The problem with WWE's new wildcard rule
Vince McMahon was a part of what could only be described as a bizarrely overwhelming opening segment of Monday Night Raw and came up with a new rule in the process. Of course, it took the surprise appearance of Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan, and Kofi Kingston to spur McMahon's ultimate epiphany, but he eventually came up with the wildcard rule.
The new rule will allow a certain number of superstars to compete on both brands if and when they desire. It will also give both shows access to the company's top superstars, which will be particularly lucrative once SmackDown Live airs on Fox Sports later this fall.
With that being said, however, and the effect of the announcement now starting to wear off, fans are going to be left to wonder how exactly this new rule will pan out and which superstars will be able to compete on both brands. Furthermore, one has to wonder how WWE will determine who can take part in the wild card rule and who can't.
In all honesty, it's not a horrible idea by any stretch of the imagination and opens the door to brand versus brand warfare in the future. Unfortunately for WWE, the problem lies in the lackluster presentation the rule was given, and how it was introduced.
If nothing else, Vince McMahon of all people announcing the idea was a bad move and only opens the door for The WWE Universe to gripe about it. Now, if WWE would have had a superstar introduce the rule, especially someone like Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, or even Kofi Kingston, it would have worked out much better.
Beyond all that, WWE was again very vague about what the actual rules of this new format were and which superstars will be taking part. That means, while Reigns, Kingston, and Bryan all made their way to Raw this week, that might not be the plan going forward. In fact, WWE could just as easily do a bait and switch and have the rule apply to a different set of superstars.
In the end, however, the biggest problem with this whole thing is how McMahon just wrote it off as one of his genius ideas. It wasn't even a scheduled announcement or something that had been hinted at in storylines throughout the last couple of weeks. It was just sprung upon the fans during a bizarre segment that was more confusing than anything else.
Can the rule recover and become something that takes WWE to the next level? Absolutely. The WWE Universe should be ready to see that happen over the next couple of weeks, but the way it was presented was as if it was an afterthought. It in a way also took the wind out of the Superstar Shake-up which happened a couple of weeks ago.