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Survivor Series is something the fans have to go through, not the wrestlers...
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00:00A bad idea is a bad idea. You can try and dress it up as much as you want, but then you're just
00:05some weirdo trying to put thoughts on clothes. Don't do it. WWE has been going so long they
00:10sometimes feel they can write out such things, and I'm here to tell you they can't. I'm also
00:14Simon from WhatCulture. Please remember to eat five fruit and veg a day and hit that subscribe
00:18button. And this is 10 Very Bad WWE Ideas That Lasted Four Years. Number 10, The Roman Reigns
00:25Megapush. This is even worse now because when we eventually let into all the madness and turned
00:29Roman Reigns heel, he has become one of the best characters in ages. All that backlash
00:34for absolutely no reason. It really did get to a point too where everybody but Vince McMahon
00:38was like, hmm, maybe we should do something here. I suppose bravo to Vinnie Mac for believing
00:42he could make this work. Given it went on for about five years though, that just seems a
00:47little bit silly. You'll scratch your head when you remember WWE already knew all of this
00:52given The Rock went through the exact same experience, but nope. Roman would have to ignore all these
00:56boos and pose, especially at the 2015 Royal Rumble. Dwayne Johnson was even brought into
01:00that show to try and help and you'll want to know what happened. Everybody jeered, how
01:05was this not the turning point? It wasn't and it took a global pandemic to do it, but you
01:09know what they say, for the love of everything, just listen to the fans already. Timeless saying
01:13that one. Timeless. Number 9, Gimmick Pay-Per-Views. I do not like gimmick pay-per-views and as a man
01:19who is always trying to be a Mr. Positive Pete, that is saying something. The major problem with
01:23them is that it locks you into an idea, even if that idea doesn't suit the current period,
01:28plus you take your stipulations and run them into the ground. The only ones that really make sense
01:32are Money, the Bank, and the Royal Rumble, but Hell in a Cell, Elimination Chamber, TLC, Extreme
01:36Rules, and who knows what else, are so retroactively fit into what WWE needs that these matches lose
01:41their fear, especially The Cell. Remember when that one was first rolled out, people were terrified
01:45of it? Now it's just something in June. Now to be fair, WWE is set to reduce these in 2022,
01:51so we shall wait and see, but the best stories build to these insane affairs and aren't just
01:55fitted in because that's what the calendar says. Number 8, Really Long Pay-Per-Views.
01:59I was there. WrestleMania 35, New York, it was fun, I was pumped, and seven hours later I felt like
02:05I'd been given a little bit too much entertainment and I wanted to go to sleep. And I know it seems
02:09silly criticising getting more bang for your buck, but I tell ya, I don't find it very fun.
02:14It's why Mania has now gone over two nights, as I suppose WWE can't help themselves,
02:18and the truth is, anything going that long is going to be a challenge. It kinda took away from
02:22the main event too, as by that time there was no energy left and we were all totally drained,
02:26and I personally even think five hours shows push it. So going an extra 120 minutes? Sheesh.
02:32We've seen numbers creeping up ever since the WWE Network came into existence, as watch time is a
02:37much desired stat, but you do have to pace these things out so most people are left wanting more.
02:42If the fan feels like they've got their fill for life, they ain't never gonna return.
02:45I don't know about you either, but the fear now is that we'll get two back-to-back seven-hour
02:49shows, and I will tell you, I cannot handle this. Number seven authority figures.
02:54This was more than fine for a while, truly it was. It kind of grew to prominence during the
02:59Attitude Era as Mr. McMahon dominated proceedings, and I get why WWE wanted to keep going back to
03:04the idea. We had success with it once, so why not again? Well the simple reason is, eventually
03:08we'd pass the point when it was still a creative endeavour, but on and on it went. It's even stranger
03:13as WWE has found the perfect way to present this role in 2022, and they fired him. William
03:18Regal was awesome at this in NXT, and while Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville do a solid job
03:22in their positions, they have now become the cliched evil bosses that try and screw over
03:27all their employees, and it's just not needed. You're also always going to struggle given
03:31the connections Vince had to the company, Eric Bischoff used to do that role across the
03:34way, and Triple H was also tied into the family legacy, so when they were being referred
03:38to as the top brass, at least you could justify it. Really, it's become a device that has run its
03:42course, so that's an area we could discuss far more wildly with WWE. Really, it's time to hit
03:47reset on both Raw and SmackDown, given they've been the same for over 20 years. I don't think
03:52it's going to happen. Number six, the actual authority. And surprisingly, all this did indeed
03:56go past its peak when we last did it on a huge scale. I wouldn't call the authority a failure by any
04:02means, but there were issues. The Daniel Bryan situation has been well documented, and there was also
04:06the fact that while Triple H would often get his, Stephanie McMahon never would. The
04:10Mega Maniac manager has to get their canuppance at some stage, otherwise there's no payoff for the
04:15audience. When the Bryan story was done too, we just took Roman and tried to repeat the magic,
04:19and we've already talked about that. For better or worse, it just didn't click, and nobody else
04:23really benefited. This wasn't a Steve Austin of The Rock situation who did come out the other side
04:27bigger than they were going in. So it was just something to do because we did it before, or a
04:31structure we knew how to work around and within. And again, I don't want to keep going on about it,
04:35sometimes you just gotta do something new. Number five, name changes. I really don't care
04:40about this. I have so many real issues in my life, I just can't bring myself to get mad because WWE
04:45changes somebody's name. However, that doesn't mean it isn't really stupid, because it is. And look,
04:50there is a reason to do it here and there. If you've got a fresh face superstar and you want to
04:54create them in your own image, awesome, go nuts, makes sense. This isn't what usually happens though,
04:58because instead we take Walter and we make him Gunther. We tell Matthew Riddle he can't be Matthew
05:03anymore, Biggie Langston loses his surname, and Bron Breaker is secretly a Steiner, but don't you
05:07dare say it out loud. You gotta treat your audience with respect, and this simply doesn't. You're being
05:12asked to just go with some flow, even though some of the individuals, e.g. Walter, have been long
05:17running champions in the same company. It's like me being asked to be called Derek Manpower, which would
05:22be my NXT name if you care. You ain't gonna do it though, you're gonna go, shut up Simon, and then I gotta go cry
05:27in my room. Number 4, Brand Warfare at the Survivor Series. Aside from another idea that's simply in
05:32need of some freshening up, WWE's decision to just cross the lines of the brand split throughout the
05:37year has taken the concept in November and buried it even before you get there. I mean, how can anyone
05:41be that excited when we've seen wrestlers jump ship for the past 12 months while also telling us they
05:46don't care if they're on Raw or SmackDown? You can't just wave a magic wand and say that everyone is now
05:50ready to bleed red or blue. It doesn't work, and it falls back into that territory of, well, we always do this,
05:55so we'll do it again. No! There's also no stakes to this battle, so why would anybody put their best
06:00foot forward? It still seems strange this doesn't tie into the Rumble somehow, much as that ties into
06:05WrestleMania. But hey, it's not gonna happen now, we are too far down the line. Number 3, The DX Rub.
06:11I am gonna go out on a limb and say we are probably done with this specific one now. Triple H has far
06:15more important things to worry about, Shawn Michaels is down in NXT, Billy Gunn is with AEW, Road Dog got let go,
06:22and Shawn Waltman is just being a really good dude on the indies. So I don't think
06:25it's on the cards for a good old while. There was this prolonged period though, where almost like
06:29clockwork, DX would get back together and just wreck the stars of today. It happened to Damian
06:34Sando, The Revival, Elias, we got the opposite with Finn Balor and the club, but that was a little bit
06:38odd. I get you want the big names from yesteryear to try and shine a spotlight on the new guys,
06:42but that's never what really happens. It just becomes an avenue to do some nostalgia with some
06:46rookie being murked. Given that Goldberg beat Bobby Lashley only recently, I feel WWE will stick with
06:51this until this generation becomes the old guard, and then amazingly we'll try and switch it. You
06:55know what too? It's probably gonna work. Number 2, developmental. The idea of a wrestling
07:00developmental system is a very good one. I suppose this goes back to Jim Cornette's vision of what
07:04OVW should be, where he took greenhorns when it took to make it in the WWE, so that when the big
07:09leagues needed a new face, they could see who was ready to give it a go. Triple H turned this into
07:13something else with NXT, even if that did morph into a go-to promotion for awesome independent talent,
07:18but still. There was a production line of guys and girls being prepared for their futures and the
07:22odd success would come through. That sentence was the problem however, as it shouldn't be the odd
07:27success. For some reason, WWE seemed to think that they were pushing somebody else's talent. Before
07:32long, it literally did become a case of cutting your teeth down in Florida before you got some buzz,
07:36when Vince McMahon would change everything about you. It begged the question what the point of all this
07:40preamble was, and honestly, it helped nobody. Talent felt like they were being misused,
07:44the powers that be thought that they knew better. It was a mess. It's why NXT 2.0 will hopefully
07:49breed better results, but even then, the checklist for what makes a WWE superstar is now so specific,
07:54it takes away a lot of the fun wrestling is all about. Really, I could have summed this up in one
07:58sentence. Let's just hope with all our hearts, Bron Breaker smashes it. Otherwise, rut row.
08:04Number one, scripted promos. WWE began scripting their promos somewhere around the year 2000. You know
08:10what? Good for them. If somebody needs a helping hand, this should be on offer, and even Bryan
08:14Danielson said recently he enjoyed the process. The problem is that this became mandatory for
08:19everyone, and that's just silly. Some birds can't have their wings clipped. They need to fly.
08:24Instead, you had to break through the ceiling to get this honor, like a John Cena, but even then,
08:28he was somewhat tied. His position just meant he could riff with the material and get away with it.
08:32When you have someone like Steve Austin saying he likely wouldn't have been the star he was if he had
08:36to go through this though, how is that not enough? Some of these scripts are bizarre too and make
08:40human beings sound like they'd come from another planet, and that's just not relatable. I don't
08:44think we need to draw a line under them entirely, but picking and choosing our moments would be
08:48appreciated. I think AEW has shown that you can get some true magic when the cuffs are off,
08:52and there's plenty of WWE employees who could do this too. They're just not allowed. I find that quite
08:58odd. Know of any other bad WWE ideas that lasted for years? Make sure you let us know in the comments
09:02below, and don't forget to like the video, share the video, and subscribe. Then head over to
09:06whatculture.com where you can read articles like this with your eyes. Make sure you come watch another
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09:14thank you very much for joining me as always, and I look forward to talking to you again very, very soon.
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