Did they need to bring up that Jerry Lawler had a heart attack? I think the WWE sometimes relies too much on real-life issues for storylines and segments. They can sometimes go to a very sour, seedy place that just isn't entertaining. Even if they do have the okay of the people involved to go with it, it doesn't always make it right. The WWE has sometimes used death of wrestlers or family members of wrestlers for an angle. Even if the family of the deceased individual is fine with it, does that mean there might not have been some other viewers that lost loved ones that might find the segment hard to watch? When the WWE humiliated Mickie James for how she looked, I noticed videos on Youtube that would defend her. I remember one video where a girl said she hated that storyline because she has struggled with her own weight. The WWE just turns some fans off with this kind of stuff. Not only do you have to question the ability of these storylines to draw, you have to question if you might be losing some of your audience that just don't like this kind of thing.
That being said, I think the WWE has done worse than what they did last night. I don't think it was as offensive to any group as certain other things the WWE has done. Ziggler attacking Lawler is also nothing to get too upset about. He still wrestles. I remember when some people got upset when the WWE put Mae Young in a match. Considering she was over 80 at the time and looked like she could really get hurt just taking a roll up, they might have a reason to get upset. Lawler isn't that old. Overall, I won't criticize this one segment too much. But the WWE better not make a habit out of this kind of thing.
But let me just do an aside and mention one exception to what I just said about not liking the WWE relying on reality for storylines. I wouldn't mind if they ever did run a storyline that admitted that they never intended for Mickie James to get over and never gave her the career she should have gotten back then. I wouldn't mind Mickie James giving that self-righteous speech. It is not unprecedented. They let CM Punk sit on the stage and spit some reality. That big push Daniel Bryan got a couple years ago that turned him into an icon was based on the WWE legitimately not wanting to push him the way he deserved and fans wanted to see him be pushed. I don't think this would even really have to be a seedy, sour storyline that I just mentioned are not that great. How can you have a women's revolution without acknowledging that a major problem that existed in the men's division also existed in the women's division? People talk like the only issue was short matches and the WWE not giving the women proper treatment. The problem was deeper than that and it never got acknowledged. This is what caused the respectable years of the diva era to collapse. I think it would be good for Mickie James, the women's division in general, and might be even more empowering for some fans.
Onto the Ziggler heel turn. Go back a few months. Dolph Ziggler was involved in a heated feud with Dean Ambrose for the WWE Championship. It looked like Ziggler might turn heel. He did not. A while after that, Ziggler got an even more heated feud with Miz for the Intercontinental Championship. All that emotion led to him winning the title, but then he lost it back to Miz soon after. A little while after that, he failed once again to win the WWE Championship. And the heel turn came soon after.
What took them so long? With the brand split back, they are obviously going to drag certain things out, which you have seen them do on both shows already, but I think this just did not work right. This angle was obviously at its peak when Ziggler was so emotional about beating Miz for the Intercontinental Championship. Losing it back so soon was obviously the breaking point. And then you have to throw in the rematch. Why not turn him heel right after that? Ideally, they might have even tried doing it even before all that, possibly when he lost the title back to Miz and wouldn't be able to face Sami Zayn at Survivor Series. It would be nice to do it near when the emotion was at its peak. Waiting as long as they did, I don't think the heel turn had as much bite to it as it could have, ignoring what they just did this week to help Ziggler look more heelish.
It looks like they were going for the kind of thing they did with Christian a number of years ago on Smackdown. Christian finally won the World's Heavyweight Championship. It was a great moment for Christian. And along comes Randy Orton to win it soon after that moment. That left a lot of fans dejected. It became a real issue. Christian turned heel. Christian would regain the title from Orton, but in a cheap fashion and lose it right back to Orton. You can consider that whole situation as a precursor to the Daniel Bryan situation I mentioned before. The WWE got away with what they did to Christian, but had a much tougher time with Daniel Bryan.
What happened with Dolph Ziggler obviously failed to reach the heights of what happened with Daniel Bryan. Fans aren't going crazy for Ziggler to get back in the WWE Championship picture, or even get back the Intercontinental Championship. I would say this angle also failed to reach the level of what they had with Christian a few years ago. I am not going to compare Ziggler to Christian and analyze their situations too much. Both are guys wrestling fans can respect. Both have not been pushed as true A or A+ players. But as far as why this recent push for Ziggler didn't have that same feel to it, I think one of the main reasons is the development. As I mentioned before, they waited too long. Does the fact that Ziggler put all that emotion just for a midcard title matter? I don't think so. The emotion was still strong. But no one really feels like Ziggler was screwed the way they felt Christian was back in the day. If they made Ziggler look like he was more of a victim of the status quo, maybe it would have been different. Of course, I am not a fan of using those kind of storylines too much. Only on special occasions.
Something to keep in mind whenever there is a heel turn is depth. I talked about it with Mickie James coming back as a heel. I talked about it with Sasha Banks potentially going heel. I have to talk about it here. The depth in the men's division is obviously better overall than the women's division, even with the brand split. But Ziggler is an important player. He is an upper-midcarder that has been leaning more towards the main-event scene than the midcard recently. Who are the top faces now? John Cena, Dean Ambrose, and that is pretty much it. Top heels? AJ Styles, Bray Wyatt, and Miz. Randy Orton is interesting. He is a face in heel's clothing. This angle is obviously trending towards him turning on Bray Wyatt. Until then, however, he is a heel. That is how he is booked. Until he does turn, there are not a lot of top faces. Baron Corbin's stock has gone up in recent weeks. He is a heel. You can talk about Kane, but he is not used that well anymore. Just in terms of depth, I don't think they should have turned Ziggler heel. Not now. Problem is, the long wait would probably hurt the potential of the heel turn even more. Smarks typically love heels. Smackdown is preferred over Raw by smarks. But you have to wonder what the WWE is doing when you look at the depth. Of course, this is Royal Rumble season. Things usually get mixed together around now. But they do have to put some practical thought into what they are doing eventually.
No comments:
Post a Comment