This is a new era for the WWE. They may not want to admit it, but this is a rebuilding period for them. They have made a number of decisions in previous years that angered their vocal fanbase. They are now being a little more softer in their stance towards what these fans want. I would say it borders pandering in some instances. But you can consider this their preseason. It is not exactly the same as what TNA has been doing, but this is an opportunity for the WWE to evaluate talent and give fair consideration to whom they want their true focal points to be. Let me talk about a few different areas.
First, Raw's main-event scene. Seth Rollins and Finn Balor are feuding for the new Universal Championship. I can understand Brock Lesnar taking the main-event slot last week. Brock Lesnar is Brock Lesnar, even if he does take drugs. But this week? Ending with Rusev vs. Cesaro for the United States Championship? Being a little more realistic, that was really a segment for Roman Reigns, who came out at the end to spear Rusev. Remember when Roman Reigns was in the doghouse? And now he gets multiple segments on Raw and was there at the end of the show. The WWE needs to not overexpose the guy. There have been times when it looked like they were developing the right game plan for the guy. But they messed up by trying to push him too hard. They better not turn this into another one of those instances. For now, just forget about this guy as the centerpiece.
What about Finn Balor? It would be outrageous to think that a guy that just debuted a few weeks ago could be legitimately pushed as the centerpiece of Raw. He probably won't, but he has a better chance of at least winning the Universal Championship. Whether the WWE is serious about pushing him that far or not, they should be doing a better job building him up to Summerslam. He had a nice promo, but then he doesn't get any involvement in the main-event scene. Showcase him as a big deal better. Hype is about more than just the commentators putting you over and being given mic time to put yourself over. Placement on the card is also part of it. And if the WWE is not going to feature him better to help build this feud, they might as well have went with Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns for Summerslam. Leave Balor to face Rusev.
Smackdown's main-event scene is occupied by Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler. Their feud has actually gotten top focus, so far. They have also teased some heel tension. Some fans have said Ambrose sounded like a heel last week. You also had Ziggler beating Bray Wyatt in a shady way. This is the kind of thing they needed to do to make this feud more interesting. A simple face vs. face feud would have been boring.
Moving on to the tag division, let me go back to Anderson & Gallows. I talked about them yesterday and pointed out how these guys just didn't look that interesting now. The WWE had them do a comedy segment to mock Big E's injury. It was the kind of crass humor many people might say Vince McMahon loves. At least the WWE realizes they need to do more to help these guys look interesting. I just don't know if it will really work for them. And the WWE really needs to decide if they want to use that kind of humor. Maybe I would have chuckled at it 15 years ago, but it seems pretty dumb now. Or maybe it was just bad execution by Anderson and Gallows.
Moving on to the women's division, there are issues. Depth is one of the themes when you talk about the preseason in other sports, and depth is a serious theme when you talk about the women's roster. Sasha Banks vs. Dana Brooke again last night. How many times have these two gone at it in the last few months? They made things a little more interesting by adding a stipulation, but the WWE is lacking fresh matches. Depth is terrible. Paige supposedly has injury issues. Sasha Banks seems to have a desire to break her neck diving out of the ring. Kidding aside, what happens if Sasha does get injured, gets in serious trouble for something, suddenly decides to leave the WWE, or something else terrible happens? Who gets pushed as the top face? The WWE really has nobody. They have some other low-tier women on Raw, but they will likely not get pushed seriously. I have said before that the WWE can generate hype just off of their NXT women. If they can't bring them up fast enough, however, they might as well bring back credible jobbers from the diva era. It is not about using them to create hype. It is about creating some fresh matches and providing some cushion should something terrible happen to someone the WWE would rather push.
Smackdown's women's division is not much better. I have said before that there should not be a second women's title for Smackdown. Look at what is happening over at Raw and imagine the same kind of thing happening on Smackdown. Fans would not be happy with Eva Marie being treated as a serious contender. They would also roll their eyes at Nikki Bella being the queen bee of that division. Natalya vs. Becky Lynch is already a match people are sick of. If they just ran Smackdown differently and let it rely more on periphery angles, there would not be as much of a problem. A periphery diva getting injured is usually not going to be the end of the world and as crippling as a Champion or her top challenger getting injured. To put it simply, the WWE needs to add depth to their women's divisions and rethink the systems they are running on either show.
Overall, the WWE is doing a good job in investing more in a lot of people. Even jobbers being fed to Braun Strowman get interview time. But the WWE cannot make the same mistake TNA has made and juggle people around. Use this time to assess who is really doing the best job and who has that long-term potential. The only people who should have their spots relatively safe are guys that have been pushed at the top for over a decade. John Cena won't be ditched easily. Randy Orton won't be ditched easily. Darren Young might. Jinder Mahal might. I would say even guys like Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose should not have their spots locked up. It's way too soon to say that Dean Ambrose should be the long-term centerpiece of Smackdown, and other guys like AJ Styles, Dolph Ziggler, and Bray Wyatt may deserve a shot at the top spot. Same thing with Rollins. He has been pushed harder for a longer time, but if someone like Finn Balor steps up and does better, give him the top spot. As for the women, if the WWE brings back credible jobbers and one of them does a better job than Sasha Banks and Charlotte, push that woman as the centerpiece. It wouldn't be unfair to those other women. That is what competition is about. Those other women will just have to step up their game and earn the spot back for themselves.
One problem, however, is that a lot of what the WWE is doing costs money. Bringing back all this talent costs money. A lot of people are hyped over the WWE reaching record revenue recently, but they are overlooking costs and expenses. When you take that into account, the WWE isn't really reaching record numbers with the money they are making. This past quarter that featured Wrestlemania, the WWE only netted less than a million dollars after you take into account costs and expenses. The last time the WWE got called out for wasting money, they had a mass release of main roster talent for the first time in a few years. That was in 2014, which ended up still being a down year for the WWE. I would not be surprised if this happens to the WWE, again. And just like in 2014, Jinder Mahal will probably be one of the first to go, again.
In the end, I do not think what the WWE is doing now will last. Most fans like the changes and the freshness of the current product, but things will likely change. What will cause it? The WWE losing money? Ratings plummeting? Serious injuries to key players? Someone the WWE did not intend to get over putting the WWE on the spot, much like Daniel Bryan did? Or will things just naturally fizzle out after a while? The WWE should take this opportunity to build around what works. Yearly releases will probably have to become the norm again, unless they are just signing certain guys likely to go nowhere to short contracts. Because the WWE will need to keep bringing in fresh bodies to help keep things fresh, and they won't be able to afford everyone. If that is the case, this should be a period of assessment.
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