They had a match on Raw to determine new contenders for the tag titles. When The Usos won, I anticipated that this would just be a dull jobber push for them. They would be developed just to put over Miz and Sandow. And you might get a little tired seeing so much of The Usos in the title scene. However, they are actually developing a little bit of a storyline with this feud that goes beyond the titles. Jimmy Uso is married to Naomi. They are running a little jealousy storyline with Miz involved. You can just chalk it up to a heel playing mind games with a face, but it is still good to put some creative interest in these tag feuds. Would these kind of storylines be going on right now if Total Divas was not around? Would this creative interest be here if Miz was not involved? He is someone the WWE wants to push as a star. That's fine. I just do not think he needs to be handed so many titles. His overall overness may not be great, but he can make for some interesting storylines. And the fact that Naomi is involved shows how divas can make men's feuds interesting. You have to improve that periphery.
The other feud being developed is between Stardust & Goldust and New Day, the new faction consisting of Kofi Kingston, Big E, and Xavier Woods. When New Day did not win that #1 contenders match on Raw, I was thinking the WWE would drop the ball with them. No, it looks like they will develop a feud for them. It is obvious the faces will win this feud. They just debuted the new gimmick. Stardust & Goldust are not top priorities now. New Day will still likely be facing the Tag Team Champions down the line. This can just build some momentum for them. Smart development.
Which of these two feuds should involve the tag titles? Let's say you had the option of undoing the title change that happened a few weeks ago and everything else stays the same. The feud between The Usos and Miz and Sandow is just a grudge feud over Naomi. The feud between The Dust Brothers and New Day is for the tag titles. Would you make the switch? Obviously, you do not want to rush the titles on New Day. On the other side of that, if you are going to put the titles on them, you don't want to wait too long until they lose that momentum. That is the mistake they made with Stardust and Goldust. Reading about the kind of promo that happens on this week's Smackdown, I just got the feeling like this is a feud between good and evil with New Day and Stardust & Goldust. You can say every face vs. heel feud is like that, but this really feels like it is just the good, righteous guys against the bad guys. Would that feud mean more if the tag titles were involved? I think it also would have been a defining feud for The Dust Brothers recent title reign. That title reign was very brief and lackluster as it was. They could have kept the titles on them and this feud right now would have been a step back in the right direction. Where does that leave Miz, Sandow, The Usos, and Naomi? A lot of great storylines have been over women, without any real title focus. Remember the triangle you had between Test, Scott Steiner, and Stacy Keibler? That story wasn't focused around a title at all. They could have had a non-title tag feud right now that put great focus on Naomi. As it stands, she might end up just being a pawn Miz is using to help him retain the tag titles. Nice story, but you could have told it without the tag titles. And the story might have ended up being even better. As it stands, I think either way of doing it would be good. This is a step in the right direction for the tag division.
How about the diva division? You are seeing a little right now how divas can be utilized in the periphery to help make storylines more interesting. This is a dark age. The first dark age remained interesting primarily because of periphery divas. It is about time they start doing more with these women, outside of AJ Lee and The Bellas. What more can the WWE do? More mixed-tag matches. Trish and Lita wrestled a ton of those during the first dark age. Lita was paired with Matt and Jeff Hardy. Trish was with Test & Albert. They also teamed with multiple other guys, including main-eventers. Naomi is unlikely to get into any mixed-tag matches with the current storyline she has, but a feud against Tyson Kidd and Natalya might happen. Tyson Kidd might have Cesaro as a partner for that. Outside of the tag division, you can pair some of these women with midcarders you are willing to push. And I don't just mean Lana with Rusev. Pair some of the other divas without anything to do with guys. Ivory was a part of Right To Censor during the first dark age. Why not add a diva to some kind of midcard or upper-midcard stable? Could a diva have fit in with New Day? As for your A-tier periphery divas, now might not be the good time to pair a diva with a top star. The Authority is gone, a lot of main-eventers are still out, the depth at the top is bad, and it just might not be smooth to do right now. But these are the kind of things they need to do to make this dark age as interesting as the first. You are not going to have women parade around in their thongs and expose their breasts like you did back then, but you can be more efficient in how you utilize them.
Let me go back to what I was talking about yesterday. I was talking about how having an ego can be a problem, but can also be good to some extent. I want to bring up one last example to consider.
I have been following my alma mater's football team regularly since last year. They have a quarterback that is very good and has helped them reach the FCS playoffs two years in a row. As the story goes, this quarterback was actually at a college in Connecticut. The coaches there would not let him be the starter on the football team. What does he do? Does he put up with being a backup? He transfers to my school in New York City. I cannot imagine making a decision like that hinged primarily on whether I can be a starter on a football team. Of course, I never played sports in college. Students make decisions based on sports every year. Would you say that quarterback must have had a somewhat high opinion of himself? Did he make a little bit of an ego decision right there? Thing is, he actually went out there and proved himself. He has won awards. He has broken records. If he ever gets a Wikipedia page, there will be a lot of positive stuff on there that might not have been there if he had chosen to stay in Connecticut. He thought he was worth more than staying in someone else's shadow and he happened to be right. Instead of waiting around for an opportunity to possibly come to him, he made a decision and moved on. You have to know your worth. Don't sell yourself short. That is how you are often able to go out there and do great things.
Now, let's look at a different scenario. Let's say some other quarterback in the same situation turns out a little different. He doesn't get to be a starter on the school's team. He thinks he's better than that and transfers to a different school just because he feels he is good enough to be a starter. What happens? He sucks. He gets benched. He switched schools just to get benched. What would you think of a guy that thinks so highly of himself, makes a big decision like that, and then fails miserably? He's a big doofus? Well, you might say that. As I said last time, having an ego can be a problem when you have this high opinion of yourself and you are really not that good. Knowing your own worth does not mean thinking you are better than you really are.
Back to Vince McMahon. Whether you believe his problem rests in he thinks he knows what the fans want, thinks he is some kind of genius, thinks he can make a star out of anybody, or whatever, that problem is magnified due to his ego. If he didn't have such a belief in what he was doing, he might be more open to doing things differently or stepping aside to let someone else do it. You look at what Vince McMahon is ultimately responsible for. I don't want to blame him for everything, but some major blame has to fall in his lap. Does the quality of that product look like it is the work of a man that believes in himself and his ability to know what the fans want, believes in his intelligence, and believes in his ability to make stars? Or does it look like the work of someone that has that high opinion of himself and really isn't that great? Is Vince McMahon essentially just a big doofus?
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