wrestling / Columns

The Wrestling 5&1: Analyzing The Draft

October 14, 2016 | Posted by Tony Acero

Image Credit: WWE

Hello again, world of wrestling fans! It’s the third edition of the reinvigorated Wrestling 5&1, and as I chow down on a chicken bowl from Chipotle, I find myself wondering about the finer things in life, such as a fresh bottle of Mountain Dew, and an extra-large Slim Jim. In all reality, I think I’m just a bit too hungry to write this column, but we’ve got deadlines here at 411, and Larry expects at least a modicum of professionalism from me. After considering what I just listed as food, it’s a wonder I’m not a chubby kid in a basement with Cheetos fingers. Today, we’re going to talk a bit about The Draft, celebrate the life of a man whose spoken word motivated me on more than one occasion, and also the art of Bliss.

Shall we dance?

FIVE

Analyzing The Draft

Very rarely do I look to the IWC with ridicule and/or disdain. After all, I am a huge part of said collective. In fact, one could argue that I’m a much larger part than most considering I write for a website that dishes out news and opinions on a daily basis. If you’re at all like me, then your Facebook is flooded with clickbait, wrestling opinions from a variety of people, and the typical political jargon (as well as baby pictures…good lord, a whole lot of baby pictures). One trend I’ve noticed over the past couple of months is just how much The Draft has “sucked”, or has “destroyed Smackdown.” I know not all of us share this particular feeling, but I’m noticing a lot of disdain for The Draft that has finally led me to believe that we will literally find ANYTHING to complain about in this world of wrestling that we live in.

Look, I had a podcast for a number of years in which my audience grew namely due to my ability to always find something wrong with the product, so I’m aware of the adage that no one wants to hear good news. This draft, though, has changed the WWE for the better, and there’s a few specific reasons why. Should we do a list?! LET’S DO A LIST!!!

Back to the Basics
One constant complaint I had about the WWE post Draft was that they had no idea how to tell a compelling story without fucking it up somewhere down the line. Often times, they started with a premise that was relatively simple, then somewhere in the middle of it all, they lost traction and went off the rails. Something happened after The Draft, though. They went back to basic storytelling. They infused real-life issues that ANYONE could relate to, and they let the story tell itself. Want an example? Let’s look at The Miz and Dolph. (Something my buddy Jeremy Lambert did a couple days ago). This story here didn’t even START with Ziggler being involved. It was a throwaway segment on an after-the-big-show talking point where Miz cut an amazing promo that felt all too real. But why did it work? Why did it hit us in that little segment of our brain that yearns wrestling? Because it was BASIC. It was simple. It was organic, and it was REAL! You could feel the frustration that The Miz had inside, and love him or hate him, he wasn’t wrong. This wasn’t an argument over hair product. This wasn’t a John Cena fighting for “us” every night. This wasn’t an underdog story. This was a pissed off man that we hated, but demanded respect. Now how cliché is that? And yet…it worked.

You see, there is a long-standing belief that there are truly only seven different stories to tell, and in Wrestling, I’d argue that there are even less. For whatever reason, the WWE’s writers really lost themselves in the shuffle of “weekly episodic television” to where everything “daring” that they tried to do simply came off as dumb. They used bad humor, and subjected us to toilet jokes and poopy promos. The Draft has seemingly stripped that away and focused more on character than anything else. These seven stories are still being told, but it’s the characters that are moving them along, and it’s the characters that are finally getting a chance to shine in a way that doesn’t seem forced or asinine.

Change of the Guard
Speaking of stars, there’s a bevy of them that have recently stepped up to the big leagues and have YET to disappoint. I spoke in the last column about Kevin Owens, but what about the awesome (albeit short-lived) rise of Finn Balor? What about Naomi’s resurgence? And can we all just a take a moment of Bliss to speak about Alexa? Would these names be in the conversation at all before the draft? Arguable. And yet, here they are, shining bright as ever, and being given chances that WE asked them to have! Get that, people?! WE wanted this! I know I did. I was tired of The Bellas, Cena, and even to a degree, Seth Rollins as they were. We needed a shot in the arm, a kick in the ass, a new face to run the place…

Ah yes, what a beautiful segue, Tony! AJ Styles is the prime example of what we have come to see after The Draft, and how well it has been. Find me a person who has sad something bad about AJ Styles run in the E, and I’ll show you a liar. LIAR! Styles has KILLED IT! Styles IS killing it! Styles is…Phenomenal. Yes, we can point out that his rise started well before The Draft, but the truth is that he is now THE FACE of a show! He IS Smackdown! He is the anti-Cena, and everything you want in your heel champion. He is every bit as different than Owens that you need him to be, and yet they’re both heels. They stand alone on their own shows, and AJ has brought a very much needed prestige to a title that very well could have got lost on the “B” Show.

Asking for Trust
This is perhaps the most important change that has happened since The Draft that I truly think has gone unnoticed. The WWE, for the first time in – I feel – a long, long time, the WWE has asked me as a fan to trust them. Taking Smackdown as a prime example, they did the unthinkable and introduced two title belts that had no prio lineage and asked us to respect them as equal to – if not better – than the very titles that we’ve grown accustomed to. They’ve asked us to no longer look at Smackdown as a B show, but as an alternative, and most importantly, they’ve asked us to trust that they’ll do right by us. I, honestly, am a humbled fan every time I watch Smackdown, because it no longer feels like the show where RAW fodder goes to die. Do you guys remember The Draft of years ago? Smackdown was the bastard blue-haired step-child, and they treated it like that at every chance they got. Sure, we found our niche with The Six, but it was every bit 2nd rate as we believed it to be. That feeling is gone, and Smackdown is amazing.
Then we look to RAW, the flagship, the A Show, and even our red beauty has turned to us and asked for some trust. It’s almost as if the writers tore down the writing on the wall and started fresh on both shows. RAW is very much the RAW of earlier this year, but it’s seemingly more focused, more fresh, and more driven. RAW has asked us to trust them as well. They know what we’re used to, and they’re not going to strip it away, but they are going to add some new dressings (most of which, WE ASKED FOR), and they’re just asking us to give them some time to get their footing. Personally, I think they found it.

With all of this being said, of course there are still some problematic issues with each brand, but that’s more based on opinion than anything else. Some claim the CWC is being done poorly, yet all that really needed was time and focus. Some say that The Club is floundering over on RAW, but that really just needs time and focus. Some say Bray Wyatt is a shell of his former self…ok, can’t help you on that one. I jest, but the truth is, we are being given an opportunity to love wrestling again, and for the first time in a long time, I feel like someone is actually in the WWE working specifically for me, The Fan. I don’t know what’s changed over the course of 2016, but I can feel it, and I have a feeling it all has to do with someone finally being able to stick HHHis Big Nose in the creative side of the business.

Your Turn: How has The Draft changed your perspective on the WWE

FOUR

Celebrating A Life

June of last year, I wrote a column called Learning What Hard Times Meant. It celebrated the life of a man that was a huge influence on my wrestling fandom – as well as my writing. I wrote about my uncle cutting the Hard Times promo on me in his kitchen as a lecture. No, literally, guys. He cut the promo on me as if I was a future opponent who just didn’t get where he came from. It’s a cathartic memory to say the least.

As of this writing, we celebrate the life of Dusty Rhodes alongside his sons who wished him Happy Birthday via Twitter, and I’m sure numerous other ways. It’s interesting to feel a particular way about a celebrity, then see their own family share the sentiment as well. In some ways, it makes me feel almost unworthy to talk about him, because my childhood memories of him were on VHS tapes and stories from my uncle. We’ll never be able to relate to Cody or Goldust, and yet…we try to. Maybe some of you spent the day watching old tapes of Dusty like I did on Eddie Guerrero’s birthday. Maybe you just watched a bunch of promos. Or maybe, you just went all day using that nice twang Dusty was known for. Either way, I’m sure we all celebrated one way or another, so consider this mine.

This is short, only because any longer would be exploiting the man, not enhancing the point. Happy Birthday to the man that gave us The Dusty Finish, Hard Times, a Pay-Windah, and many other moments that will live on much longer than any of us.

Happy Birthday, Dusty Rhodes.

THREE

HARD TIMES

One more moment for the big guy.

TWO

A Moment of Bliss

ONE

Caption Contest

Last time, we saw Kevin Owens take over the cowboy look. Let’s see who had the gem shiny enough to be mentioned…

NEGAN: ” … and then I left his ass at some dirty orphanage in Tijuana!”
Be sure to comment your captions for this week’s contest. Here is the image!