My latest piece on upgruv.com and their app looks at WWE programming this week. Here’s some highlights starting with Brock Lesnar vs Braun Strowman:
The seconds were few and precious, but they generated a feeling palpable. It was one of those instances upon which the WWE’s brand has been built.
The moment on Monday night when a returning Brock Lesnar (seen for the first time in two months) cleared the ring only to realize he hadn’t, and that Braun Strowman was still there — that, ladies and gentlemen, is what this business is all about.
The locking of their eyes. The realization by fans of what was transpiring. The energy spiking as would mercury in a thermometer sitting on a hot plate.
Holy hell!
I couldn’t have been alone in needing to see this, of wondering what might happen next. And the wonder is how an entertainment company builds interest for a live show. Those larger-than-life characters building tension by their very existence is how WWE guarantees tickets will be sold.
It’s why we watch even though we know the outcome is predetermined… because unlike in, say, the NFL playoffs, in the WWE it’s never about the outcome.
It’s about instances like this:
You’ll hear and read some fans complain that Vince McMahon is too in love with big men. But it’s a visual-based product. It’s a body-based business.
Nothing against the abilities of smaller guys, but they often look the size of the average fan.
Neither Lesnar nor Strowman look average.
Look matters. Perception is reality. That is especially true to a TV audience.
A viewer might see Sami Zayn on TV and change the channel before catching his high-level skills that connect him to fans in the live audience. But a viewer isn’t changing the channel if Lesnar is starring down Strowman, because a viewer wants to see what will happen.
Lesnar and Strowman was an example of McMahon being right that bigger is better. If can’t appreciate that, you probably already had already decided not to appreciate it.
Cage credibility
SmackDown Live had a good main event scheduled: Becky Lynch versus that brand’s women’s champion, Alexa Bliss, inside a cage after weeks of outside disturbances.
Good talent. Good story. Good and logical match to settle the score.
The masked woman wrestler appeared again and was revealed to be Mickie James.
Awesome.
She is another solid female talent for the SmackDown roster. She is a veteran, and you can’t overstate the value of experience in a locker room filled with young, impressionable ladies.
There are only positives to bringing James aboard. (In fact, she was my pick when pressed about the identity of the masked woman.)
What wasn’t a positive, though, was the execution of involving James’ masked-woman character in this Lynch-Bliss main event on Tuesday night. Her out-of-nowhere appearance inside the cage, on the ring apron blocking the door, instantly killed the credibility of the steel structure and the referees.
CLICK HERE for the faults and better scenarios to reveal Mickie James and get her in the cage. Plus, Natalya’s character, Neville as a heel and Ziggler threatening Lawler with murder.
