Brand Split in 2002 was the first big catalyst even if the first draft was actually really interesting.
You needed twice the amount of stars to make it work. With the WCW stars buried and Rock and Stone Cold on the way out it was never going to work. HHH was well overexposed on RAW and it was dreadful. Not to mention HHH wasnât even in shape and was struggling out there.
The RAW/Smackdown exclusive PPVâs were absolute mediocrity. For every Eddie Guerrero vs Lesnar there was a absolute load of bland stuff to put yourself through.
Shouldâve axed the whole thing went back to the old formula and push through with Brock Lesnar.
Late 2003 Summerslam and Survivor Series were very, very good, I thought.
And when the rosters effectively âcame togetherâ at these main PPVs (Goldbergâs altercations with Lesnar, Vinnie McMahon trying to talk to his son Shane o Mac about a father and son fighting two brothers), it felt like two worlds colliding. I liked it.
RR 2004 and WM 20 wasnât all that good. It started a slow disabandonment of WWE from that point for me (although ECW One Night Stand piqued my interest)
Would have signed for WWE myself. Itâs all well and good now in AEW that everyone is missing but WWE has its own crisis too and definitely needs bodies to fill in 5 hours of TV(excl. NXT) every week.
I liked Liv winning MITB, but I didnât think she needed the title on the same night. Her cash in was a bit weird too, Ronda wasnât particularly beaten up from her title defence and shouldnât have just gone down with a roll up.
WWE have gotten rid of the womens MITB case within 24 hours of the ppv on every occasion except the first one. They could at least pretend to be interested in telling a better story with it and Liv could have been a good person to do that. Unfortunately sheâs the kind of character who is much better in the chase than I suspect she will be with the prize.
Rest of the show was alright. It suffered for Romanâs absence definitely. I kind of get the irritation over Theoryâs win. Up to this point WWE have told quite a good story with him. Theyâve played off the way people didnât like Cena and Roman being so manufactured as top guys and used it to get Theory over as a heel, which ironically was getting him to the point where you could see how an organic face turn might happen further down the line. Mid-card title was a perfect spot for him for now, MITB was a year too soon in my view, and this is definitely a mis-step with his character.
In other news I read/heard Montez Ford could be in line to be pushed towards being a top guy. Absolute yes to that, the man is a beast and phenomenally talented all round.
Yeah I think the Street Profits have run their course now and theyâre teasing that thereâs tension between the 2. Think Dawkins could turn on Tez tonight
I fear for Dawkins. Heâs proper fucked without Montez Ford. I remember he was lingering around in NXT before being paired with Ford. He was in that Kona Reeves boat.
Not sure heâll last long without him.
Yeah I can see them trying to give him a mid card push but it just wonât work. Can see him eventually being future-endeavoured. I bloody hope not because hes a great worker. I think if that fails I can see him being a heel manager, got the charisma for it.
Liv has âshort title reignâ written all over unfortunately. Perhaps theyâll surprise me positively like they did with Cody but you can definitely imagine Ronda squashing Liv and Charlotte returning at SunmerSlam.
It felt very much a Ziggler cash-in moment where they gave him the moment but they werenât really going with him.
