Easily the most talked about moment of the WWE Universe of 2016 – not Daniel Bryan‘s retirement, Titus O’Neil‘s hug or AJ Styles‘ debut – has been the shocking return of Shane McMahon to the WWE. Shane left the company in 2009, handing in his resignation to the company his father built, off the foundations of his grandfather, Vincent J. McMahon, and his great-grandfather, Jess McMahon. He went on to enter the global media business world, seemingly distancing himself from the sport-entertainment industry his family name had grown synonymous with.
From first hand experience (I reside in Windsor, Ontario, across from Detroit), I can tell you that Shane’s return pop was deafening. Perhaps one of the loudest I’ve heard in real life. No one – and I mean no one – in that crowd saw it coming. But what created the most jaw dropping night of nostalgic glee one night, became the hot news story of the day by Tuesday. It was no longer talking about the match against the Undertaker (although it was discussed) but about what this meant to the upper management structure of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. Was Shane going to waltz back into his position of power next to sister Stephanie McMahon or would he have to take a back seat to her 7 years more experience? Why did he leave in the first place?
It didn’t take long for early reports, from Wrestling Observer to Vince Russo, painting a picture of “what they knew”. Essentially it turns into the story that Shane left when he was told that Stephanie would be getting the “keys to the kingdom” so to speak as she was better rounded in the brand knowledge. While Stephanie and husband, Paul “Triple H” Leveque, found a natural ease in the WWE Creative, Shane’s ideas were always considered weak or unusable. Shane had more charisma and was a whiz at the social media boom (he was WWE’s head of Global Media), his knack for the creative side was lacking. He was more his mother’s son than his father’s. But boy could that kid take a bump to impress the old man. There’s probably as much truth in Shane’s words on Monday as there was in CM Punk’s original “pipe bomb”.
Shane and WWE both mentioned in the last day that Shane is currently just an “on air character” and not in any executive position, but how long will that remain?
To be honest, this sounds more like a drama that will actually work out better for those involved than the Young & The Restless psychodrama that the dirt sheets are making it out to be. And for no one more than “The Game” himself, Triple H.
THE BRAND SPLIT: BUILDING A BETTER SMACKDOWN
There’s strong reports from Stamford that WWE is strongly considering a brand split this summer. Maybe not as permanent as the previous debacle, but at least for a while. The idea is that Shane – either at Wrestlemania or a later event – wins control of Monday Night RAW, while The Authority would then assume control of Smackdown (and most likely restrict Shane from being on it). But they should extend that storyline back to the board room and make that more of a reality.
Stephanie and Triple H already reportedly get creatively neutered on Monday Night Raw by Kevin Dunn. No matter how much good they bring to the table, Dunn seems intent on putting his stamp on it, sometimes smothering out the spark that the Leveques had given them to fan the flames of. Shane can remain the authority figure on Raw on television, move him into an senior executive position with the WWE Network, and he can just appear once a week and spend his time using his experience in the past half decade working in the global social media industry to build the Network experience. And don’t think this hasn’t been talked about with WWE Network recently launching in Asia.
But give the entire reigns to Smackdown to Stephanie and Triple H. Dunn and his room of bootlickers can continue to write their Raw with consultation, but let Smackdown run creatively different under a creative team headed solely by Triple H and Stephanie. When Smackdown moved to USA Network in January, talk was that they wanted the show to morph into a better mix of Raw and NXT. So make it the “gateway show”. Triple H has complete autonomy of NXT. Even Vince McMahon can’t pluck a talent from NXT unless Triple H gives it the thumbs down. Hence why Finn Balor hasn’t been rushed up despite Vince’s wishes. But how often has an NXT star gone up red hot and then refurbished by Kevin Dunn to end up losing on Main Event. Sure, there’s been success stories – The Shield, The Wyatts, Daniel Bryan, New Day, Neville, Kevin Owens – but there’s been a lot of busts too. Bo Dallas, Emma, Adam Rose, The Ascension, and most recently Tyler Breeze, have all failed to capture any of the allure they carried at Full Sail. But that’s not Triple H or NXT’s fault.
But what if NXT stars had to make their debut through Smackdown. Let Triple H bring in his own guys to his own show. That way he can personally groom them from NXT to the WWE Universe and help mold them subtly to the WWE mentality, rather than forcing something that’s too drastic and unprepared for the wrestler involved to truly sink his or her teeth into. It will keep new feuds constant, and they can have exclusive midcard storylines with perhaps the IC or US title headlining it’s show. Give them the tag team and Divas championship too. After all, it’s obvious Triple H knows what to do with both of those divisions.
THE DIVAS REVOLUTION
One of NXT’s greatest strengths is its seemingly equal importance of all three titles: the NXT Champion, NXT Women’s Champion and NXT Tag Team Champions. That means that all three are competitive enough to be engaging and that the cast involved are engaging as well. And right now, NXT clearly has that. And they have for some time. During much of the mid-2000’s, it was widely regarded that the TNA Knockouts were a better roster by far than the Divas crop. But it’s safe to say that NXT in the past calendar year has pumped out a better roster than perhaps any Knockouts – Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Paige, Emma, Bayley, Asuka, Alexa Bliss, Carmella, Nia Jax, Dana Brooke. That’s quality. There’s something there for everyone. And the women were utilized in a very spread out manner – they weren’t a separate world within the Universe like the WWE utilizes, they interacted. Some valet the men – like Alexa Bliss with Blake & Murphy or Carmella with Enzo & Big Cass – and also compete in the Women’s division. And they’re no slouches either – they’ve both also competed recently for the Women’s title. With Stephanie and Triple H, the real #DivaRevolution debuted years ago in Florida. It’s only in the infancy in the WWE Universe. But it would gain a lot more traction if it was groomed for the WWE Universe by the parents that know them all the best.
THE HOT TAG
And you know what? NXT may have the best Tag Team Division in North America. I’m not counting when guests from other promotions come in, I mean their company core. TNA has American Wolves and Beer Money, but who’s after that? Only The Decay (Abyss and Crazzy Steve). Nothing else really permanent. Ring of Honor is probably their only equal – The Young Bucks, Briscoe Brothers, reDragon, The Addiction, War Machine and The All Night Express make a pretty formidable stable of tag teams, but a few of them are getting stale from over exposure on the indie circuit. And while their spots are jaw dropping, some of the ring psychology is lacking in longer feuds. But NXT features a great crop of guys who can all tell different stories, using less big time spots for old fashioned storytelling and accentuating the story with the right spot, instead of a machine gun flurry of meaningless pops. Enzo & Big Cass have more arena charisma than any tag team in the past twenty years and it covers up their limited skill set. But it worked wonders for the New Age Outlaws. These guys have a big future in the WWE, probably sooner than later. The Revival (nee The Mechanics) of Dash and Dawson invokes the brutal realism of Arn & Tully, playing picture perfect heels that you have to keep reminding yourself are actually damn good at their jobs because you only hate them because how good they are at being bullies. The Vaudevillains carnival shooter gimmick did well, saved perhaps by the exceptional ring skills of Aiden English and Simon Gotch, and it’s current descent into darker realms is intriguing. Blake and Murphy are great workers. Probably the weakest link gimmick wise, but in ring, are perfect foils. They win just enough to appear a threat every time, even though they lose more than they win. But they make everyone else they face look better. Enzo never looked better in the ring than he did versus them. And is there any tag team more fun to watch than American Alpha? These two are like a more perfect version of the World’s Greatest Tag Team. And no, I don’t mean because of their skin colour. Chad Gable has all the ring skills (if not more) than Shelton Benjamin, but 10 times the charisma. And Jason Jordan is the perfect Haasian foil, with a great enough skill set not to look too behind and enough charisma to unite the gimmick. And that doesn’t even include the impending debut of the Bullet Club. These two work magically in the ring and they’ll be the tag team of the year by 2017. With Vince’s disdain for tag teams though, and Kevin Dunn’s insistence they be more of a gimmick than a serious division, they’d all be wasted debuting on Raw. Again, they need to be working with someone who already knows how to get the best out of them. Someone who understands tag team wrestling and respects it’s place in history. Someone like Triple H. And with as one of Smackdown’s head producers, there’s an added bonus on keeping them focused.
This really could end up a win-win for everyone involved. Especially the fans. We all get Shane back for a bit, cheer at a few silly yet effective big bumps, and watch the WWE Network get better and better, plus we also get a Smackdown worth watching again, complete with the proper ascent of the NXT stars we’ve grown to love into the WWE Universe. And once they’ve proven to Vince they can make Smackdown a better product, while ensuring the future foundations for WWE’s generational future, they can make the move to Raw itself.
It’s all about The Game. And how you play it.
