What we learned from watching the WWE this week: April 28, 2017
There’s no hiding it; the WWE had a bit of an off week. Considering this was a go-home show for Raw, our excitement levels for Payback are collectively pretty low. The week did get progressively better, however, and there were still some decent segments to talk about, but all in all, we won’t be remembering very much of the action before too long. That being said, here is what we learned from watching WWE this week.
#1 ‘Go-home’ shows aren’t as important as they used to be
Back in the days of the attitude and ruthless aggression eras, go-home shows were part and parcel of the WWF/E product. The content overall was generally better back then anyway, but when it came to the Raw or SmackDown before a PPV, you expected that little bit more. Go-home shows today just don’t fulfil the purpose they used to. If it wasn’t for the commentators constantly reminding us, we might not otherwise be aware there was a PPV scheduled for the end of the week a lot of the time.
Many subtle changes have made WWE’s modern era distinguishable from the 1980’s and 2000’s, but one obvious factor is the WWE network. Gone are the days in which the company had to promote and encourage people to buy their PPVs for $40-50 each.
Nowadays if you’re a wrestling fan, you’re probably a subscriber to the still very reasonably priced network. This, unfortunately, means the writers don’t have to try quite as hard to get you excited for the upcoming event, and it’s also the reason why we get so many last minute matches thrown in with no backstory or payoff.
This week was a shining example of this. True, promoting matches is slightly more challenging when you’re in the middle of a superstar shake-up. Jericho and Owens couldn’t have a face to face altercation for example, but looking at Raw as a whole, nothing was really done to get us ready for this Sunday. The main event of the show had nothing to do with anything Payback related. As of this moment, we aren’t even expecting an IC title match between The Miz and Ambrose.
It is always a shame when a company feels it doesn’t have to try as hard to get our attention, but I suppose this is the genius of the WWE Network. Once you’ve subscribed, it will take a lot for you to back out.