KB’s Review: This Isn’t Complicated

How many times have you heard something like this: “There’s too much WWE TV.” “They need to cut down on all this content.” “Go back to two hours for Raw!” And I’m sure there are several other versions of those exact same statements. Ignoring the business aspect of the whole thing, I can’t say I completely disagree. If you throw in every regular television show WWE produces (Monday Night Raw, SmackDown Live, NXT, 205 Live, Main Event), you have eight hours of television per week, which isn’t even including the even longer monthly pay per views.

Now flash back with me to the two nights after WrestleMania 34 when all of the new names are called up to the main roster. You know the shows I’m talking about. These are some of the most exciting evenings of the year as you get to see whom some of the new talents will be, many of whom you already know from NXT. This year was no exception, with several fresh names coming up to the main roster. If history tells us anything, this should be the biggest layup around. Naturally though, that’s not in the cards for WWE and it seems that they’ve botched things again.

On the post WrestleMania Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live respectively, the Authors of Pain and Sanity debuted and were announced as coming soon. The Authors showed up that night and won a squash match over Heath Slater/Rhyno. They have since wrestled two more matches on Monday Night Raw (the longest was under three minutes) and one more on Main Event (which nearly hit five minutes). They haven’t wrestled or appeared on Monday Night Raw in the month of May. Sanity on the other hand has yet to debut and aren’t even getting vignettes or graphics at the moment.

At least they made one heck of a first appearance.

The Authors of Pain debut on Raw against Heath Slater & Rhyno: Raw April 9, 2018

Where do I even begin? How about how much time could it take to make something like these acts work? The Authors of Pain are big monsters who should be able to win squashes in about a minute each. Throw in entrances and post match glaring and you’re looking at about three minutes at most. The same is probably true of Sanity, even with a three man team. How long could that take? Five minutes or so? That’s asking for too much television time?

Think about how much time on either show is spent on something expendable. How many times is there something like a recap, a dumb segment that takes more time than necessary and advances things that could be done much faster? This week’s Monday Night Raw saw the B Team Memorial Day Barbecue which had a segment setting it up and then the segment itself, which seemed to be nothing more than comedy. The following night on SmackDown Live, there was a dance off between Lana and Naomi for the sake of setting up a six person tag the next week.

Are you really telling me that those segments were all necessary? There was nothing else that could have been done to set those things up? The B Team segment was all about tag teams and the Authors of Pain still couldn’t make an appearance. On the other hand the dance off could have been cut down to a short segment shown during the entrances of the six person tag, which could have taken place either last night or next week.

It’s been a long time, but do you remember this one?

SAnitY are on their way to SmackDown LIVE: SmackDown LIVE, April 24, 2018

The problem with the whole thing is that these teams were big successes in NXT (the Authors of Pain are the most dominant team NXT has ever seen) and they were hyped up as big deals on the post WrestleMania shows. That’s the problem right there: these teams were announced by WWE and treated as someone who should be moving up but now they can’t even get on television for the sake of a two minute squash match? It’s not like you need some big, full blown story for them. Just get them on TV and figure the rest out later on.

Are we really to the point where WWE is already changing their minds on someone like this literally weeks (if even that long) after they’ve been announced as moving up to the main roster? They really can’t put things together that far in advance? How hard can it be to find some local talent and have them take the Last Chapter or Eric Young’s wheelbarrow suplex? The Authors of Pain and Sanity can then say a little something about having a bigger goal or whatever other vague statement they can make and we move on until something is there for them.

But no, instead they were brought up and not even presented on television more than a few times between the two of them. This is where WWE and NXT continue to have issues working together. How many times can you think of someone being brought up from NXT after a great run down there and then either not being featured whatsoever or just being left to rot with something worthless? This is nothing new, and that’s not a good sign. Consider the following:

Ascension. Longest reigning NXT Tag Team Champions of all time, called stupid by commentary less than a month after debuting, beaten up by APA and New Age Outlaws.

Adam Rose. Should be the easiest house show opener of all time. Turned heel and gone in short order.

Finn Balor. Remember when he was the Demon in NXT and looked completely unique and awesome but then got to be the Demon maybe twice on the main roster? Yeah that was great.

There’s no place for something this cool on the main roster?

The Demon King makes his presence known on Raw: Aug. 15, 2016

Tyler Breeze. Spent YEARS turning himself into something cool down in NXT but can’t get out of comedy jobber status for years on main roster. Finally finds something and never even gets a token title reign.

Big E. Great talent with all the potential in the world, gets one one Intercontinental Title reign that meant nothing and is promptly dropped until New Day saves his career, albeit not in the way it was expected.

I could go on and on but you get the point. The difference between those acts listed and the two current ones though is very simple: at least they got to appear on TV for more than five minutes before having their plugs pulled. It’s such a waste of time and effort, not just on WWE and NXT’s parts but for the fans as well. Why should I get interested or fired up over seeing some names announced as appearing on television and then not even get to see them a month after they debuted, if I get to see them at all? How is that a good idea for anyone?

This really shouldn’t be very hard but for some reason, WWE can’t seem to make any of this work. Why is it such a hard task to have talent presented and then bring them to television? NXT manages to pull this off every single week yet WWE can’t do it a few times a year. If WWE has no idea what to do with these people, leave them down in NXT for a few more months so you can get something out of their talents. It’s only screwing with the fans and that’s the last thing WWE should be doing.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 27 wrestling books. His latest book is the NXT: The Full Sail Years Volume III: From Dallas To New Orleans.

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