PWTorch.com - RADICAN'S TAKE: WWE tries to re-heat Survivor Series with Microwave Booking, plus Thoughts on Elgin/ROH feud, NJPW, more

RADICAN'S TAKE
RADICAN'S TAKE: WWE tries to re-heat Survivor Series with Microwave Booking, plus Thoughts on Elgin/ROH feud, NJPW, more

Nov 6, 2014 - 12:03:30 PM

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By Sean Radican, PWTorch columnist

WWE continued to fall back on the same booking crutches this past week on Raw. It’s like the Creative team expects fans to react to storylines that for all intents and purposes were cooked in a microwave. If you’re wondering why there’s a reason to care about Team Authority vs. Team Cena at Survivor Series, you’re not alone.

Everyone has been wondering where Vince McMahon has been. And lo and behold he pops up on Raw announcing that he’s going to sweeten the pot for the Team Authority vs. Team Cena match at Survivor Series with The Authority being stripped of their power if Team Authority loses.

We know WWE has a problem presenting top babyfaces that work well together for a common cause. John Cena and Dean Ambrose couldn’t get along, so The Authority pitted them against each other for the right to face Seth Rollins at the HIAC PPV last month. Cena has never done a good job of keeping friends and allies. What does WWE Creative do? They place Dolph Ziggler into the microwave and see if they can warm him up for fans to accept him in the role of Cena’s partner at Survivor Series.

Judging by the reaction to the verbal exchange between Triple H and Ziggler on Raw with Triple H offering Ziggler anything he wants if he joins Team Authority while at the same time reminding everyone that Ziggler has been buried under the glass ceiling, the fans didn’t seem to care.

There’s an inherent problem with the way WWE books their mid-card wrestlers and it reared its ugly head when the fans didn’t react much to him saying that he wanted to see The Authority out of power and would side with John Cena. The problem is that Ziggler has been the victim of even-steven booking that puts him on the same level as anyone else on the mid-card. As a result, fans do not believe in his character.

On the other side of the coin, you might be wondering why the babyfaces haven’t been working harder to usurp The Authority. Are they suddenly getting together because it’s Survivor Series season and what better time for babyfaces to get along than during the Thanksgiving season so that they can band together to rid WWE of The Authority?

WWE doesn’t put a lot of stock in telling multi-layered stories. They simply put their ideas into the weekly microwave and hope they click with the fans. Instead of booking long-term, WWE typically books month-to-month around gimmick PPVs. Instead of feuds building to a satisfying conclusion, they’re often molded to fit into whichever gimmick PPV WWE has on the calendar.

If WWE took more time to book the mid-card to make wrestlers like Ziggler stronger than the competition he faces 95 percent of the time, they could have generated some momentum behind him joining Team Cena at Survivor Series. Instead, WWE had to fit the parts to the PPV mold and the fans reacted accordingly.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Michael Elgin posted a YouTube video this past week talking about how he’s no longer going to do what ROH management tells him to do. It’s clear the angle is a long way from what Brian Pillman pulled off in 1996. Elgin refused to wrestle Caprice Coleman at a recent TV taping and went down to the mat for him to pin him. The fans reacted poorly to the angle according to live reports. In Elgin’s new video, he indicated that ROH management should be looking over their shoulders this weekend, as he hinted he might show up and crash one of the shows at some point. At this point, it doesn’t appear the angle is going to generate much buzz. ROH doesn’t have an authority figure for Elgin to go up against on TV. He’s certainly not going to wrestle Nigel McGuinness. I have no idea what the end game is for Elgin’s current angle, but it’s safe to say Elgin is in a spot I didn’t expect him to be when he captured the ROH World Title from Adam Cole at ROH’s “Best in the World 2014” PPV earlier this year... ReDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) won the NJPW Super Juniors Tag Team Tournament this week beating the Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) in what was said to have been a great match. I’m really looking forward to checking this match out. ReDRagon will get a shot at Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA this weekend at the “Power Struggle” PPV in Osaka, Japan with the IWGP Jr. Hvt. Tag Team Titles on the line in a re-match from the G1 Climax Finals in August. These two teams had a really good match the first time around and I’m guessing they will have an even better match working together for a second time...

GFW officially announced they will be airing NJPW’s “Wrestle Kingdom” PPV from the Tokyo Dome on January 4. The show will air live very early that morning on the East Coast and also air at 7:00 p.m. EST on Jan. 4 on all cable networks with English commentary. If you haven’t watched NJPW before, this is a great opportunity to jump on board with English commentary for NJPW’s biggest show of the year. For purists like myself, the show will be broadcast in SAP, so hardcore NJPW fans in English speaking countries can listen to Japanese commentary. I’m really looking forward to the card headlined by IWGP Hvt. champion Tanahashi vs. Okada. The show will have a four-hour window to air, so buckle up for a great night (or early am) of wrestling...

(Sean Radican has watched wrestling for 28 years and has attended hundreds of live wrestling events from WWE and WCW to ROH and many indy events. He has reviewed hundreds of independent wrestling DVDs and major WWE DVD releases on the PWTorch website and for the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter. He has interviewed many wrestlers over the years for his columns and podcasts including Bully Ray, Rikishi, Samoa Joe, Davey Richards, The Road Dogg, Austin Aries, Antonio Cesaro, Christopher Daniels, Seth Rollins, Zach Gowen, Rhino, and Kevin Steen. He has reported on Ring of Honor for Pro Wrestling Torch since its early years along with the DGUSA/EVOLVE brands since their launch in 2009. He shares his expertise and knowledge of the top indy promotions with his VIP exclusive VIP Audio Show, the Radican Wrestling Community, on a regular basis. Follow Sean on Twitter at Twitter.com/SeanRadican or email Sean at pwtorchsean@gmail.com. Visit and like the RWC fan page on Facebook at Facebook.com/SeanRadicanRWC.)