:
Kevin Nash sent the text to himself. Sent the text. To. Him. Self. This is how the big texting mystery is going to end up? With Nash sending the text to himself meaning that he was behind it from the start? I can only hope that this was not the intention of the WWE when the texting plot began. This is not like the Mystery of the Anonymous GM where after a year of emails it has become clear that the WWE had no exit or reveal strategy for the character and seem to be trying to ignore that it ever happened right now. This is a storyline that began just a few weeks ago. Acceptable suspects were hinted at from Steph McMahon to Johnny Ace. Maybe not a great list of suspects, but acceptable nonetheless. Both better than the idea that Nash came back, attacked Punk and then, not only blamed Triple H for the attack, but actually went out of his way to plant evidence that it was Triple H’s fault that Punk was attacked.  I can only hope that this was not the original ending but something forced WWE creative to quickly scrape together a new reveal, maybe somebody failing a physical or somebody having an unexpected and unavoidable conflict, and maybe this new plot line is a result of unfortunate circumstances beyond anyone’s control.
And while we’re on the reveal, we are expected that this reveal was brought to us through some sort of “backup†security? Meaning that the center had less important cameras that they just don’t’ check and as Triple H said, forget about. First of all, if it is the only security footage of a location, it’s not really “backup†security footage since its not backing anything up. It’s just security footage. And then, we are told that this security camera, which remember is the one that’s not important, is the one that points at Triple H’s office? Surly that would be one of the prime places to put your more important security systems. And what was Triple H doing at the time that resulted in him not having his phone anyway? SummerSlam was his first PPV event as COO and we are expected to believe that he didn’t have his phone on him at all times in case anything went wrong?
Of course, there is still the possible later reveal that this was all a lie and Triple H was in on it from the beginning. In fact if this were any other form of storytelling (book, movie, TV show) I would expect this later reveal because the current story is far too bizarre to be acceptable. But for now, this is the end of the texting mystery
