WWE Fans: Are We Too Over-Critical of the Current WWE Product?

By: Justice

Recently, I have witnessed similar comments all over the internet. “WWE’s current product sucks!”. While I am not exactly a fan of the way WWE has booked their product since last year’s TLC World Title Unification, I can’ say it’s all bad. Here are some of the biggest complaints about the WWE and why we’re maybe being a bit too harsh.

• Dolph Ziggler

The “Show-Off” is perhaps the most controversial WWE superstar in some time. Fans love him, the company seems to finally back him, he has one of the best years out of anyone on the WWE roster, yet fans still complain that he isn’t getting his fair shake. Ziggler main-evented the Survivor Series pay-per-view and was the sole survivor for his team. He stole the show the next month with his ladder match against Luke Harper. However, WWE fans won’t be happy unless Dolph is a full-time, main event attraction. I, for one, believe he totally deserves the spot in the main event. He has all the talent. However, I am more than happy with being patient. Dolph’s booking as of late is eerily similar to Daniel Bryan’s booking before his first WWE title win a SummerSlam against John Cena. That booking was similar to the “Summer of Punk” storyline that led CM Punk to hold the WWE title for 434 days. I am more than happy to watch a slow build of Ziggler, earning his way into a big main-event spot and winning the title in memorable fashion.

• Ambrose vs. Wyatt

I’ll keep this short and sweet. This feud wasn’t what I expected it to be on the mic. It failed to find its footing, which hurt its chances of getting over with the audience. However, regardless of the outcomes, the matches between these two men have been physical and fun to watch. That, for me, made this feud worth watching.

• “Buried”- Okay guys, if someone loses a few matches, they aren’t being buried. Recently, I have seen an abundance of this word used to describe a multitude of WWE superstars. Dolph Ziggler was “Buried” on RAW this week according to a large group of fans. I hate to break it to you “Internet Wrestling Smarks” but winning a match, getting beat to a pulp, having the rules changed and still only losing due to outside interference isn’t a burial, regardless of the title loss and the “firing”. If that was Cena instead of Ziggler, fans would be upset, saying things like “After all of that, it STILL took outside interference for Cena to put someone over!”. We all have our favorites and we all hate others. If our favorites won every match, that would be super-boring ad we would hate them (See: John Cena). Wins and losses are a part of the game. The same reason as to why Bray Wyatt come out on top in his feud with Dean Ambrose. WWE needs Bray to look strong for a future match at Wrestlemania, so Dean Ambrose lost to Bray at almost every turn. When Ambrose is set for a major push, someone will do the jobs for him. This is how wrestling works. Ambrose wasn’t being buried, he was doing Bray Wyatt the favor of putting him over.

 

• John Cena

Look, we all hate him. We’re all tired of him. We all agree that if he never wins another WWE title again, we would be happier for it. But, Cena is THE guy. Much like Hogan was. Or HBK. Or Stone Cold. Sure, comparatively, Cena isn’t anywhere near the talent of those there men. Or is he? I think it can be universally agreed upon that Cena was a better athlete than Hogan ever was. I also believe that if Hogan never turned heel, he would have lost almost all crowd support, worse than the half-and-half nature of Cena. Hogan added years on to his career with his heel turn. Do we really want to see Cena on top for 6 more years when he turns heel? 4 years of heel Cena followed by 2 years of damage-control face Cena? I don’t. So let him spend the rest of his career as a face.

Is Cena anywhere in the same league as Shawn Michaels? In the ring, no. On the mic, closer, but still no. However, Shawn was a pain in the ass of Vince McMahon. Backstage politics caused Shawn to vacate titles, demand to work with certain talents and generally call the shots, much to the chagrin of Vince. On the flip side, Cena is a good soldier, doing what he is told and offering advice on what he feels the direction of the main event scene should be. It has been documented by many wrestlers that Cena regularly stands up for the locker room. This has helped cement his run on top.

Finally, there is no comparing Cena to Austin, right? Of course not! Austin was the MAN. Stone Cold was the top superstar of everyone’s dreams. He could fight, he spat in the face of authority and was an all-around badass. That is until we take a look closer at another big deal the Internet Wrestling Fans make about Cena. Stone Cold really never put over any wrestler clean with the exception of the Rock. Now I’m going off of memory here, but I don’t remember Undertaker, Kane, Mankind, Triple H, Kurt Angle or anyone else for that matter beating Stone Cold even close to clean. Hell, Austin walked out when he was asked to do just that for Brock Lesnar. On the flip-side, Cena has put over CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Sheamus, Brock Lesnar, Batista, Edge and Randy Orton. To a lesser extent, he has also been defeated with minimal interference by guys like Rob Van Dam, Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler. Sure, Cena has been on top for almost double the time that Austin was, but Cena has a track-record of putting over talents.

I think it’s time to realize that Cena isn’t going anywhere until he wants to. He has stated that he would have liked to turn heel multiple times, but his work with children and the Make-A-Wish foundation is more important to his character.

What it all comes down to is that WWE is not at the top of its game as of late. However, change is coming. So let’s sit back, enjoy the ride, and stop complaining… well until after the RAW after Wrestlemania.