Why WWE Should Have More Vignettes on Raw and SmackDown

To suggest the need for more vignettes in WWE Raw and SmackDown is to irritate a large portion of the fanbase that values in-ring content above all else.

However, a quick stroll through wrestling history indicates that those Superstars who fans have had the opportunity to get to know before setting foot inside the squared circle do have an advantage.

From Razor Ramon to CM Punk, some of the greatest competitors in WWE history have benefited from early introductions.

It is for that reason, among others, that the company should reinstitute vignettes across its television shows to maximize its storytelling and booking efforts.

Introducing New Talent or Reintroducing Familiar Faces

As we have witnessed in recent years with the failure of NXT Superstars to translate to the main roster, debuting a performer ice cold—no matter how talented—is a recipe for failure.

The disparity in talent is nowhere near what it once was, so unless fans have another reason to care about one competitor or another, it is harder and harder for wrestlers to get over.

Look no further than Apollo Crews, who is as gifted a performer as there is from an athletic perspective, yet has struggled to get over with audiences and management alike.

He is one NXT call-up who almost assuredly would have benefited from a slow-burn introduction through vignettes that introduced him to viewers and gave them a feel for the man and character alike.

The Street Profits were the recipients of months of backstage pre-tapes that showcased their personalities way before they had a match on Raw. Fans were already familiar with them before they competed and that has helped with their overall popularity early in their run.

Ditto Aleister Black, who has benefited from his backstage pre-tapes to become one of the brightest stars on Raw.

In a day and age when character development is often thin, vignettes give new faces the opportunity to get some of their personality over before they are thrown in front of the cameras.

The most obvious example of vignettes working to help introduce new characters is the Firefly Fun House segments that featured Bray Wyatt's new on-screen persona and terrified audiences with the first appearances of The Fiend.

Without those segments to bring life to the character, who knows what his fate would have been.

A Break from the Monotony

Wrestling is awesome, this we know. Diehard fans can watch countless hours of it, marveling in the masterpieces painted by the most gifted of in-ring artists.

A casual audience demands more, though. They want storytelling, character development and red-hot angles. They want to be sucked into the narrative, with the action between the ropes just an element of the overall package.

For them, vignettes break up the monotony.

They allow for entertainment beyond the chaos, a break from the physicality and dive deeper into the issues that plague the top Superstars in WWE. They want to see the goings-on that fuel the in-ring competition. They want to know why X hates Y. They want the comedy and drama.

Look no further than the height of the company’s popularity, the Attitude Era, for proof of the effect that vignettes have for sucking audiences in. How many of the greatest moments in Raw history took place in the context of a match and how many were the product of a backstage vignette or even an in-ring promo?

Most recently, the wedding of Bobby Lashley and Lana split audiences, with some bemoaning the ridiculousness of it all while others championed it as a refreshing change of pace.

It was both, equally, but the fact it had social media buzzing for hours after the show went off the air suggests audiences are ready for more creative risks away from the sameness of the in-ring content.

Set Up Pay-Per-View Matches...

Vignettes also set up pay-per-view events and matches in a way that match after match simply cannot.

Over the last five years, where in-ring content has taken over the weekly television product, those monthly extravaganzas have failed to take on the same meaning, if only because of the lack of storytelling.

Much of that can be attributed to an awful formula the shows have taken on, in which so much time is spent in the ring that there is no real opportunity to tell stories or advance them in any measurable way through the use of vignettes.

Thus, PPVs are built primarily through rivals costing each other matches or one Superstar cheating to defeat another. It is a tired premise, one that is too often utilized to bring competitors together.

WWE should be more mindful of the creative opportunities at its disposal and program more vignettes to set up its big shows, rather than relying on the tired pattern of match/screwjob that has engulfed it for far too long.

...Don't Devalue Them

The overexposure of certain matches on WWE television has led to the complete devaluation of WWE pay-per-view events.

Why should fans pay $10 per month for the company’s streaming network when it can watch Randy Orton vs. AJ Styles three times on Raw before they appear on a PPV card? What is the value of a show that features the same matches the fans watched on Fox two weeks earlier?

The devaluation of the company’s monthly events is alarming. Whereas WWE used to be able to make even the most mundane In Your House show feel must-see, there is no urgency to do so today because fans are likely to witness the same match either before or after the show on free television.

So why bother wasting a perfectly good Sunday night in front of a WWE show when there is a new episode of The Walking Dead on?

Again, this is a situation where leaning on vignettes to advance stories rather than lazily booking the same pairings every week and being stunned the shows don’t draw, would be beneficial to those crafting the scripts.

If done correctly, the vignettes create the type of moments that have only existed over the last decade in the form of manufactured returns and nonsensical swerves.