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Disclaimer: This article is an opinion of the writer and doesn't necessarily represent Sportskeeda's views
Vince McMahon said it was time to shake things up around and while many initially thought that meant a draft or an end to the brand split, McMahon offered nothing of the sort. In fact, he just made a bunch of open-ended promises to The WWE Universe, brought his family out and claimed they would do better.
Sure, the moment was enough to get the fans cheering and maybe even lift some of the doubts that have been cast on the company lately, but the company didn't do much to improve on that. Furthermore, WWE is now in a position that they can try anything and it still fits in line with their promise of changes.
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With that being said and this supposed new era upon us, here are five problems with it and what effects it will have on the company long term. As always let us know your thoughts in the comments below and be sure to let us know how long you believe WWE will go along with this new era gimmick.
#6 Reliance on humour
Comedy in wrestling is fine and is sometimes just what a particular moment calls for, but to overly on it is just disgusting. Unfortunately for The WWE Universe, that seems to be what the company is now doing in hopes of winning the audience back, which was lost due to months and months of poor booking.
The problem with this, however, is that WWE's version of humour is sophomoric at best and absolutely crude at worst. For example, The Miz did a backstage segment where he asked for Mr McMahon's blessing in him being Shane's partner. While the moment was awkward and good for a short laugh, WWE's reliance on it is bordering on ridiculous.
Another example of this was the opening segment of Monday Night Raw, where The McMahon family watched Baron Corbin beg for his job. Of course, it was an interesting segment and did the right thing by dangling a final shot at power over Corbin's head, but they killed the tension that something like that could have created in the main event.
Instead, however, they completely made a joke of the idea by having him lose in a handicap match in the first hour of Raw that saw a rogue referee, a WWE legend's return for payback and pretty much everyone destroying Corbin. WWE later put the final nail in his coffin by having Seth Rollins punch him in a backstage segment, which left him in a crumpled heap.
In the end, WWE can do much better storytelling then this and should have at least played with the idea more of Corbin coming back into power. Maybe it didn't need to be the main event of the evening, especially after the home run WWE hit with the Women's gauntlet match main event, it could have at least been booked to at least give Corbin a chance.
#5 Non-existent Universal title picture
What's hilarious about this new era of WWE is that it still looks an awful lot like the previous era that fans were fed up with. One example of this is the fact that WWE still doesn't have an active Universal title picture and while WWE is trying to make up for that with a more prominent women's title picture, it's not an excuse to make the men's title irrelevant
Unfortunately for the part of The WWE Universe that actually believed The McMahon family's words on Raw, it looks like the company is more interested in covering things up than actually making them better. There will be more on that later, but if WWE really wanted to usher in this new era, why would they keep the title on Brock Lesnar?
Here WWE is once again making promises that it has no intention of actually keeping. If they were going to keep their promises of listening to the fans and giving them something new, then Lesnar would have been long gone by now and Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Bruan Strowman, Finn Balor or Bobby Lashley would have taken his place.
#4 Lack of a villainous authority figure
Whether The WWE Universe wants to admit it or not, wrestling needs villains and they also need authority figures. Of course, it doesn't always have to be as outlandish as Baron Corbin's run was, but if there is no storyline element at play when it comes to who's running the ship, it's not going to be much of a cohesive storyline
With that in mind, it was really surprising that The McMahon's didn't start arguing over how to run Raw and Smackdown Live or even have Vince McMahon offer whoever could make things better control of both brands. At least that way there would be some kind of storyline at play with WWE's top figures and it has the possibility to lead to corruption.
It also has the ability to create an underdog situation for Smackdown Live where they finally go toe to toe with Monday Night Raw and come out on top. If nothing else, that would be some of the best storytelling WWE could do right now and would more than serve as a launching point for the road to WrestleMania.
In the end, there needs to be some kind of driving force on both Raw and Smackdown Live. While a babyface authority figure will work for a short amount of time, a heel authority figure would help make Raw and SmackDown Live more watchable. In fact, it could create an attitude era like feel that would definitely help bring fans back.
#3 Senseless pandering to fans
This isn't exactly a creative problem, but it's a concern that needs to be addressed. WWE wants to give the fans what they want.
While that's a nice sentiment to make and definitely a change from their previous decisions, the company is failing to realize that fans don't know what they want sometimes. Furthermore, they don't understand that what they want is sometimes in direct conflict with what is needed to tell a good story.
With that being said, WWE is going to have difficulty telling a story if they keep listening to the fans as they promised to on Raw Monday night. Not only is that evident by the snore fest that was the opening segment on their flagship show last week, but also by their newest stunt to try to keep the audience watching.
In the end, though, this pandering isn't going to lead to anything worthwhile and will only serve to put Raw and Smackdown Live into this conflictless state. Beyond that, it also really takes a way from the stunning cohesion in storytelling that WWE used to be able to pull off, which is all but forgotten now!
#2 Having the wrong guy win
What was WWE thinking?
While some might see it as a great move on WWE's part, Mustafa Ali pinning Daniel Bryan in the main event of Smackdown Live was nothing short of pandering. Beyond that, WWE just handed their company's champion a loss to a guy that has been on the main roster all of one day and has next to zero chance of capitalizing off this.
Sure, he might get a James Ellsworth style role where he comes close one or two times to Daniel Bryan's championship, but those that think he will actually be successful are downright looney. Furthermore, anyone who thinks Ali's win is going to be the start of something big is just downright diluting himself.
This doesn't mean that Ali doesn't have a lot of upsides and is undeserving of the main roster spot he just received, but there's not much they can do with him now. Compare that to someone like Shinsuke Nakamura or Samoa Joe beating him for the title and you start to see the difference in potential.
In the end, Ali will rise in the short term and might even go after a midcard title or two, but it wouldn't be the same if someone like Nakamura, Joe, or even Cien Almas beat him. The point is, there is a lot more they can do with an already established name versus a guy they just pulled from 205 Live
#1 Overemphasis on Women's division
Let's be honest here.
WWE is trying to cover up for their lack of a Universal title picture and extremely slow storyline progression by trying to focus on The Women's Revolution. Of course, this is probably a great thing for the women's division of both Raw and Smackdown Live, but that doesn't change the fact that the company is using this as a distraction.
In all honesty, why else would WWE choose to end the show with an eight-women gauntlet match? Again, that's not a slight on the women's division, but do you think WWE would have done this if they weren't in the booking situation they are currently in? Don't you think they would have focused on Ambrose versus Rollins, Lesnar versus Strowman or something else?
In the end, the pandering wasn't even subtle and that's what's going to make it harder to watch later when WWE forgets about The Women's revolution again. Fortunately for The Women's division, however, Bruan Strowman is still injured and the money isn't right yet for Brock Lesnar, which could mean that the women get a chance to shine for a while longer.
