- 5 hours ago
You can't run from Vince McMahon - and some have actually tried...
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00So just for some transparency, a lot of what we will be looking at today is what was in WWE and
00:05not necessarily what still is. Don't really know what that means. But we shall get a nice feel for
00:11the backstage environment, and sometimes I tell you, it's totally crazy. Isn't that just wrestling
00:16though? I certainly think so. And my name is also Simon from WhatCulture, please do subscribe.
00:21This is 10 WWE Creative Secrets The Writers Don't Want You To Know About.
00:27Number 10, their worst creative shortcut. A lot of people do talk about this, but I'm not sure we've
00:31made the tie-in that it's intentional. It's not just a wrestler going off, they've been told to do it.
00:37But if you ever do see a performer, often The Miz, start to run off their achievements like they're
00:41reading their own Wikipedia page, yep, this is part of the plan. We are essentially filling time to
00:46make sure there's something on television, which is why it happens on Raw a lot. We've got three
00:51hours, pal. JD McDonough even did this after he debuted on the main roster on the 15th of May 2023.
00:57When he just told us all the things that Dolph Ziggler had won in his career,
01:01which apparently is why he had to beat him. I don't know, if that's the remit,
01:05why aren't you going after Roman Reigns? Apollo Crews also did this on the same show,
01:09when during his comeback chat, he talked about being a former US and intercontinental champion.
01:15I'm not sure it helps anyway, but it definitely doesn't if everybody is doing it.
01:19Number nine, those times they don't actually tell stories. So that is a little bit of a sweeping
01:24statement, but it's to tie it into a more generic point. Let us look at damage control.
01:29The idea was Bayley was so disillusioned she wanted to take back control, hence the name,
01:34even more so because she felt disrespected. Nobody was talking about her contributions.
01:39The problem was, while she brought this into fuge with Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair,
01:43it was just in the background and not ever used to push things forward.
01:47We saw this again too with Seth Rollins versus Logan Paul. Now I loved all of this,
01:51but the story was Rollins had beef with Paul because he was an outsider,
01:55sneaking in and trying to take a piece of the pie. Rollins would therefore defeat him to prove
02:00that he didn't belong, and then Logan jumped him twice, and we had the match. Seth won,
02:06that was that, and it was fun, but this original concept didn't evolve. I suppose the best way to
02:11look at it would be what was the payoff. It's not like WWE doesn't do it. See Rey Mysterio and Dom Dom.
02:17That was the total opposite. The bloodline would get in the good category too,
02:21but it is a crutch WWE relies on here and there, even when they don't need to.
02:26Just make sure these narratives get the same TLC as the others we've mentioned, and boom,
02:31problem solved.
02:32Number eight, sometimes they don't know what they're doing.
02:35A few years ago, a corporate WWE video leaked that we were not meant to see.
02:39It's the most Vince McMahon thing ever, as the first thing we hear is a writer telling us that
02:43the mission of the creative writing team is to put smiles on people's faces. And when a host of
02:48these individuals start talking about their backgrounds, not one mentions wrestling. Amazing.
02:54It's all TV, soap, operas, and sports, and while having an outside voice is essential for a different
02:58perspective, you need some people with knowledge. I don't want a doctor who used to be a mechanic
03:03doing my surgery. I want a damn surgeon. You also learn that it's somebody's job to check for
03:08grammar errors, so that's something. Whole thing is a little bit strange. Number seven, sometimes they
03:13think the product is bad too. Cause all you need to do is go listen to John Moxie's appearance on the
03:18Talk is Jericho podcast in 2019, where that man goes off. He talks about how difficult and bad the
03:24WWE creative process is, because he couldn't make heads or tails out of it. There were too many cooks,
03:30too much back and forth, and too much confusion. During this, Mox also let slip the writers think
03:35this too, because when one was explaining the terrible character John had to play in 2018,
03:40even they were like, yeah, sorry, it's not great. They even tried to justify it by saying the whole
03:45thing was done to appease Vince McMahon. But because of all of this, these two then tried to change it
03:51up enough so McMahon would be happy with it, and that it wouldn't be as awful as the concept
03:54currently pitched for. That's ridiculous. Former writer Dave Schilling even tweeted an apology,
03:59saying he had written at least one terrible promo for Alexa Bliss in the run-up to WrestleMania 35,
04:04and it was the same for Tom Kaseya. He told the Agenda podcast in 2017 intricate stories were kind
04:10of null and void, as Vince wasn't interested, so let's always remember this. When you're writing
04:15for an audience of one, it can be quite difficult. Number six, they do try to appease Vince McMahon.
04:22Given what we've just talked about, we may as well make it a proper entry too,
04:25underlying the whole thing. This may be more of a then than a now thing, as the creative process has
04:29changed with Triple H having more power, but still. For years, the idea was to write
04:34a certain thing that the chairman of the board would like, so you remained in his good books.
04:37I get that, you don't want to lose your job. Dan Madigan, who used to be part of this process,
04:42spoke about it in the Ring of Hell book, where he kind of compared it to a cult.
04:46You have somebody at the top, and that's where your attentions lie.
04:50Ex-employee Kevin Marshall reiterated this, saying you basically sit there and try and figure out
04:54what McMahon wants, so it's like a Professor Layton puzzle. For those now saying Kevin was out the
04:59door over a decade ago, it was the same for the aforementioned Schilling, who was at WWE as
05:03recently as 2019. He told Fightful the same thing, it's all about what Vince likes, so there you go.
05:10Number five, it goes even further than that too. Because when you are in these creative meetings,
05:15sometimes your job is just to sit there and listen to Vince McMahon go off. Or so it is said.
05:21We go back to the former writers who have spoken about this, as Dr. Ranjan Chiba revealed that often,
05:26McMahon would just start yelling about a certain wrestler for ages, and everybody had to sit there
05:31and nod. There was no rhyme or reason to this either. There would just be some silence and then
05:36bam! Vince would pick a target and explain why said individual sucks and should never be thought of
05:41again, until he changed his mind. This never tied in either, or so it is claimed. It could come
05:46totally out of left field, and I tell you, I need to be in one of these meetings. It must be totally
05:52surreal. Number four, the toxic culture. Thankfully there are a lot of report these
05:56days that the backstage WWE environment is getting better. We're never going to know for sure either
06:01way because we're not there, but I do hope people are happy, but nothing more important than that.
06:06Many a wrestler have come out following their exit though with words of sadness,
06:10much like Cody Rhodes did in 2016. As we know, he was totally disillusioned that he wasn't able
06:14to dump the Stardust gimmick, and even took a shot at some of the writers. Saying that the two leads
06:19of Raw and Smackdown fell to write him into worthwhile storylines, he even alleged that
06:24one was too busy pretending to be Brian Gewurz, while the other was too busy hitting on developmental
06:28divas to do their job. I mean, yeah. Far more worrying were the many reports from former employees
06:34of Vince writing himself into stories featuring the then WWE divas, and we've all heard about the
06:39bullying and hazing that has happened behind the scenes. Doesn't sound fun at all. It obviously all
06:44came to head with the McMahon allegations which saw him step aside for a few months before a bonkers
06:49return, and none of this is good. Doesn't matter what the job is, protecting those in the middle
06:54of it all has to be a priority. No questions asked. Number three, the star wrestlers go out
06:59their way to undermine the writers. Because you would, wouldn't you? If you're in a position of
07:03power and somebody is asking you to do something you don't want to do, you will likely use all of
07:08your pull to try and sort it out. It's not exclusive to wrestling, that's life. We should also point out
07:13this isn't always the way, as somebody like Daniel Bryan was very vocal about how much he loved
07:17working with the writing team. But let us move on to Matthew Randazzo V, who had this story in
07:22Power Slam magazine from an unnamed source. During what is now dubbed as Triple H's reign of terror,
07:27a scribe handed the game a piece of paper with his plans on it for the evening, to which Hunter
07:32replied, am I going flubbing over? And he didn't say flubbing. When he was told no, Triple H took the
07:38page and threw it on the floor before telling this guy to leave. Whether this is true or not, we don't
07:43know, but it's not out of the realms of possibility. The man with three H's wielded mad power.
07:49Former writer Freddie Prinze Jr. went further than this on his very good podcast, when he spoke about
07:53The Undertaker doing similar things. When wife Michelle McCall was pitched to lose her diva's
07:58title to Karma, the dead man used his influence to magically get this switch. You can't just point
08:03the finger at these two though. If I listed all of the examples, we'd be here all day. Basically,
08:09anybody who has ever got to the top of the tree has done this in some sense. It just seems to be
08:14the way. Number two, and the writers get it publicly as well. And don't pretend they don't. One thing
08:19goes bad and boom, Twitter is all over these guys. There's nothing wrong with being upset with an angle
08:23either, you are watching to be entertained. But sometimes maybe it's best to remember they're
08:28likely struggling too. Look at the obstacles they face every day. The wrestlers also get in on this as
08:34CM Punk spoke openly on his Best in the World DVD about tearing a script up in front of a writer.
08:39As he felt he could tell a better straight edge story than whatever this said. Paul White on
08:43Talk is Jericho said the writing wanted him to bash his head in with a hammer. Sheesh.
08:48Drew McIntyre also dropped a sarcastic tweet in 2021 when he was teaming with Big E to face the
08:53Dirty Dogs for the second week in a row. And even Roman Reigns said it all sucked during the pandemic.
08:58So there you have it. We've already spoken about the tirade John Moxley went on after he left in
09:03WWE. But that ties into number one, the race to avoid Vince McMahon. Yep, think of that. I'm sure
09:11it has happened more than this, but Mox told the story of getting a script where he would have to
09:15say the words, pooper scooper. As a brand new heel, he knew this was death, so agreed with the writer in
09:21charge to make sure Vince never saw this version, as they knew McMahon would love it. So the race was on.
09:27Describing it as self-preservation mode, John's main concern during these times was not to look
09:32like an idiot. Good grief. It does sound like things have changed with Triple H in his new
09:36position, but still, you gotta figure not all of these habits have gone away, and this one definitely
09:42should. Know of any other creative secrets the writers don't want you to know about? Make sure
09:46you let us know in the comments below. You can also like the video, share the video, and subscribe.
09:50Head over to whatculture.com if you'd like to read more of these articles with your eyes.
09:53And we're on social media, because of course we are. It's WhatCultureWWE and SimonMiller316.
09:59And look, there's another list on the screen. I think you should give it a click. My name is
10:03Simon Miller from WhatCulture. Thank you very much for joining me as always, and if you would like
10:07to go have a piece of cake right now, I think you should. That's right, you have permission. I'll talk to you soon.
Be the first to comment