WWE's Product Has Been Pretty Blah Since Payback

After an underwhelming WrestleMania as far as storytelling was concerned (but still an incredible spectacle), WWE marched towards a supposed new era by installing Shane McMahon as the figurehead of Raw. Good wrestlers, which I’ll define as being entertaining to me, were being called up, signing from other organizations, and/or returning from injury. A month of robust rivalries and logical writing culminated in a lit crowd for the Payback event in Chicago.

The three weeks since then have all but squandered the momentum (Stephanie McMahon joined her brother Shane in charge of Raw, which is as much a nod to an older era of WWE as it a signal of a new one). Consider this an airing of grievances:

1) Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose don’t need to be feuding anymore.

Two months ago, Dean Ambrose might have been the most over face in the company. Now, after getting squashed by Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania and remaining in a feud with Chris Jericho that he already should have won at Payback, Ambrose is a total afterthought. Is this the most productive use of his time?

2. Why are Gallows and Anderson jobbing to the Usos?

Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, the supporting cast in AJ Styles’ faction, recently joined WWE from New Japan (where they already had a history with Styles). Because Styles is feuding with Roman Reigns, who’s finally in the midst of a heel turn but is still getting way too much microphone time, Gallows and Anderson are mixed up with Reigns’ cousins (or maybe some other relation?), the Usos.

It’s tough to write pieces like this without sounding mean, but if we’re supposed to believe that Gallows and Anderson are formidable, and they certainly appear that way physically, this shouldn’t be happening:

“But pro wrestling is fake and wins and losses don’t matter,” is the obvious response to this. However, there’s a reason that Roman Reigns has literally never lost cleanly in WWE. How they build you up matters in your long-term arc, and when Gallows and Anderson are dropping televised matches to an also-ran tag-team it’s an explicit signal not to take them seriously.

3. Why the hell isn’t Sasha Banks on my television?

Sasha Banks has been on Smackdown — where, as an aside, Mauro Ranallo’s enthusiasm is an absolute breath of fresh air on play-by-play — but she’s been totally absent from Raw, which is WWE’s flagship programming. Darren Young’s mentorship from Bob Backlund is already boring. R-Truth and Golddust get built up for six months and are now on every show for silly comic relief, but Banks, arguably the compelling performer on the whole roster, is being withheld. Apparently, she’s not hurt:

There is nothing bad about Natalya, but her feud with Charlotte Flair, who’s already great, lacks juice. Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Paige, and Bayley (who’s still down in NXT) are all more interesting. You’d have to hope that the long-term story for Banks is a planned feud with Charlotte, but Natalya in this spot now feels like filibuster, and it seems like poor planning that they couldn’t figure out any way to keep Banks busy in the meantime.

It’s actually pretty frustrating. WWE has its deepest young roster in years, but outside of the four-way feud between The Miz, Cesaro, Kevin Owens, and Sami Zayn for the Intercontinental title it feels like they’re not being matched up against each other in the optimal ways. Last night was a go-home show for Extreme Rules, and it didn’t do anything to justify carving out the last block of the weekend to watch. (I’ll still be doing that anyway, but it’s my job, and that’s besides the point.)

In the next month or so, WWE is going to re-insert John Cena, Seth Rollins, Bray Wyatt, and Randy Orton into the storyline. There is a delicate line to balance in making these returns feel like big events, and limping along to them when they objectively don’t have to. There is a lot of latent potential for the product right now, and it’s a frustrating reminder of the peaks and troughs of the last 15 years when WWE goes through monthlong stretches of not utilizing it.