>Very good wrestlers.
>
>Boring creative.
>
>RAW has been about Steph and Mick since the split. KO is champ
>and that's dope as fuck in a vacuum..... But he's not the
>story. MickMahon is the story.
>
>Rollins is dope.but he's not the story. MickMahon is the
>story.
>
>Rusev and Reigns? Good shit....except, you know, MickMahon is
>the vessel for their story.
>
>I like Mick. Steph is good at her role.
>
>I've said it before though: as long as there's such an
>emphasis on the authority figures the wrestlers will be a step
>down by default. Doing the dual authority figures only makes
>that worse because now we have to watch that dynamic play out.
>
>
>To me that comes at a premium price. It's a creative crutch
>that in itself isn't all that compelling and yet anchors the
>show from start to finish.
>
>There are very good characters right now. Some people are
>hitting homeruns creatively in *spite* of very little
>creative.
>
>Enzo.
>Charlotte.
>Jericho.
>
>All shining in their roles despite bland and mediocre
>storyline material. Jericho is an exception here since his
>role as sidekick to KO is absolute gold.
>
>Enzo pops because of his charisma. He lives and dies by those
>in liners but his charisma and the greatness of the act
>carries the day.
>
>Charlotte is a promo clinic every week despite an uninspired,
>boring, and tired angle with...Dana Brooke?
>
>New day is just zzz zzz at this point. The Club is piss break
>status for me.
>
>I know, I know, I'm an asshole smart fan who thinks he knows
>it all and could write circles around this stuff from the
>comfort of my couch. But this shit is NWO wolfpac era status
>right now. There's a ton of talent but they've got their
>crutch material on cruise control.

Yep. Real life got real over the last month so I'm basically skimming the weekly shows now. I'm usually still in on the ppvs within a day of them happening, and I still enjoy those. Of course, as we mostly agree, the roster is ridiculously good in-ring no matter what the Hart fam says and no matter how shaky the weekly tv is.

But I'm am almost back to where I don't even try to fully watch Raw. The flaws are ever present and obvious. The pace is mostly brutal. And...real talk...Mick is a terrible trope GM.

Anyway, I spend that time on smackdown (AJ! Slater!) and making sure I'm aware of what Broken Matt is doing. He's my favorite character on any wrestling show in a walk...and this is with almost 100% certainty that I'm not dying to see any 'normal' Hardy match. But I'm all in on the pretaped shenanigans. The lead-ins and aftermaths of the battles are all just so well-done and true to the first stuff. And there's no amount of shaky deliveries from Jeff that can ruin it. Jeremy Borash is a supreme documentarian. In between all of the cheesiness, it is a glorious piece of wrestling storytelling. And I'm a sucker for hilarious wrestling tomfoolery. Vanguard1 is the best lackey this side of Arn anderson.