This is WWE

Just a couple days ago, Luis Paez-Pumar wrote up an article over at Deadspin making note of the fact that WWE’s creative is beyond stale and it’s ruining the promotion’s television ratings. I highly encourage you to go read the entire post, but I want to highlight an excerpt that is particularly relevant right now:

The worst offender of this style of WWE booking is unfortunately the one that fans are in the midst of right now: ahead of this month’s Money In The Bank special, wherein a handful of competitors fight in a ladder match for a contract that allows them to cash in a chance for the top titles at any time, the wrestlers involved are fighting all sorts of meaningless matches. The idea is that they’re “building momentum,” a phrase WWE loves to bandy around as if it means anything on what is, you will recall, a scripted show.

Just today, WWE announced the lineups for both Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live next week and literally both shows feature the same predictable formulaic creative:

- A show hosted by a wrestler inviting another wrestler on to further an issue (Roman Reigns on Miz TV on Raw, Kofi Kingston on The Kevin Owens Show on SmackDown)

- Multi-person matches involving wrestlers who are wrestling at the upcoming pay-per-view (A Raw Fatal 4-Way match involving the women in the Money in the Bank ladder match, and a SmackDown Fatal 4-Way involving the men in the Money in the Bank ladder match)

- Paez-Pumar’s aforementioned momentum building matches involving wrestlers fighting at the pay-per-view (Braun Strowman vs. Drew McIntyre and Ricochet vs. Baron Corbin on Raw)

- A contract signing (Happening on Raw, with Charlotte Flair, Lacey Evans, and Double Champion Becky Lynch)

It really is incredible that damn near any fan of WWE for any length of time could have perfectly predicted all this days ago.

This is WWE.