5 Things We Love About WWE
The Storytelling
Especially within the last couple of months, WWE has been doing an excellent job with storytelling, specifically, making an entire episode of Raw or SmackDown feel like a cohesive story rather than multiple unrelated stories forced together.
For example, in the closing moments of the July 29th episode of Raw shown above, they managed to progress not one, but 3 storylines: Samoa Joe/Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre/Cedric Alexander, and The Usos/The OC, all at once during a multi-man brawl and it made complete sense.
The argument began between Samoa Joe and Roman Reigns; when Reigns had Joe beat, Drew McIntyre ran in to attack him, as there was existing tension between them, which spurred Cedric Alexander coming in to save Reigns, as Cedric had recently both been feuding with Drew and working with Roman. When Joe and Drew overpowered Roman and Cedric on the stage, The Usos sprang into action to save their cousin, and The OC came in behind them, as The Usos and The OC were in the midst of a rivalry and The OC had just attacked them backstage.
So we had an 8-man brawl that didn’t come off as random or thrown together at all, as they often do. Instead, it provided a creative ending to an already great episode of Raw and gave 8 performers television time in a way that made everyone feel connected while fueling 3 separate threads of conflict.
The King of the Ring Tournament
The announcement of the return of the King of the Ring tournament sparked a great deal of buzz in itself, but when the bracket was revealed, an unbelievable level of hype built up around the event – and for good reason.
With the 8 matches listed for the first round alone featuring contests such as Cesaro vs. Samoa Joe and Apollo Crews vs. Andrade, chances of the tournament being a tremendous success were high. And the 4 matches that have taken place thus far have brought that theory to life.
In large events like this, or even smaller ones such as gauntlet matches or battle royals, there is a competitor or two that feels more likely to win than the others, or conversely, one or two that seem less likely than the rest.
But with this King of the Ring tournament, all 16 competitors feel just as possible as the next to win the whole thing, increasing the excitement and anticipation for each match even more.
The Secret is Out
Though the time between Buddy Murphy’s departure from 205 Live and announcement as the newest member of the SmackDown Live roster and his actual debut on SmackDown Live was quite long, now that Murphy has been placed in a prominent role on the blue brand, his rise to main roster stardom has been swift.
In a company as jam-packed with incredible talent as WWE, it can be difficult to rise to the top, even when given an opportunity to do so, but Buddy Murphy has more than proven that he can hang with the very best there is.
If you watch 205 Live, you already knew that Buddy Murphy was a next-level talent, but many fans were unfamiliar with WWE’s Best Kept Secret when he appeared on SmackDown Live after allegedly attacking Roman Reigns.
It has become pretty clear that Buddy Murphy was not behind these attacks, but being blamed for them was probably the greatest thing that could have happened to him, as it opened the door for a feud with both Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan, two of the biggest names in the company.
And now that Buddy Murphy has shattered the glass ceiling over the “Cruiserweights” (there is zero chance of him weighing 205 or less), the sky’s the limit for this spectacular Superstar.
Bray Wyatt & The Fiend
During Bray Wyatt’s nearly year-long absence from WWE TV, he kept himself busy by reinventing himself, developing an entirely new on-screen persona. And though it seems likely that much of this new character is Bray Wyatt’s brainchild, the WWE creative team has undoubtedly had a hand in it as well.
Bray Wyatt reintroduced himself as the leader of the cult-like children’s show, Firefly Fun House, eventually unveiling the “secret” he had been alluding to since his return – The Fiend. Wyatt’s sadistic alter-ego, The Fiend, has been wreaking havoc on both Raw and SmackDown Live, attacking Superstars and Legends at random while Bray Wyatt happily sawed the heads off cardboard cutouts of himself and murdered his puppet friends.
This storyline and the events that have unfolded through it are not only probably the best thing going in WWE at the moment, but something that will go down in history as one of the greatest bits of character work/storytelling of all time.
Quality Pay-Per-Views
For the better part of the last year, WWE has been rolling out exceptional pay-per-view after exceptional pay-per-view, a feat made even more impressive by the fact that they run these events every few weeks.
Since TLC 2018, WWE has produced nine outstanding pay-per-view events, not to mention the NXT TakeOvers and specials such as Halftime Heat that have come in between.
And WWE knocked it out of the park once again for this year’s edition of SummerSlam, giving us one of the best pay-per-views in recent memory, not only because of the matches and characters themselves but because everything down to the structure and timing of the show was executed as close to perfection as possible.
