5 Examples of WWE Not Respecting Your Intelligence
WWE is awful right now.
The shows are messy, too long and incredibly inconsistent. Pay-per-views are barely promoted, nearly every wrestler lacks character direction and weโre watching rematches ad nauseam.
Do WWE writers just not care? Are they lazy? Or do they not respect the intelligence of their own fanbase?
Wrestling has a very loyal, passionate following, but WWE continually disrespects the fans' ability to follow a story. No other TV show messes with its fans like WWE does. Characters on other shows don't just disappear, turn bad guy to good for no reason or ask you to pay money for content you've already seen for free.
While WWE has never fully had its act together, it's becoming mind-numbingly difficult to make sense of its stories these days. Here are five examples of WWE not respecting your intelligence.
Fans Want Bryan, Not Big Show
1 of 5
In the words of The Rock: โIt doesnโt matter who you want!โ
WWE tells us who we want.
Unlike some of WWEโs big babyface pushes in the past few years (like Ryback), Daniel Bryanโs was organic. After a series of tag matches against The Shield, fans started to latch onto him. This momentum brought him into SummerSlam, where he became WWE champion...for about two minutes.
After a string of pay-per-view screwjobs, Bryan was pushed out of the spotlight in favor of The Big Show.
We were robbed of a potential Superstar and instead given yesterdayโs stale leftovers.
Fans were unhappy, and they voiced their displeasure first at Survivor Series during the main event and then more vocally the next night during Raw. The showโs opening had absolutely nothing to do with Daniel Bryan. It was the fallout between Randy Orton and Show and the setup of John Cena trying to capture both titles.
The crowd didn't care. It wanted Bryan.
Those in charge of WWE donโt want him as the top star. We were continually told every single week how he would be bad for business. Wouldnโt we much rather watch a seven-foot giant that has been around since 1995 instead?
Sure, Bryan is small, heโs got a scraggly beard and he doesnโt own a TV. Fans donโt care; they love him. They want him as the WWE champion. Not Big Show, not Randy Orton and not John Cena.
Heโs just too weird for WWE, though. The company doesn't get it.
But aren't all of Bryanโs supposed faults still less strange than a privileged jock recording a rap album, dressing like an overgrown child and maintaining his status of the face of WWE for nearly a decade?
Talk Show Hosts Are Tougher Than Wrestlers
2 of 5
If you think a former WWE champion is legitimately tough, think again.
He can easily be tossed around by a retired NFL player/Subway spokesman/talk show host. Oh, and Titus OโNeill clearly isnโt as tough as the guest, either.
Now, if UFC had Michael Strahan come to a show (for whatever reason), and he threw Anderson Silva to the ground, wouldnโt that reflect poorly upon the company? Wouldnโt Silva get up and punch him in the face? Or would he laugh it off, hug Strahan and then dance with him?
Wrestling has a long, bizarre history of letting celebrities get a one-up on talent (Mr. T, Hugh Jackman and Jay Leno, to name a few), but itโs never a good idea. Within the TV product that WWE presents, WWE should promote its stars as the toughest men and women on the planet.
After all, if Strahan can dominate Miz, then what does that say about Kofi Kingston, who just lost twice to The Miz?
For some reason, WWE stars are ineffective against TV and film stars, but not one of the actual toughest human beings on the planet.
Remember when Triple H and John Cena defeated Brock Lesnar? WWE wants us to believe that its wrestlers are tougher than MMA guys, but they clearly can't handle C-list celebrities.
Total Disaster
3 of 5
Does what happen on Total Divas matter to Raw and SmackDown storylines or not?
WWE needs to pick one way or the other and stick with it.
For starters, the women on the show have all banded together to fight the women not on the show. Therefore, there is a clear crossover in storylines.
It doesn't matter, though, that on Total Divas they don't all like each other. Eva Marie plays a heel on Divas (yes, "plays"; the show is incredibly contrived and preplanned), but the Bella Twins gladly let her team with them on Raw and SmackDown. This is despite the fact that they trash talk her constantly on the reality show.
Does this make sense?
In WWE lore, we know that Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella are dating because she was worked into a storyline with him briefly. But for some reason, this doesnโt carry over to John Cena, who dates Nikki Bella on Divas but not on other WWE shows.
Meanwhile, Natalya was dating The Great Khali for months in WWE storylines, but this was dropped completely when we found out on Divas that she was engaged to Tyson Kidd. For those not watching Divas, this made absolutely no sense.
Fandango then flirted with her on Divas, except that it wasn't really Fandango; it was Johnny Curtis, the guy who plays Fandango. But then Tyson Kidd got jealous and fought Fandango (and not Curtis) on Raw.
Now, also, keep in mind that the Divas episodes were taped months ago. It is clearly shown timeline-wise that they're far behind, so why would a recent episode of Divas have any impact on Raw?
Why are we asked to ignore some aspects of Total Divas and some we're supposed to take as cannon within the storylines? WWE doesn't think it through, because those in charge think you won't either.
Kidnapping
4 of 5
Daniel Bryan was just kidnapped by the Wyatt Family?
Huh, that sucks.
Or does it? Because Kane was kidnapped by the trio and seems OK. After being gone for a couple months, he came back and chased off The Wyatts once. That was good enough for him.
The next night, he beat The Miz, took off his mask and joined The Authority.
So why should fans get invested in Bryan being kidnapped? It simply didn't matter the last time WWE did the exact same thing.
After all, Bryan's fiancee wasn't too concerned. After her future husband was carried away by three crazy men, she was asking Michael Strahan for an autograph.
Kaitlyn and AJ and Dolph and Big E
5 of 5
Right now, Kaitlyn is a perfect example of what is wrong with WWE.
For months, she battled her former friend AJ Lee. AJ basically caused Kaitlyn to suffer a nervous breakdown and kind of ruined her life.
After the feud ended, Kaitlyn disappeared for a while (with absolutely no storyline explanation on-air), she then returned (with absolutely no mention by the announcers that she had returned) and teamed up with AJ.
WWE didnโt flat-out say that Kaitlyn is now a heel, but the company didnโt say she isnโt either. We don't know what she is or how she feels about teaming with AJ. Itโs just incredibly lazy booking, and it's disrespectful to anyone who cares about the characters.
Why bother becoming emotionally invested in any midcard character when they could disappear at any time, for no reason, and then have WWE essentially retcon their character?
Last week on SmackDown, we saw Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston team up together with no lingering tension because...um...I donโt know. We also saw Miz turn heel by not accepting Kofi Kingston's tag, then he was no longer a heel because...well, I don't know that either.
WWE just assumes that fans forget or don't care. The company still wants us to buy the pay-per-views, purchase the merchandise it incessantly shoves down our throats, download its app and order the WWE network (if that ever comes to fruition).
It just doesn't want us to think. At all.
