WWEekly Confidence Index: The Struggle Begins Again

So... the Royal Rumble, you guys. Not waiting until the next morning, I used the WWEekly Confidence Index to solicit reactions from you, the Cagesider. Here are some of my favorites.

Argonaut voted 1 because:

NXT still exists.

I voted 2 for the same reason. But that's as good as any.

StrongStyle81's got a message with his 0.5:

Kiss my ass, WWE.

Arai also votes 0.5, but with a caveat.

The 0 is because I could clearly hear Vince talking at me as the Rumble progressed: "You guys like Bryan? You're stupid, he can't do anything, so he'll go out early. You guys like Ambrose and Ziggler? Please, they're just flashes in the pan. Kane and the Big Show are who you should really be supporting- once you see them taking out those morons you think you like, you'll see! And you'll understand when you see Reigns win- how can you not want Reigns to win?"

The .5 is because I genuinely want to see what they do next: how will Vince react to the boos? How will the company react to the mass cancellations? What will happen on Raw tomorrow? I'm quite excited.

How did they react? By announcing WWE Network's hit a million subscribers. I wonder how many of them are still around in two months when the Wrestlemania buzz wears off. Plus, they gave us Reigns vs. Big Show on consecutive television shows, so there's that.

Dabnis Brickney, first time subscriber, probably first time voter too. He was not impressed.0.5:

I subscribed today. This was my first ppv ever. The disappointment is indescribable.

I feel ya.

While some question warmech's 3.5 rating, he basically says what many of us are feeling:

Triple threat [sic] match was legitimately awesome

Yeah it was.

M. GOMEZ wrote -10 in his comment, but I'm gonna assume he voted 0:

For Vince McMahon to say that he listens to his audience, this was proof that he doesn't. I feel most bad for the wrestlers: Ziggler, Cesaro, Ambrose, Bryan, Wyatt, etc. No matter how good they were at any point last year, Vince was always going with Reigns. That's probably why so many of them got buried. He was never open to the idea of running with anyone else. Our voices and their efforts mean nothing.

And that's depressing.

Aldogg33 voted 1 and is probably as confused as the rest of us:

While NXT continues to deliver, last night shows the main roster needs a dose of intelligence or some hearing aids to hear the crowd turning on the next chosen "face of the company." Forget the fact not a green on the mike and in the ring talent who hasn't improved nearly as much as his two ex stablemates now having to go verbally against one of the best talkers in the industry right now in Heyman and carry the feud TV wise vs a guy who isn't there a lot, is over as hell, and also might be leaving Wrestlemania night and might not care about making the new "face of the company" look like a million bucks. To be honest, I feel bad for Reigns, he might know he isn't ready, we know he isn't ready, but Vince is pushing him to the moon and once D Bry got tossed the whole mood changed and no matter what the crowd was gonna be angry and rabid, and seeing the other big faces, Ziggler, Ambrose and even Mizdow chopped down without fanfare was throwing more lambs to the slaughter.

It gets worse. Rusev, congrats your getting the Cena treatment. Look at how long it has taken to rebuild Bray after his Cena WM match. I feel like Vince doesn't want us to get nice things. That we should enjoy this 80s like booking where the heroes always win and the villains are movie villains and stereo types that worked 30 years ago but not now. This roster has talent and the ability to work, just Vince feels we don't want a bunch of 200 lb men who can go in the ring, but that is what the audience wants.

I feel confused right now about this company, and how they can shoot themselves in the foot so much. Give the fans what they want, not what one guy wants.

I don't get it either. I mean, sabotaging your company on purpose is no way to go through life.

Heel Burgess two-parts his comment with a 1.5 rating:

Once again, mostly for NXT. That Triple Threat was absolutely brilliant, and serves reminder that somewhere, someone in the back knows what they're doing and that the ‘E can, in fact, put on quality matches. But then the Rumble happens. Once Brock won the Triple Threat, it seemed pretty obvious Roman would win the Rumble. As much as Bryan - and 99.9999...% of the IWC (I didn't want the Goat to win) - wanted Brock-Bryan at ‘Mania, Vince is desperate for Reigns to be the face of the company going forward. The best way to build him - in Vince's eyes - is have him go over the Conqueror of the Streak. I understand why they're pushing Reigns. He has the look, he's marketable to the casuals and kids, and the dude does have potential. But it is too early. I guess the best thing about him getting the push now is that the Era of Jern is coming to a close. They were never going to please the crowd yesterday. It didn't matter when Bryan came out or got eliminated - if he wasn't going to win then there was always going to be a riot. The execution was terrible too. So many wasted opportunities: Kofi was in and out before he got a chance to impress with his acrobatics; Tyson Kidd should have been given more time; Bubba's return was the best, but then he got thrown out easily; I'm not sure what the plan was with Bray early on, just chucking people out after 30 seconds; Kane & Big Show just dismissing faces easily left and right before being doubly eliminated by Reigns (gotta look strong); Rusev!!! What the f*ck was that about?!?!? They rang the bell as if the match was over, then all of a sudden here comes Rusev, only to be thrown straight over the rope.

There could be one glimmer of hope. I am sure that Trips and Steph will be tracking social media and Network cancellations. Hopefully they take figures and "trending worldwide"s to Vince. Maybe the threat of his business falling out from under his feet will make him realize he should hand over contr....

Oh. I'll be going then.

40 minutes later...

I completely forgot about the whole Wyatt Family in the ring at the same time thing. Rowan did whatever he was doing, but at some point Harper turned round to face Bray and cocked his hand gun at him. At the time, I was like "SHIT!!! Harper face turn!?!?!?!". Then nothing came from it and they all brawled before Bray stood alone in the ring. What was all that about?

15 people voted 5. ReverendKain is the only one to put his name on it, so I put his comment here:

I have not had a problem hating on the WWE the past few weeks, but lemme be honest about several things.

Yes, Roman was the wrong choice and two years running The Royal Rumble ended to a barrage of boo's.

Last year, WWE managed to fix it. Right now, the opportunity to fix this years results still exist.

The collective feeling is that RR 2015 was worse than RR 2014.

The #CancelWWENetwork trended worldwide last night.

The cancellation page of the WWE Network was either taken down or crashed (discussed in yesterday's Daily).

Vince is banking the future of his company on the success of the Network.

Fans have a direct line to Vince with that cancellation page.

The storm front appears to be completely nixing RAW and Smackdown.

One way or another, this is going to be the defining week for the WWE.

Don't bother with filler shows or clip shows or whatnot.

Don't bother with any replays of anything.

They can take a whole week and plan out how to get things right with the fans.

Every time the E looks this horrible, they manage to pull their head out of their ass just long enough for us to forget why we were so pissed to begin with, even if we only forget for a little while. I am confident this can be rectified.

One can only hope this gets fixed in time for their big show. But I doubt it. Vince seems set in his ways this time. And a lot of people are going to suffer in the long run.

El Cromer votes 1.5 with a very astute observation:

Best bunch of talent in the locker room since early Ruthless Aggression, hampered by the worst creative I can ever recall seeing.

Worst creative ever? Have you SEEN the New Generation Era? If you haven't, this is a very perfect argument to make.

Before I get to the comment of the week, BRING ON THE ZEROES! Since there were plenty of zero votes, we might as well highlight some of those who explained why.

Jenzel:

because now that i know and watch ROH and NJPW, this company has no fucking excuse, since i know good wrestling is possible.

Plan R:

Pros: Fuck This Company

Cons: Fuck This Company

Vidence:

I can almost forgive fucking up the 2014 Royal Rumble, but doing it back to back is unforgivable.

I can't wait until two years from now when Sami Zayn gets eliminated in 5 minutes like a chump, and Balor, Owens, and Itami are tossed unceremoniously by a 2 years older tandem of Kane and Big Show.

Side nugget: Kane and Big Show were half of the final four in the 2000 Royal Rumble match. They  were half of the final four when Bill Clinton was in office. That alone should tell you how poor a job WWE's been in building stars lately.

nsuviolin:

Because, just in case we didn't know it already, Vince confirmed tonight that he truly couldn't care less what fans think, and that he's seemingly incapable of learning from his mistakes....if he even acknowledges them, to begin with.

Also, WWE has a great thing going on with NXT, but I don't wanna pay the measly 9.99/month so I can continue watching that greatness, all because the company is so poorly-run that I just don't wanna give my money to them....that's pretty damn horrible.

DoinkTheBrawler:

Not because the show was terrible or the product the last few months has been shit. its 0 because they have clearly shown they are unwilling to give the fans what they actually want. They have been continuously showing this since the last RR and Im sick of it.

Treybeez:

I

No

Word

Also had the obligatory "Fuck. This. Company." GIF.

DylanGeorge, ex-WWE Network subscriber:

..and it's not Roman Reigns fault, I kinda' feel bad for him.

Painfully awkaward, every bit of it, and that fallout interveiw with The Rock? Made me yak in my mouth a little.

I came back to watching WWE becasue it seemed things have gotten different, but obviously not. Fuck you WWE

IdolStevensNight:

You know what that zero looks like to vince? A fucking brass ring.

I tell you, if it wasn't for another comment, this would have won comment of the week.

Multiverse Heavyweight Champion:

The title match last night was amazing, but we saw what the future holds for us immediately after. A whole bunch of bullshit that most of us aren't interested in, peppered with people we actually want to see to try to convince us to keep watching 3 hours of junk at a time in the hope that we'll see a few minutes from a good performer. Even worse, that's basically what we've been given for years already. They're just getting more blatant with telling us to fuck off for liking something or someone other than what they're pushing as what we're supposed to like.

This time, it's not going to work. I won't pretend that I'm done with WWE entirely, and since this is a weekly poll my view could be slightly more optimistic even a week or two from now, but this week I have absolutely no interest in watching their programming. I'll check out the review to see how bad things got booed, and that's it.

But your comment of the week goes to lofrothepirate. How could he not win it? It got 35 recs as of this writing. His vote was a 0.5.

We all know what Vince McMahon told Steve Austin a couple of months ago - that success in WWE depends on talent being willing to grab the brass ring. That, ultimately, the company was a meritocracy; those performers who go to the greatest lengths to capture the audience's imagination and attention will be the performers the company supports the most. There is a sign in a Performance Center, if we are to believe Kevin Owens's vignettes, that reads, "You're not here to fill a spot. You're here to take a spot." Again - meritocracy, if expressed a bit more viciously. The only limit to your success is how hungry you are to get there.

And the Royal Rumble put paid to all of that. It isn't about making the most of your minutes. It isn't about putting on great matches. It isn't about getting the crowd behind you in an organic way. It isn't even about being in the right storyline at the right time. If it were, Dolph Ziggler would be on the way to that title shot now, the result of a long and difficult road to the top that culminated in the massive cheers he got at Survivor Series. If it were based on creative initiative, it would go to Bray Wyatt, who has so thoroughly banished the specter of Husky Harris that it's like that character never existed at all. If it were based on merit, Dean Ambrose would be getting ready for a battle with Lesnar, because he was the fourth-string babyface who only got called up to the main event because Punk quit and Bryan and Reigns were hurt, and he got so over in that spot that nobody thought twice about why he was there. If it were based on fan support, Daniel Bryan would be getting the match he's said he dreamed of, because the crowd - including and especially me - are still in love with the Cinderella story of the short hairy guy who just happens to be the best in the world.

And none of that matters. It's not a meritocracy. It's whoever Vince McMahon thinks is prettiest. And Roman Reigns - despite his crappy promos, and his relatively shallow moveset, and the fact that he's still young and has many years yet to develop into a true top guy - he wins, because he's the Fairest of Them All.

I would like to say that I like Roman Reigns and wish him the best, even if he isn't My Guy in the way the other three are. In a better moment, that is what I would probably say. But right now, I can't. The end of this payperview is absolutely everything I dislike about professional wrestling. I hate everything Reigns's victory seems to represent.

Brass rings? Don't bother, boys. The only ones who get to reach them are the ones who have them handed down.

Nailed it.

And with that, your WWEekly Confidence Index for February 3 is...

1.05.

Needless to say, the Royal Rumble match made a lot of people angry. More than on e in three votes were for the full Blutarsky, and half the votes were for less than 1. WWE's gonna have to do plenty to restore confidence in their fans over the next two months.

Are they on the right path? Vote and discuss.