2007 has been the ultimate hit-or-miss year for the WWE, excuse the pun.
For all of the five-star action that took place, there have also been some disappointing lows.
On the plus side, for example, John Cena and Shawn Michaels partook in an epic hour-long battle on an episode of "Monday Night Raw." There was also the fatal four-way match between Cena, Shawn Michaels, Edge and Randy Orton—the ending of which was anybody's guess and, as a result, reached the brilliantly unpredictable heights of the then-WWF's peak in 2000.
However, with the highs—and there were many other great matches, good feuds and superb wrestling this year—there are inevitably some lows. And how.
Of course, the WWE has had to deal with the death of surely their best in-ring performer, Chris Benoit, under tragic circumstances. But there were also the deaths of other former WWE superstars, and several long-term injuries—which have forced writers to tear up scripts, storylines, feuds and title reigns almost as soon as they were written.
Incredibly, no fewer than eight former WWE, World Heavyweight and/or ECW Champions (Edge, Undertaker, Booker T, John Cena, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Bobby Lashley, and Rey Mysterio) have been severely injured at some point during 2007. Add in the passing of Benoit, and that makes nine former World Champions who have been, for one reason or another, unavailable.
Even in the peak years of 1999-2001, WWE would have struggled to deal with this many significant losses, many of which happened at the same time. Back then, though, there weren't three brands—there was just one. Now there is Smackdown, Raw and ECW, and each has been affected by the injury crisis.
The injury problems have had their upsides, however, as the annual draft lottery produced some interesting trades—including Mr. Kennedy to Raw and The Great Khali to Smackdown—to spice things up and keep things fresh.
With three brands, any injury to a main event player for any length of time dramatically impacts what the writers can do with that brand's title picture. If these injuries had occured to midcarders or jobbers, there would have been no problem. But each one is a long-standing main event performer and multi-time champion of one form or another, and any one of them could realistically be in a Wrestlemania main event.
But what of this? Unfortunately, there are not enough quality wrestlers who can step up to the plate if any other important wrestler goes down. More significantly, the timing of the injuries has been absolutely crippling. It has taxed both the WWE creative team's resources and also the patience of the WWE fans and wrestlers.
Yet more important, though, is the damage it did to what was shaping up to be the best year the WWE has had since the Rock/Stone Cold Steve Austin era. This has forced Vince McMahon into lower the tone of the WWE, to the detriment of the fans.
Back in early 2007, Mr. McMahon decided to go back to traditional, in-ring wrestling without most of the vulgarity, needless blood, garbage wrestling and high-spots (or stunts). This was proved by the brilliant Cena/Michaels rivalry on Raw early in the year which produced at least four excellent matches—until Michaels got injured.
Then there was the superbly hard-hitting Smackdown rivalry between the Undertaker, the champion, and Batista, the challenger, culminating in their terrific Last Man Standing match at the best PPV of the year, Backlash. This feud looked very promising—until the Undertaker got injured whilst still the champion.
There have been many scenarios similar to this during 2007: Triple H tore his quadricep before the Royal Rumble which he was booked to win. This prevented him from getting the main event slot at Wrestlemania against John Cena, like the previous year.
The previously unmentioned Mr. Kennedy got injured a couple of months after he won the 2007 Money in the Bank Match at Wrestlemania. The winner of the match is enabled a shot at either the WWE/World Heavyweight or ECW title, whichever one they please. He was therefore defeated by Edge on Raw for the shot, who moved to Smackdown to compensate for their weakened numbers by the loss of the Undertaker. Edge cashed in the belt against the Undertaker, who was legitimately injured, so the "Deadman's" promised long title run never materialised. Edge picked up the title and took on all comers—until, of course, he got injured.
Lashley was the ECW champion until he had to vacate the title to get a much-needed shoulder surgery. Benoit was scheduled to win the vacated ECW title—the night that he tragically murdered his wife and son, and later himself. This left ECW seriously short on quality numbers, and the top men at WWE had to make a decision to substitute Benoit for Johnny Nitro (now John Morrison)—a very talented but raw and untested option to take the title. Nitro was he first young star of no great stature to be pushed to main event, or at least title, status since Rey Mysterio.
Mysterio and Booker T were the only superstars to get injured at "good" times—if there is such a thing—as although both were involved in storylines, neither was seriously involved in their brand's title picture at the time.
And then there was the most recent and biggest injury loss to the WWE—that of long-time WWE champion Cena. He tore a muscle in his shoulder executing, of all things, a standard hip-toss on Mr. Kennedy just days before his last-man-standing title match against Randy Orton (who himself spent some time on the sidelines this year, through suspension.) It is not known whether Cena was scheduled to lose the title, but it sent WWE's plans for October PPV No Mercy into disarray. Cena has made great progress this year, and was a great champion, but this injury may be a blessing to mix up the championship rivalries a little bit, as they were going a bit stale.
Triple H is back now, and already has an 11th—if short-lived, as determined by Cena's injury—World Title reign to his name since he has been back. Shawn Michaels reappeared this past Monday on Raw to beat down the man who kayfabe "put him out of action" months ago, and new WWE champion Orton.
All these problems have obviously disrupted WWE and the organization has gone to rather severe measures to try and counter the injuries, such as spur-of-the-moment trades, and the return of the shock factor which they originally wanted to lose. Take Teddy Long's "heart attack" during his "wedding" to Krystal on Smackdown three weeks ago—in the midst of the deaths of not just Benoit, but also former manager and wrestler Sensational Sherri, and former member of "Demolition" and "Kronik," Brian "Crush" Adams. Add to this McMahon's "death" angle—which was to be the biggest storyline in WWE this year before being ripped apart due to Benoit's passing—and it is obvious WWE is doing all it can to keep ratings, often by somewhat desperate tasteless measures.
The somewhat curious "WWE Wellness Program" has also thrown in some interesting conundrums. Now it seems that any wrestler who appears guilty of abusing it will be instantly suspended. This means that the wrestler in question has been supplied with, or admitted to using, drugs—usually anabolic steroids—for body enhancement.
Everybody knows that Steroid use is rife in professional wrestling, and it must be looked upon as a positive that with all the heart-related wrestler deaths in recent years, WWE is trying to stamp it out. Not only does it affect a wrestler's body illegally, but it also puts a strain on the heart and the brain, possibly inducing unprovoked anger, rage (perhaps significant in the Benoit case), and a higher chance of injury. Randy Orton, Booker T and Charlie Haas, among others, have been suspended for allegedly breaching the wellness programme.
Having said that, steroids are not the only problem when it comes to picking up injuries. WWE superstars are on the road and in the ring often 300-plus days a year. There is no off-season in professional wrestling, which, though safe and predetermined, is not without its stresses, strains and injury worries if moves are not performed safely.
It is understandable that Mr. McMahon wants to make as much money as he possibly can from merchandise and ticket sales generated from meaningless house shows in Biloxi, Mississippi or St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, and the dedication of the superstars to perform every night is admirable. But it might be time to cut down the workload a bit. Can you imagine NFL stars playing all year, 3 or 4 times a week? It is a fair comparison given the sort of strain on the body.
McMahon is all about making money, but he is also all about entertainment. What would he prefer: half a roster performing averagely in Biloxi, or a full roster performing brilliantly at every PPV, fresh and selling out massive arenas with huge PPV buy-rates?
As we look forward to WWE for once having a hungry, talented full roster on par with the roster of the Attitude era, we look forward to exciting times. Back then there were seven or eight title superstars who could win the title at any time, and that sort of competitive unpredictability is what we want to see. It would make a nice change to get WWE back to a stage where there is no chance to predict who will be the WWE champion in a week's time, let alone a year. Cena held it for a year, as there was nobody else ready to take it. If superstars stay injury free, there will be.
Reducing the risk of injury by cutting workloads may lose money at first, but for the writers, wrestlers and fans, everything will get back to normal. If someone is not supposed to lose the title, they won't. Fans won't have the misery of buying tickets weeks in advance to see a superstar gets injured the week before.
Reducing the wrestler's workloads is the only way to go, and with the three rosters, they should be able to divide time out more realistically. Yes there is a chance the WWE will lose money to start with, but surely it will be better for the business and, more importantly, for the people who made the business what it was in the first place—the fans.
As a billionaire who should be looking out for the fans' intentions, I think Mr. McMahon can literally afford to take that liberty.
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