RAW Makes Sure It's Packed for Elimination Chamber - Saudi Arabia

How’s It Going, Enthusiasts?

 

It’s Go-Home Week for WWE and we’re getting the final wind up for the Elimination Chamber in Saudi Arabia. There’s a lot of buzz given how the Equal Rights sentiment of women wrestling in the event is gaining social awareness. This is not new but to continue to do so in a land where the rights of women are restricted is always commendable. It’s not as bad as Afghanistan but old traditions are often hard to modernize. It’s one of the few things that WWE has going for it at the moment. Let’s hope the ladies enjoy it.

 

As for what’s cycling through the grapevine, well Brock Lesnar seems to have captured everyone’s imagination. He was on the Pat McAfee show recently, not sure if that’s why he had to miss his announcing duties but that’s what happened. People are charmed by Lesnar speaking for himself for once and I don’t mind the interest. Some sites bemoan this attention because it tends to highlight the main flaw with WWE and how it pins its hopes on 1 or 2 people as opposed to developing stars.

 

I’ve talked about this at length in the past. I still feel the same. I’m not sure WWE can make stars. Not sure they ever could. I think that they lucked up and had a lot of charismatic performers for like 10 years and have been hoping to recapture that chemistry ever since. In the meantime, WWE sticks to who’s hot, whoever that may be. That’s why a lot of these artisan fan protests for performers like Big E and Cesaro fall on deaf ears. If they were popular, they’d be popular. Yet, I’m pretty sure the WWE Universe respects them. You have to when anyone’s been putting in the work year in and year out. But generally speaking, people aren’t watching or buying more tickets when they’re on the docket. It is what it is.

 

Something that is also what it is, is WWE Creative. According to reports, The Chairman, Mr. Vince McMahon doesn’t believe there’s anything wrong with the WWE creative process and naturally, anyone who cares to comment begs to differ. Having looked at the WWE consistently for going on 8 years now I can say with some authority that the product has improved from since I started watching again. Nevertheless, there is plenty to still be desired and what I think people don’t fully understand is that turning things around isn’t as simple as it sounds. It’s definitely an easier said than done scenario.

 

WWE only has what WWE has to work with. We all know the bulk of the roster are not actors. And you can’t create charisma. A person either has it or they don’t. Now, that doesn’t mean they can’t be crafted into solid workers  or learn to charm but that’s what you’ll get out of them. Try to force it and that’s all you’ll see. It’s forced. I think that’s more or less where we are now. They’re trying stuff and we’re seeing who can sell it and who can’t.

 

Now, given WWE’s record, they’ve put themselves in a precarious place. They can’t be seen to not be giving people a fair chance. A major complaint is that they fuck up good talent with bad ideas. That can be construed as setting up a person to fail. They could run into labor law issues if they’re not careful. They have to show that they give a person a true, fair shot before souring on them. That arbitrary aspect that gets out could really cross them up if anyone ever took the time to build a case against them.

 

People are scrutinizing how things are done these days. If WWE wants to be able to skirt by, they got to give people less reason to criticize them. If I were them, I’d be quietly working on this. If they are, we should see steadily improving product over time but we have to wait for those true gems. Just like the precious stones, you have to discover those. Not quite up to making them in a lab just yet.

 

In any case, that brings us to tonight’s RAW. Remember, it’s on SYFY due to the Olympics so don’t panic when you turn on USA. Brock Lesnar is around to make it clear that he’s all we really want to see. Lita is around too but no word on why. And RK-Bro is reported to make an appearance to celebrate their validated “smarts”. We’ll see if that deteriorates into bedlam. Funny tweets and Likes get retweeted. Take a lesson from WWE and try not to force the issue. Allow oneself to be inspired.

 

 

See You in a Bit,

-Nicole Alexis (^_~)