PWTorch.com - CALDWELL: What is WWE emphasizing coming out of TLC?, the answers capture the downfall of WWE's booking approach

CALDWELL'S TAKE
CALDWELL: What is WWE emphasizing coming out of TLC?, the answers capture the downfall of WWE's booking approach

Dec 15, 2014 - 10:06:52 AM

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By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

What are the top stories coming out of the TLC PPV, according to WWE through their website?

A dive off a tall ladder (Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt), a controversial and surprising tables match (John Cena vs. Seth Rollins), the survivor of a steel chair match (Kane vs. Ryback), A.J. Lee releasing her fury on Divas champion Nikki Bella, an actual winner of a match (Dolph Ziggler over Luke Harper for the IC Title), and a "first-ever" involving Big Show, Erick Rowan, and a stairs match.

In summary, a crash & burn spot, controversy, surprise, brutality, a scorned Diva, a winner of a title match, and a contrived first-ever match.

What did WWE's website highlight? Dean Ambrose diving off a ladder in a match he was booked to lose, Seth Rollins falling through a table with Cena in a match he eventually lost, Kane swinging a chair at Ryback in a match that he lost, A.J. attacking Nikki in a title match that she lost, Rowan preparing to strike Big Show in a match that he lost, and Ziggler standing tall in a match that he ... won. Complete with a headline on Ziggler's "title triumph."

It's one thing to help cover for the wrestlers booked to lose on PPV, but another thing to de-value the significance of winning and losing matches. Sunday's PPV was a by-product of WWE over-emphasizing superficial things like moments, controversy, surprises, crash & burn spots, etc., and de-emphasizing winning and losing mattering over a lengthy period of time. Now, winning a match, as was the case with Ziggler, gets lumped in with the other superficial events on a PPV.

Not pictured on WWE's website was the result of the Tag Title match - The Usos won via DQ, but The Miz & Damien Sandow walked out standing tall with the belts while getting the spotlight on the way to the back. If wins & losses mattered, the visual emphasis would have been on the Usos (a) getting the win and (b) being denied the Tag Titles due to Miz internationally getting his team DQ'ed. Instead, the champs walked out getting their shine, the Usos were denied their reaction shot vowing to get revenge on the champs, and WWE moved on.

As I wrote about extensively in my Roundtable Review of the TLC PPV for this week's PWTorch Newsletter and Greg Parks and I talked about on the post-TLC Livecast Sunday night, this captures WWE's short-sighted booking approach trying to fill the holes of incomplete stories. We especially saw this leading into and at TLC, which felt like Survivor Series Take 2. Right now, WWE is leaning heavily on over-emphasizing events/moments that generate an immediate, "fast food" reaction rather than creating and following through on fulfilling stories where a winner and a loser matter and the writing draws out real emotions from the audience.

There is also the issue of long-term selling, where wrestlers recover too quickly, reinforcing what WWE is telling the audience that this is happy fun time using "toys" on a playground. As a result, the audience disinvests from the action and waits for the next moment.

It doesn't help that the announcers treat many TV matches like background noise while they argue about unrelated topics and crack jokes instead of enhancing the action inside the ring. Which, based on what we learned from Vince McMahon in his podcast interview with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is directly tied to how the announcers are produced by the voice inside their headsets.

The result is audiences investing more in spots than matches, more in surprising events than characters, more in moments than match outcomes, waiting for something to chant for rather than waiting for a match to unfold. It's nearly impossible to get real heat on heels and the Sami Zayn reaction for babyfaces in this environment. Only Dolph Ziggler got the Sami Zayn reaction at TLC, which was helped by WWE being in his hometown.

But, we saw this last month at Survivor Series when Ziggler was the sole survivor after overcoming John Cena-like odds to take down The Authority. Then, Ziggler went back to losing singles matches on Raw in the exact same fashion as before S. Series. This time around, WWE really tried to emphasize the value of the IC Title that Ziggler won from Luke Harper. Of course, we've seen this story before where WWE hits the reset on Ziggler by giving him the IC Title. Why will this time be any different?

In an effort to make sure everyone below the top line is protected - either by de-emphasizing match outcomes or over-emphasizing moments within matches - wrestlers cannot get over; everyone stays at the same level.

It's why watching three-hour Raws can be such a daunting task when the middle of the show is filled with watered-down characters having inconsequential matches while the announcers talk about a random topic and the crowd waits for a "moment" to react to. Lately, it's been waiting for a fight or skirmish to break out. Not in the ring, but in the crowd.

This is WWE's booking approach. It's why Dolph Ziggler has been hitting his head on the proverbial glass ceiling for years because he hasn't been able to crack the top line into "protected" status like John Cena, Roman Reigns, and Rusev were on this PPV. Will anything change or be restored? For Ziggler and WWE, creatively? Both require disciplined, long-term approaches. But, WWE has shown over time that they don't have the patience for either.