WWE's Massive Disorganization Right Now

[romanstylesiii]

They just called up a bunch of NXT people just not to do anything with them really.

This is not how a successful business handles its assets. You are paying people 6-figures just to sit there. This is peak WCW.

[Deleted]

It's abundantly obvious they only called those people up so they could go, "Look, we have some new faces!" as part of their goal to change things without actually changing anything. Looking over who all was in that batch...

Heavy Machinery: Random comedy tag-team. Kind of a good role for them but given how thin the Raw division is and how tired the SmackDown one is, you could at least stand to give them some screentime to help refresh one division or the other.

Lars Sullivan: Is he coming back? I'd be fine if he doesn't.

Lacey Evans: Been completely MIA outside of the Rumble, although she was so terrible in that that I can understand why you wouldn't want to use her afterward.

Nikki Cross: Solely there to lose.

EC3: Seems to have been reduced to a mute who trades fluke wins with Dean Ambrose.

Yeah, it's just embarrassing.

[Mozenrath]

I get what you're saying, but no way in hell are all of them getting paid 6 figures.

[Prince Petty]

They're just trying to collect as much talent as possible, for reasons that aren't quite clear. Are they trying to starve indie promotions of top talent? Are they legitimately trying to develop wrestlers so the business as a whole is healthier? Do they think having all these guys helps their own business?

The problem is, when you have a production line like NXT that is developing wrestlers, building their personal brands and sending them to the main rosters, you need an outlet at the other end. You can't just have the same wrestlers on top, year after year, and expect to keep funnelling new talent in. You end up with what the WWE has now - too many wrestlers and not enough spots, which ends up hurting both the wrestlers and the WWE.

The majority of NXT call ups never get near the same heights of success on the main roster, because there's just no way for them to get past the established stars. Sure, there are exceptions like Kevin Owens, who get a bit of time at the top of the card. But mostly, it's a bunch of very talented guys who get treated like interchangeable, midcard cogs. And that's if they're lucky, and don't end up as jobbers or as completely absent from TV.

You're even seeing it happen with the women, now. The Four Horsewomen came up and did very well, because they had no real competition. They were able to take over the Womens' Division. Then Alexa Bliss and Asuka were able to join them. But later call ups, like Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville and the Riot Squad, are being used more as enhancement talent than anything else.

The WWE simply doesn't know how to handle a roster this size, because they rely almost completely on six or seven big names, and treat everyone else like they don't matter.

[Bo Rida]

To me they basically said yeah raw sucks and things need shaking up so here's some of your least favourite wrestlers from nxt.


Of course YMMV if you're fans of them. Even then I don't think Nikki Cross fans would be over impressed with her main roster run so far.

[Deleted]

The craziest part is that they’re still not taking chances on anyone new on the main roster. Not even with giving someone fresh a midcard title run. Nothing about how they operate is conducive to making new stars to carry the company. I legit do not understand what they’re doing.

[Mozenrath]

Honestly, some of these have probably been a good idea, like bringing up Heavy Machinery, since people seem to be digging Otis well enough.

EC3 is very clearly in "waiting until we can commit to something" mode, though. Put him with Drake as a manager, since one of the AOP is hurt, anyway.

[facethatrunstheplace]

Feb 15, 2019 2:45:47 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Honestly, some of these have probably been a good idea, like bringing up Heavy Machinery, since people seem to be digging Otis well enough.

EC3 is very clearly in "waiting until we can commit to something" mode, though. Put him with Drake as a manager, since one of the AOP is hurt, anyway.

I don't think EC3 needs a manager they just need to let him talk.

[Mozenrath]

Feb 15, 2019 2:54:00 GMT -5 facethatrunstheplace said:

Feb 15, 2019 2:45:47 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Honestly, some of these have probably been a good idea, like bringing up Heavy Machinery, since people seem to be digging Otis well enough.

EC3 is very clearly in "waiting until we can commit to something" mode, though. Put him with Drake as a manager, since one of the AOP is hurt, anyway.

I don't think EC3 needs a manager they just need to let him talk.

He can talk fine enough, but his is the kind of character that benefits from an entourage, plus it uses Drake, who hasn't had anything to do because of the injured client.

[Deleted]

The WWE has become something of a bottleneck for wrestling talent.

I think their formula is: "If we hire 10 wrestlers, we get 1 star, so let's hire 100 wrestlers to get 10 stars!", and by this formula it makes perfect sense for WWE to hoover every indy roster they can come across, and if AEW gets big enough, take the giant power vac to them too.

[nisidhe]

Feb 15, 2019 2:32:05 GMT -5 Prince Petty said:

They're just trying to collect as much talent as possible, for reasons that aren't quite clear.

Their intentions have been clear pretty much since 2014, and particularly since they began NXT UK. WWE wants to monopolize pro wrestling around the world, by starving the indies and other promotions of their top talents.

Are they trying to starve indie promotions of top talent? Are they legitimately trying to develop wrestlers so the business as a whole is healthier? Do they think having all these guys helps their own business?

Once the indies and other promotions all fold, WWE plans on bottlenecking whatever talent remains and making sure that they are the sole trainers, developers and presenters of pro wrestling talent. Ultimately, the standard WWE contract with talents will force them to give up pro wrestling entirely and forever - talents won't be allowed to teach what they learn to anyone else or to hold independent cards or to participate in independent dates.

The problem is, when you have a production line like NXT that is developing wrestlers, building their personal brands and sending them to the main rosters, you need an outlet at the other end. You can't just have the same wrestlers on top, year after year, and expect to keep funnelling new talent in. You end up with what the WWE has now - too many wrestlers and not enough spots, which ends up hurting both the wrestlers and the WWE.

*tightens tinfoil hat* I don't think Vince has ever really cared about WWE beyond what it could do for his vision of himself as an entertainment magnate. He doesn't love pro wrestling the way I see Paul Levesque loves it - I don't think Steph loves it the way her husband and brother do. I see Vince's ultimate goal as separating his fortune from how he has historically made that fortune. It's why he micromanages to the point of paralysis, why he can't seem to sync his wishes for Face of the Company with the fans', and why the TV has become so formulaic - he's simply no longer willing to put in the work himself or allow others to make it succeed.

[RadcapRadsley]

Feb 15, 2019 7:39:44 GMT -5 nisidhe said:

Feb 15, 2019 2:32:05 GMT -5 Prince Petty said:

They're just trying to collect as much talent as possible, for reasons that aren't quite clear.

Their intentions have been clear pretty much since 2014, and particularly since they began NXT UK. WWE wants to monopolize pro wrestling around the world, by starving the indies and other promotions of their top talents.

Are they trying to starve indie promotions of top talent? Are they legitimately trying to develop wrestlers so the business as a whole is healthier? Do they think having all these guys helps their own business?

Once the indies and other promotions all fold, WWE plans on bottlenecking whatever talent remains and making sure that they are the sole trainers, developers and presenters of pro wrestling talent. Ultimately, the standard WWE contract with talents will force them to give up pro wrestling entirely and forever - talents won't be allowed to teach what they learn to anyone else or to hold independent cards or to participate in independent dates.

The problem is, when you have a production line like NXT that is developing wrestlers, building their personal brands and sending them to the main rosters, you need an outlet at the other end. You can't just have the same wrestlers on top, year after year, and expect to keep funnelling new talent in. You end up with what the WWE has now - too many wrestlers and not enough spots, which ends up hurting both the wrestlers and the WWE.

*tightens tinfoil hat* I don't think Vince has ever really cared about WWE beyond what it could do for his vision of himself as an entertainment magnate. He doesn't love pro wrestling the way I see Paul Levesque loves it - I don't think Steph loves it the way her husband and brother do. I see Vince's ultimate goal as separating his fortune from how he has historically made that fortune. It's why he micromanages to the point of paralysis, why he can't seem to sync his wishes for Face of the Company with the fans', and why the TV has become so formulaic - he's simply no longer willing to put in the work himself or allow others to make it succeed.

The double edge sworded of their business model is their NXT brand and training center are actually developmental and exposure for future indy wrestler's since eventually some of these guy's will get released and the WWE exposure will boost sales on the Indy circut. Also by gobbling up the biggest star's of Chikara,ROH,PWG etc. they allow new star's and champions to get created in those promotions and those companies don't have their own versions of Zigglers,Orton,Big Show,Sheamuses who are just around in a boring high roster spot forever.

[Natural Born Farmer]

Feb 15, 2019 2:14:40 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I get what you're saying, but no way in hell are all of them getting paid 6 figures.

And that’s the crux of the issue. If Keith Lee was being paid a fortune to compete in NXT or had a big money run coming up on the main roster I’d be stoked. Instead he’s probably making a lower-middle class salary with an insane schedule, and if he makes it to the main roster he’s very likely to get lost in the shuffle and end up with a “lol he’s fat” character. WWE needs to accept competition is a thing again. And why not? It’s when they’re at their best. Cut the people they have no solid plans for and see what happens.

[carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army)]

They need more brands and, most importantly, they need to... brand the brands.

NXT is your indie; gritty and small (and just make developmental different). Smackdown is your wrestling show. Raw is your sports entertainment show. 205 Live is wacky experimental stuff. Whatever. The important thing is, the twain don't meet.

But the issue is, they'd need more respect for their roster to do this. They'd have to not see them all as totally expendable. And, they'd need to get over hierarchies. Like, why wouldn't they ever they put Bryan on 205 Live? The fans would see it as a demotion, because they've been trained to see 205 Live as loserville. And Bryan would probably get paid less, even though he'd be contributing to the company by bringing eyes in to 205 Live. They'd need to stop thinking of the wrestlers as competing with one another, and rather thinking of them as working together. And they won't.

[Dub H]

Feb 15, 2019 21:16:47 GMT -5 Natural Born Farmer said:

Feb 15, 2019 2:14:40 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I get what you're saying, but no way in hell are all of them getting paid 6 figures.

And that’s the crux of the issue. If Keith Lee was being paid a fortune to compete in NXT or had a big money run coming up on the main roster I’d be stoked. Instead he’s probably making a lower-middle class salary with an insane schedule, and if he makes it to the main roster he’s very likely to get lost in the shuffle and end up with a “lol he’s fat” character. WWE needs to accept competition is a thing again. And why not? It’s when they’re at their best. Cut the people they have no solid plans for and see what happens.

Keep aware that un NXT he is being paid to improve and train. He is not gaining much money but he is basically getting paid to train.

[GuyOfOwnage]

This is why I don't understand the rush to move talent from NXT to main roster. You end up with a glut of talented people doing f*** all because there's just too many of them. Outside of "we said we were changing so here's a bunch of new names we have no real plans for", what's the damn rush?

[sportatorium]

I started a similar thread. I think the recent callups are there to lose.

[Deleted]

I don't understand why they brought up Lacey Evans just to job her to Natalya on Main Event.
If that's their whole plan for her, why not just keep her in NXT?

have Shayna lose the belt to Io Sharai and be called up, make Lacey the top NXT heel

[Final Countdown Jones]

Feb 15, 2019 2:06:38 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

It's abundantly obvious they only called those people up so they could go, "Look, we have some new faces!" as part of their goal to change things without actually changing anything. Looking over who all was in that batch...

Heavy Machinery: Random comedy tag-team. Kind of a good role for them but given how thin the Raw division is and how tired the SmackDown one is, you could at least stand to give them some screentime to help refresh one division or the other.

Lars Sullivan: Is he coming back? I'd be fine if he doesn't.

Lacey Evans: Been completely MIA outside of the Rumble, although she was so terrible in that that I can understand why you wouldn't want to use her afterward.

Nikki Cross: Solely there to lose.

EC3: Seems to have been reduced to a mute who trades fluke wins with Dean Ambrose.

Yeah, it's just embarrassing.

I remember the insistence that these new people constituted a real change and proof something was happening. But in the end, I can't think of anything more emblematic about peoples' problems with the booking than random call-ups without any strong plan or direction or purpose for them. It's the same old shit to a frankly startling degree.

[Big DSR Energy]