00:00Yes, you read the title of the video correctly. Despite WWE doing their level best to drive
00:05away as many of their diehard fans as they could in 2021, despite committing a babality
00:09on the greatest part of their product, despite releasing swathes of talent, some of whom
00:13fans had hoped would be the future of the company, and despite the abject losses of
00:17a group literally called The New Day on a show literally called Day One, which is on
00:22the nose as metaphors get, we're starting this year with a purely positive WWE list.
00:27Why? Well, partly because Oli Davis told me to, and who am I to argue with my sinewy
00:31weak-tea-loving, incredibly intense content overlord, but also to provide a much-needed
00:35sense of balance and something to anchor our continued 2022 coverage of a wrestling company
00:40that otherwise makes supporting it sincerely tricky. Whether it's the golden era of the
00:4480s, the vibrancy of the Attitude Era, or the lunacy of ruthless aggression, WWE fans
00:49consistently compare the Big Dub to its past glories. And yes, in many ways the current
00:53product is worse, but it's always worth remembering that WWE has improved themselves
00:57in a number of different ways over the past decade. How many ways? Well, I'm Adam Haling
01:02from PartsFarKnown, and here are 10 ways WWE have changed for the better.
01:06And do you know the one way you can help us change for the better? It's by liking and
01:11subscribing. It helps us get bigger and better and 2022 and other buzzwords. Subscribe, please.
01:2210. Actual Finishes
01:23Mostly. The 80s were a hell of a time to be a wrestling fan. The rock and wrestling connection,
01:28the numerous amazing characters that made up the mid-card to Hulkamania, the incredibly
01:32deep tag division, those were all good. But do you know what was also synonymous with
01:36wrestling in the 80s? No f***ers ever losing. Seriously, for modern fans who've got used
01:41to a satisfying match conclusion on pay-per-view, 80s WWE is borderline unwatchable, with at
01:47least 75% of matches ending with the old standard double count-out followed by brawl to the
01:52f***ing back. Guys like Roddy Piper and Jim Duggan refusing to ever do a job. Even the
01:57Attitude Era was plagued with endless DQs and run-ins. It's why we get up in arms over
02:01finishes like Rhea Ripley vs Charlotte Hell in a Cell last year or The Fiend vs Seth Rollins
02:05because they're far and away the outliers in this day and age. Say what you want about
02:09some of the more questionable pay-per-view results we get today, at least WWE don't end
02:13the main event of WrestleMania on a f***ing DQ anymore. Here's looking at you, WrestleMania
02:178, you monstrous turd.
02:19And speaking of WrestleMania, number 9, Two Night WrestleManias. Please, please, please,
02:24please, please, please WWE keep the Two Night WrestleMania forever. For Manias 32-35, WWE's
02:32granddaddy of them all lost its goddamn mind in its old age, with each show clocking it
02:36at an unwatchable 5 f***ing hours, not even taking the pre-show into account. That is
02:41too much wrestling for one sitting. Please, and thank you, and f*** you. For four straight
02:47years, WrestleMania was an exhausting slog that dampened even the most hardcore fan's
02:51enthusiasm for even the dreamiest of dream matches. The prospect of instead having two
02:55three-hour shows to blow off the year's feud is an absolute godsend. Allows for multiple
03:00main events, affording that prestigious platform to stars who otherwise wouldn't receive it,
03:04gives extra time to certain matches that might otherwise be short-changed on a single card,
03:07and gives us a bloody break to recharge our batteries. This is a positive change, please
03:12keep it WWE, we beg of you.
03:148. Better Athletes
03:15Once upon a time in the 1980s, the average WWE midcarder was a barrel-chested, unshaven
03:20man who'd smoke a cigarette to warm up, plod down to the ring, have his high spot
03:24of the match be an arm drag, before wandering away to drink a hotel dry and fight a policeman.
03:29A lot of that was excused, because guys like Jake Roberts or The Ultimate Warrior were
03:32amazing characters, but there's no denying that today's roster is top-to-bottom premier
03:37athletes, and also Omos is there. Even the main event of today, previously the home of
03:41slow giants who taunted more than they tussled, is now whip-fast and crazy agile. The day-one
03:47result is mind-boggling, but you can't deny that all five men gave it socks. Even after
03:51all the releases, WWE's roster is packed to the gills with super-athletes. If only
03:56the big dub would let half of them achieve their full potential, every PPV, sorry, Premium
04:00Live Event, could be the wrestling show of the year.
04:037. A Better Mix of K-Fabe and Reality
04:05Ever since the pipe bomb, reality and fan expectation have been a fundamental part of
04:10WWE's storytelling, the fact isn't always to WWE's liking. Daniel Bryan's road to
04:14WrestleMania 30 was not the plan and let them never convince who it was, but by and large,
04:19the fact that fans are smarter, more opinionated and more willing to enforce their opinions
04:22on the WWE product is a good thing. It gave us The Man Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks vs. Bianca
04:27in the main event of Night One WrestleMania, and numerous other examples of fans forcing
04:31WWE's hand. Compared to previous generations where the fans had next to no say in who was
04:35in the main event, today's product is still occasionally, not always, but occasionally
04:38willing to bend its course based on who the fans decree is most deserving.
04:426. Roman Reigns
04:47And talking about fans receiving their ultimate vindication, we hate to say we told you so,
04:52except no we don't, we love to say we told you so, and after years of the toxic culture
04:56growing and booing around perennially miscast oob babyface Roman Reigns, WWE finally turned
05:01him heel and we f***ing told you so. With the possible exception of Bryan Danielson
05:06and Adam Page, heel Roman Reigns is still, and has been for 17 months, the best thing
05:10in professional wrestling. Genuinely, it feels like WWE hasn't had a character this compelling,
05:15this right place, right time, this big match reliable since Austin or even Hogan. Promos,
05:19wrestling, merch, main events, sheer star power, there's nothing else quite like the
05:23Tribal Chief. God knows who's going to be capable to beat him for the Universal Championship,
05:27which you could argue is a problem, but it's also WWE's problem to solve because whoever
05:31does is going to be a f***ing megastar because of it, unless it's Brock Lesnar. It shouldn't
05:35be him, you guys. Please. Please.
05:38Number 5. More POC champions. Since the inception of the WWE Championship in 1963 right up until
05:442018, which is 55 years for anyone who's not so hot on their Steiner math, there was
05:49precisely one black WWE champion. In the last two years, there have been three. At a time
05:54where AEW's president has found himself embroiled in a Twitter controversy over a perceived
05:58lack of diversity in his top stars, whichever side of that argument you fall on, the same
06:02cannot be levelled at WWE these days. In the last few years, WWE's had a Samoan wrestler
06:07as its biggest star, booked a WrestleMania main event between two black women, crowned
06:10every member of the New Day in one case, literally. It may have taken WWE a long time to become
06:15as diverse as it has, but it's as inclusive a roster as possibly there's ever been in
06:20the history of wrestling, and in terms of motivating the stars of tomorrow, that is
06:23a wonderful thing. Likewise,
06:25Number 4. Fewer stereotypes. Okay, look, finding 10 ways WWE has improved is difficult, to
06:30the point that yes, I'm dedicating an entire entry to congratulating WWE for not being
06:34as offensive as it used to be. Well done WWE, big gold star for you. Among the problematic
06:38tropes that used to be everywhere but are currently nowhere in WWE's product, sneaky
06:42Japanese salt-throwing bastards, black and Samoan people having harder heads than everyone
06:47else, Mexicans riding lawn mowers, people doing blackface, Islamic people summoning
06:51terrorists through prayer, foreigners screaming death to America, and Vince McMahon saying
06:55the N-word on pay-per-view. Sorry, premium live event. Sure, WWE occasionally still showcases
07:01a heel whose main crime is being proud of the country they come from, but by and large,
07:05things are better these days. Mostly. A bit. And speaking of divisions who've received
07:09a million percent more respect than they used to,
07:11Number 3. Women's Wrestling. Cast your minds back 10 years. In 2012, women's wrestling
07:16was an irrelevance. At WrestleMania 28, the only women's match was Beth Phoenix and Eve
07:21Torres vs. Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos. At SummerSlam 2012, there wasn't even a women's
07:27match at all. It was truly the era of the Divas Championship piss break match. In the
07:32years since then, the NXT women's division changed the game, the women's revolution happened,
07:36there have been women's Money in the Bank matches, Royal Rumble, two separate WrestleMania
07:40main events. We have the luxury of complaining that stars like Becky Lynch or Charlotte Flair
07:45win too often on pay-per-view, sorry premium live event, when 10 years ago such a complaint
07:49would be unheard of. By far and away, credible women's wrestling, belts that mean something,
07:54stars capable of shouldering pay-per-views, WWE's women's division is by far the company's
07:58most visible change for the better. But also whatever it's doing with it's women's tag
08:02championships like, Jesus, what the f*** are you doing?
08:05Number 2. A healthier locker room. Ah yes, says The Undertaker, leaning back on the throne
08:10in his ranch, wearing one of his right wing tees and sipping on a cold glass of guns and
08:14cigarettes. The olden days, when men were men. The Undertaker came under fire last year
08:19for bemoaning the fact that WWE's locker room has gone soft, and that nowadays the wrestlers
08:23were more concerned with playing video games and indulging in the more traditional backstage
08:27antics, i.e. getting addicted to pain medication, carrying weapons and lamping each other in
08:31the face. While WWE still fosters a general sense of paranoid misery in it's locker room,
08:36don't fix what isn't broken I guess, at least there's been a significant drop off in drug-addled
08:40macho bulls***. Over the years, a prevalence of high-level athletes and good old-fashioned
08:44nerds has given rise to a locker room that's more focused on clean living and PS5s than
08:49on self-medication and rage. And as DDP himself would say, that's not a bad thing, that's
08:55a good thing.
08:56And number 1. Protecting the wrestlers' brains. WWE doesn't let it's wrestlers crack each
09:01other over the head with steel furniture anymore. Not much more you can say about that really.
09:05Between the wellness policy, a healthier locker room and far more concussion awareness leading
09:08to hard bans on head and brain based offence, hopefully we're going to see far fewer wrestlers
09:13dying in their 60s. I don't really have a joke to follow that bit up, so here's a lovely
09:17picture of a corgi instead. Isn't that lovely?
09:20There are lots of criticisms that can rightfully be hurled in WWE's direction, from their seeming
09:24hatred of tag team wrestling, the women's midcard stuttering recently, the Saudi shows
09:28and just everything else. But in at least this way, WWE has improved light years above
09:35where it used to be. And hell, might as well start the year with as close to a smile as
09:38we can, right? Right?
09:40And that's our list. Let's try and have a positive comment section if that's at all
09:44possible in this day and age. Let us know how you think WWE has improved the most in
09:48recent years. Make sure you subscribe to PartsFun known for more silly wrestling content. And
09:52above all, Jam That Jam. Happy New Year everyone.
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