Everything Wrong with the WWE in 2018

[TheGreatShowtime]

It's not just Vince either. You listen to enough interviews, and it becomes clear that there's is a real contempt for the fanbase among people in the WWE. Granted, some of it is earned - hardcore fans of anything can get really annoying, especially when they lack self-awareness - but you get the feeling they'd be happier if all their fans were just mindless drones who never questioned anything or had any real passion for the show. It's weird.


Eh, I think it depends on the kind of fans you're talking about. For people who really value in ring work, yeah, they're going to think more of those types of guys. But if you look at who is really getting the biggest reactions, getting the most TV time, taking up most of the conversation, it's usually guys who can work in the ring and play a defined character: The New Day, Rusev, DB, Seth, etc.

Honestly, the internet drastically changed (or ruined, depending on your viewpoint) wrestling. More people got access to Dave Meltzer & Wade Keller to find out the inner workings of the industry. More people started armchair quarterbacking with this limited knowledge and became vocal on the Internet & at shows. More people are stuck in nostalgia land thinking the product they grew up in was the best and current day wrestling needs to fit in that mold. There's no way to appease all of these "smart" (really dumb) wrestling fans today like you could appease all of the "mark" wrestling fans from 20-25 years ago.

 

[The G.O.D II]

TLDR

 

[TheGreatShowtime]

@TheGreatShowtime i think the Issue with the E is simple... THEY DONT TRY.

They run 3 feuds max for each wrestler for the entire year.

The stories never move forward, u get
the rumble,
post rumble mania set up feud...MANIA... new feud with endless rematches and tag team pairings till Summerslam...
SUMMERSLAM...
NFL SEASON IS BACK FILLER
ROYAL RUMBLE SET UP FEUD... repeat...

They keep the product so cold, when they try to heat up it falls flat because they’ve been on autopilot ignoring the audience all year.

That’s the whole year. No major stories or arc’s, no mysteries or major stories anymore. Just endless matches and “Big Dawg”

We grew up with blood feuds ending at B shows.

Austin v Triple H 3 stages of hell, happened at what would be the equivalent of ROADBLOCK now. Then Austin won the title a month later and turned heel, by that fall he was a completely different character.


Roman been the same for 5 years!!! He gained nothing, no new attire, catch phrases or energy.

shyt is just at constant stand still. That’s the major issue IMO.

I agree. This goes to my point of oversaturation of the product. It's too much coverage with very little variation in the storyline/feuds. A lot of guys like Roman/Ambrose (before the injury)/Sheamus never really took time off, so their characters got very tiresome and bland. The WWE honestly could do with a 2-month offseason. The product is just too stagnant for the constant social media, WWE network, ESPN coverage, and 7-8+ hours of shows every week that we get now.

 

[reigun]

Becky said in a recent interview that she's been pushing for Women's Tag Titles (like going to Vince and everything) for about a year and a half. They got the women out here BEGGING for some kind of tag or secondary title because they know the bookers ain't got shyt for most of them.

Ember Moon, for example, is booked strongly, but to what end? We all know she ain't getting anywhere near that title while Ronda and Bliss are around. Becky and Naomi (and hell, even Charlotte now) are all just on the sidelines with nothing to do. Were not for Sasha and Bayley being surprisingly funny on IG and Twitter, their feud would be falling flat on its ass. The Iconics were one of the most hotly anticipated callups this year and they just turned them into jobbers. Asuka is just like everybody else on the roster now. What is the point of the Riott Squad????

It's been said we've gone back into Divas-era booking and it's getting harder and harder to disagree. The matches are better, but it's obvious no one in the company knows how or cares to write proper stories for the women. Which is a shame, because honestly, the women's division might have the most potential for mainstream crossover in the entire WWE right now.

Coach publicly said earlier this year basically (and I’m paraphrasing here) to stop being sheep and just like what we tell you. I think it was Nash who said it, but I recall a story about a few groups of fans leaving during the Bret vs Shawn iron man match and Vince replying that he’d rather have a half capacity crowd reacting how he wants compared to a packed house cheering what they want.

I do remember that Coach shyt.

It's honestly another way WWE and their talents are just behind the times. Damn near every brand on major Earth, be it Marvel, DC, Game of Thrones, the NBA, or Cardi B, has figured out how to leverage their more passionate fans and create a sense of community. Granted, they have to filter out a lot of dumb shyt - not everything fans say is gold, and the more obsessive ones are annoying at best and downright disturbing at worst - but it's worth it because it makes their customers feel like they're apart of the thing and thus, makes them more likely to spend more money. Sometimes, they even acknowledge outright that their fans were correct about something and change their product for the better. It's not a perfect process, but it's how you play the game nowadays.

The WWE makes a big show about doing this with the "WWE Universe" and all, but it's all so hollow. From calling fans who criticize them "internet fans" like damn near every fukking body doesn't have internet access in 2018 to painting fans at shows like the Raw after Mania as alternate fans who don't react like normal fans do, it's clear they don't mean it.

 

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

Great post. You know some of the best storylines are ones that have been developed by the wrestlers themselves. The entire Undertaker/HBK/HHH arc was basically the three of them getting together and it tied in with Flair's retirement as well but it was all completely separated from the rest of the WWE.

If that wasn't your cup of tea another example would be Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens. That was a cool storyline with the list and the festival of friendship, that was mostly the two of them and Jericho told Vince how it was going to go and they nailed it.

CM Punk had a lot of leeway at times but he was tied down at other times.

NXT storylines work very well like the one with Gargano and Ciampa because it is very simple.. it's a basic storyline but they place emphasis on past continuity. It's old school.

WWE should not be employing script writers. There's no need. They need to book simple storylines and allow the wrestlers to be creative and find their lane.

Stone Cold was a gimmick that he himself designed and of course it was just a tuned up version of his real self.

 

[TheGreatShowtime]

Man, I can't believe I forgot to mention these stupid marathon shows they keep running that are like 6 hours long for the major PPVs. They get upset the fans are leaving/don't respond during the main event. Do they really wonder why?

 

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

Another thing you mentioned they get caught up in pushing the wrestlers THEY want to push and they let shyt slip through their fingers because it wasn't supposed to happen that way.

I actually don't have an issue with Roman or Charlotte. I think both are talented but WWE has invested too much time in try to make them happen.. They have missed out on some true crossover stars.

I think Braun could have crossed over because of his larger than life personality. I definitely think Sasha could have crossed over because she nails down a bunch of demographics, she can be on a comics podcast and then go be on the Breakfast Club and then go be on Good Morning America and she isn't out of place on any of those shows.. Tell me I'm wrong

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

@TheGreatShowtime i think the Issue with the E is simple... THEY DONT TRY.

They run 3 feuds max for each wrestler for the entire year.

The stories never move forward, u get
the rumble,
post rumble mania set up feud...MANIA... new feud with endless rematches and tag team pairings till Summerslam...
SUMMERSLAM...
NFL SEASON IS BACK FILLER
ROYAL RUMBLE SET UP FEUD... repeat...

They keep the product so cold, when they try to heat up it falls flat because they’ve been on autopilot ignoring the audience all year.

That’s the whole year. No major stories or arc’s, no mysteries or major stories anymore. Just endless matches and “Big Dawg”

We grew up with blood feuds ending at B shows.

Austin v Triple H 3 stages of hell, happened at what would be the equivalent of ROADBLOCK now. Then Austin won the title a month later and turned heel, by that fall he was a completely different character.


Roman been the same for 5 years!!! He gained nothing, no new attire, catch phrases or energy.

shyt is just at constant stand still. That’s the major issue IMO.

Taker vs Lesnar 2002 ended at no mercy. HBK vs triple h ended at bad blood. Angle vs Benoit 2001 ended at judgement day. Steve Austin’s last match for a title came at no way out. Eddie Guerrero won the title at a B pay per view and nobody thought it was a waste to do it then. The Hardy’s and E&C and the Dudley’s gave us classic cage matches at unforgiven and the survivor series. We had a six man hell in a cell match at Armageddon, just 5-6 weeks before the royal rumble that tied everyone togetherness in feuds that they’d had all year. All of these feuds and matches came at a time now where they don’t even attempt to make it interesting. A byproduct of actually putting in effort throughout the year means interesting feuds that inspire the fans to tune in.

Honestly, the internet drastically changed (or ruined, depending on your viewpoint) wrestling. More people got access to Dave Meltzer & Wade Keller to find out the inner workings of the industry. More people started armchair quarterbacking with this limited knowledge and became vocal on the Internet & at shows. More people are stuck in nostalgia land thinking the product they grew up in was the best and current day wrestling needs to fit in that mold. There's no way to appease all of these "smart" (really dumb) wrestling fans today like you could appease all of the "mark" wrestling fans from 20-25 years ago.

To an extent you’re right I think. The big problem is just how lazy Vince and his family are. They don’t try at all anymore and don’t want anyone to be over enough to become a mainstream star and have leverage over him. Most of us knew Austin was going over HBK in 1998 and over the rock in 1999, but that’s ok because the stories and characters made sense, progressed to that point organically, and were interesting because time and effort were put into making them interesting.

I agree. This goes to my point of oversaturation of the product. It's too much coverage with very little variation in the storyline/feuds. A lot of guys like Roman/Ambrose (before the injury)/Sheamus never really took time off, so their characters got very tiresome and bland. The WWE honestly could do with a 2-month offseason. The product is just too stagnant for the constant social media, WWE network, ESPN coverage, and 7-8+ hours of shows every week that we get now.

I may have mentioned this before, but a huge issue now that stems from laziness is how they’ll just book the same match over and over. Every feud is a 3 match series and the tv tapings are endless rematches with nothing at stake between guys who wrestle too many matches. This overexposes them and wears them down physically too, leaving them more prone to injury. Look at the Rollins and Ambrose vs the bar feud last year. After 3-4 weeks nobody even knew why they were feuding since it was a never ending stream of rematches and never progressed any of them as characters. That went on for 4-5 months. They don’t do any interviews or segments designed to show new layers to someone’s personality or to get them over. Just the same matches over and over. Think about how rarely we saw Austin compete one on one during a raw taping. All his best moments were segments. When HBK came back in 2002, think about how rarely he wrestled on tv up through about 2004-05. Most of Mick Foley and the rock’s best moments were segments too. Guys can be on tv every week and still remain fresh.

 

[OVER]

Coach publicly said earlier this year basically (and I’m paraphrasing here) to stop being sheep and just like what we tell you. I think it was Nash who said it, but I recall a story about a few groups of fans leaving during the Bret vs Shawn iron man match and Vince replying that he’d rather have a half capacity crowd reacting how he wants compared to a packed house cheering what they want.


The mid card belts are like this too. Miz has been in the IC division for 5 years. 7 years ago he went on last at Wrestlemania. Why isn’t he going anywhere on the card? Jeff hardy is 40 years old. Multi time world champ. Why is he United States champ? Why did 38 year old Cena win that title from Rusev at Wrestlemania a few years ago? 3 years ago Seth Rollins cashed in and won the top title. Now he’s in the IC picture? 5 years ago DZ cashed in and won the big gold belt while doing the HBK and diesel angle with big E. Now he’s working that same angle with drew for he IC belt? There’s no progression or sense of direction for these guys or a sense of moving up the card logically. None of the top guys 15-20 years ago moved backwards on the card like that.

Coach saying Ronda could get a rest while in the bearhug submission handed him the crown for WOAT of the year.

They often give out reigns with the secondary titles to convince guys to re-sign or as a consolation prize to pacify them.

I don't have an issue with former main event guys carrying midcard titles I enjoyed Cena's open challenge matches, they did a good job making you think they had a plan and whoever beat him was going to overtake the WWE, then Del Rio won it.

They will likely throw the US championship on Bryan to get him to stay.

 

[reigun]

Honestly, the internet drastically changed (or ruined, depending on your viewpoint) wrestling. More people got access to Dave Meltzer & Wade Keller to find out the inner workings of the industry. More people started armchair quarterbacking with this limited knowledge and became vocal on the Internet & at shows. More people are stuck in nostalgia land thinking the product they grew up in was the best and current day wrestling needs to fit in that mold. There's no way to appease all of these "smart" (really dumb) wrestling fans today like you could appease all of the "mark" wrestling fans from 20-25 years ago.

True, but that's not unique to the WWE. The internet is full of passionate fans who love but are also never happy with whatever the subject is. My college days were full of wasting time on forums reading people get into heated arguments about video games and what this company or that company should do when it was clear neither participant had any fukking clue how game development works. Same goes for TV, sports, movies, etc. There is literally a petition right now from angry Star Wars fans who want to remake The Last Jedi themselves lol. shyt's crazy, but like I said, you gotta filter that kind of shyt out because the alternative is fans just tuning out because they don't care. You can't please all of them, but the WWE seems content to please almost no one most of the time.

Take ya boy Roman. Whether you like or hate him, his push has been a flop. The guy garners mostly contempt from everyone in the crowd except kids and women, and unlike Cena, it doesn't seem like he has enough of the latter on his side to balance out the former. What's WWE's response? "At least he gets a reaction." They don't care that fans are constantly shytting on this guy and how they use him, that they're saying outright they don't like this aspect of the product. They basically revel in the fact that he makes fans so mad. No other brand on Earth reacts this way to fan feedback.

 

[TheGreatShowtime]

To an extent you’re right I think. The big problem is just how lazy Vince and his family are. They don’t try at all anymore and don’t want anyone to be over enough to become a mainstream star and have leverage over him. Most of us knew Austin was going over HBK in 1998 and over the rock in 1999, but that’s ok because the stories and characters made sense, progressed to that point organically, and were interesting because time and effort were put into making them interesting.


I may have mentioned this before, but a huge issue now that stems from laziness is how they’ll just book the same match over and over. Every feud is a 3 match series and the tv tapings are endless rematches with nothing at stake between guys who wrestle too many matches. This overexposes them and wears them down physically too, leaving them more prone to injury. Look at the Rollins and Ambrose vs the bar feud last year. After 3-4 weeks nobody even knew why they were feuding since it was a never ending stream of rematches and never progressed any of them as characters. That went on for 4-5 months. They don’t do any interviews or segments designed to show new layers to someone’s personality or to get them over. Just the same matches over and over. Think about how rarely we saw Austin compete one on one during a raw taping. All his best moments were segments. When HBK came back in 2002, think about how rarely he wrestled on tv up through about 2004-05. Most of Mick Foley and the rock’s best moments were segments too. Guys can be on tv every week and still remain fresh.

I agree. It's low key embarrassing how they haven't figured out how to book a 3 hour show since they've been running 3 hour RAW for years now. Do you remember that RAW that got snowed in and it was basically 3 hours of promos? That was a pretty entertaining RAW. I'm not saying RAW needs to be like that every week, but there needs to be a happy medium somewhere so that we're not repeating the same matches every week. We don't need to see Dusty finishes to PPV caliber matches because they don't want to give the finish away on television. It's embarrassing they haven't figured out the formula yet.

 

[CrossBones]

Let me preface this thread by saying this isn't going to be like the other threads. It's just me ranting


Mediocre Developmental System
You can't build a great structure with a weak foundation. I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me on this, but WWE developmental is an absolute joke. NXT is the developmental brand, and Triple H takes all of the credit when the Takeover shows get great reviews. Now, I don't disagree with the Takeover shows being entertaining & putting on great matches. The problem with NXT is that it doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it developmental? Is it a third brand for lesser stars?

I see that too. Instead of the farming system it was supposed to be, they basically failed at that and it's simply some indie bonanza with WWE lighting crews and cameras used to make their shows look better than Impact and ROH. From what I hear the pay isn't really great, and the company has no idea anymore about grooming their new talent into something special. Plenty of their own homegrown NXT guys have been called up and done nothing at all. What's the point then, it's as if they're only fine tuning the talent that's ready rock and having them beat on some PC jabronies every week on NXT and that's it. Is there even any real mentoring going on? What does Prince Albert or Steve Corino even do there? They're so bloated with indie guys that they are basically letting their own guys get over on their own, and that hasn't worked very often. The crazy part is even if you're not ready for the big time, you can still get the call up and then get buried. It's pointless

Poor Booking with Women's Wrestling
I've talked a lot about this over numerous threads, so I'm not going to dwell too much on this. The WWE wants a pat on the back for seriously booking women's wrestling again like they weren't the ones who killed it in the first place. Absolutely ridiculous.


The women's revolution, y'all

The biggest and most glaring problem with the women's division: If you're not Ronda, Alexa, Charlotte or Carmella, you won't be on top for too long. It's all blondes, all the time. No idea when that's going to change...

Apprehension of Pushing New Talent
This is what really killed me from watching RAW recently. Seth Rollins is the hottest act in the company right now, but they're afraid to strap the rocket on him for some reason. For whatever reason, they're hesitating by sticking him in a feud with Dolph Ziggler. The WWE always shows a pattern of this bullshyt whenever someone gets hot when they weren't expecting it to happen.

I think they don't want anyone to be bigger than the company itself. It's all one big revolving door of guys getting pushed, winning belts, then losing and languishing around doing nothing until their next level heat fizzles. Then repeat. If you were to take one guy out, you could easily replace him with someone else and not lose one step. Injury, fired, could be that he has bad heat, whatever. I'm sure none of that matters anymore and the show just goes on.

Emphasis on Part-Timers
Grass is green, and the sky is blue. I'm pretty sure everyone is aware of what the WWE does with it's part-time performers. What makes this frustrating is the section I talked about above - the apprehension of pushing new talent. The WWE is so stuck on the nostalgia acts that it absolutely ruins the current product.

I think it's lazy and it's a nostalgia tactic most of the times. He'll do anything to get some outside talk about his product since he knows the hardcore fans are going to stay with him regardless. Legends, MMA stars, celebrities and all of that will always be held in high regard by them for different reasons, and if these stars want to be part timers then that's what it's going to be. It's not even ratings at this point, he's just desperate for outside validation and publicity it seems.

Other Problems
That's not all that's wrong with the WWE. There are other problems that I won't really dive into since this thread is already long enough..

There is too much. I can't watch the old shows on the Network anymore AND the current product at the same time. I don't have the spare time. On top of that the PPVs are longer smh. It's either one or the other for me, and lately I just check in on the current shows and I never watch the whole thing. The strange thing is that this current run of "bad decisions" recently netted them a lot of money though, so who knows. Maybe this is the way for them to go.

 

[TheGreatShowtime]

True, but that's not unique to the WWE. The internet is full of passionate fans who love but are also never happy with whatever the subject is. My college days were full of wasting time on forums reading people get into heated arguments about video games and what this company or that company should do when it was clear neither participant had any fukking clue how game development works. Same goes for TV, sports, movies, etc. There is literally a petition right now from angry Star Wars fans who want to remake The Last Jedi themselves lol. shyt's crazy, but like I said, you gotta filter that kind of shyt out because the alternative is fans just tuning out because they don't care. You can't please all of them, but the WWE seems content to please almost no one most of the time.

Take ya boy Roman. Whether you like or hate him, his push has been a flop. The guy garners mostly contempt from everyone in the crowd except kids and women, and unlike Cena, it doesn't seem like he has enough of the latter on his side to balance out the former. What's WWE's response? "At least he gets a reaction." They don't care that fans are constantly shytting on this guy and how they use him, that they're saying outright they don't like this aspect of the product. They basically revel in the fact that he makes fans so mad. No other brand on Earth reacts this way to fan feedback.

Roman is in a weird spot. He's somehow pushing a lot of merchandise, but that could also be a result of him having the most merchandise to sell. He's a good wrestler that's getting blindly hated on because he was getting pushed instead of Daniel Bryan a few years back. I'd rather have Roman be champion than an MIA Brock Lesnar running the same match over and over. They can "fix" Roman by just having him out of the title picture. He's a guy that doesn't need the title to be over in the first place, and I don't know why they can't just realize that.

I see that too. Instead of the farming system it was supposed to be, they basically failed at that and it's simply some indie bonanza with WWE lighting crews and cameras used to make their shows look better than Impact and ROH. From what I hear the pay isn't really great, and the company has no idea anymore about grooming their new talent into something special. Plenty of their own homegrown NXT guys have been called up and done nothing at all. What's the point then, it's as if they're only fine tuning the talent that's ready rock and having them beat on some PC jabronies every week on NXT and that's it. Is there even any real mentoring going on? What does Prince Albert or Steve Corino even do there? They're so bloated with indie guys that they are basically letting their own guys get over on their own, and that hasn't worked very often. The crazy part is even if you're not ready for the big time, you can still get the call up and then get buried. It's pointless

There is too much. I can't watch the old shows on the Network anymore AND the current product at the same time. I don't have the spare time. On top of that the PPVs are longer smh. It's either one or the other for me, and lately I just check in on the current shows and I never watch the whole thing. The strange thing is that this current run of "bad decisions" recently netted them a lot of money though, so who knows. Maybe this is the way for them to go.

I agree. Velveteen Dream has been steady picking up momentum in NXT, but he hasn't really "won" any of the major feuds he's been in. They're teetering on a risky point to where they can make him into a huge superstar or turn him into the next Bray Wyatt or Dolph Ziggler, jobber to the mid-upper card. I know he's still young, but it's hard to shake that loser image. He needs to start winning these matches and feuds at some point to take him seriously.

I honestly don't know how the WWE stock has picked up like it has over the last six months. It must be FOX throwing money at Smackdown and Vince going back after the XFL. The public image of the NFL has exponentially decreased, so maybe all these billionaire conservative cacs are hitching their wagons to Cokeboy. I hope it fails again though

 

[reigun]

The thing about the apprehension to create new crossover stars because they don't want anyone to be bigger than the brand is that it's WWE trying to fix a problem they created. If we go all the way back to when Austin and Rock were on their way out, there was a clear transition period where just about everybody could pick out who had next: Booker, RVD, Jericho, etc. Those guys were posed to take over and become the new top draws, but the company didn't pull the trigger and killed them off, instead chosing to rely on proven favorites.

Then Cena happens, and WWE puts ALL of their eggs into that basket. Cena bascially becomes the WWE as far as the mainstream mindshare is concerned and no one is pushed over him or groomed to take his place. So now that they're faced with him actually leaving, there's no heir to the throne to garner mainstream attention for them. So instead they just move to make the WWE brand itself the draw and hopefully avoid ever being in this situation again while also ensuring that talent has nothing to leverage over them.

The problem is that the wrestlers were always the reason the brand was a draw. Think of it like a comic book company. Sure people have brand loyalty to DC and Marvel, but that loyalty is because people love their characters like Spider-Man and Superman. WWE is trying to get fans to care about a logo, essentially.

Funny thing is, I think they know it doesn't work. Which is why they keep trotting out nostalgia acts, and why it feels like they're panicking as the nostalgia is losing its impact.

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

Coach saying Ronda could get a rest while in the bearhug submission handed him the crown for WOAT of the year.

They often give out reigns with the secondary titles to convince guys to re-sign or as a consolation prize to pacify them.

I don't have an issue with former main event guys carrying midcard titles I enjoyed Cena's open challenge matches, they did a good job making you think they had a plan and whoever beat him was going to overtake the WWE, then Del Rio won it.

They will likely throw the US championship on Bryan to get him to stay.

That coach shyt is a major illusion breaker. An all time bad line if there ever was one. As for the belts, it’s a problem because it used to be for guys as they moved up the card. I hated Cena winning it because he beat a rising star to get it. It should have been a rising star who ended up beating Rusev in the first place. Him beating Cena gives him credibility and then the guy who beats Rusev gets even more. It’s clear they throw these belts on established stars just to placate them so they don’t ask for a release out of frustration and that’s just awful. So many title reigns last a long time and there’s nothing of note that happens during them. Guys will just trade a title back and forth for a few months.

I agree. It's low key embarrassing how they haven't figured out how to book a 3 hour show since they've been running 3 hour RAW for years now. Do you remember that RAW that got snowed in and it was basically 3 hours of promos? That was a pretty entertaining RAW. I'm not saying RAW needs to be like that every week, but there needs to be a happy medium somewhere so that we're not repeating the same matches every week. We don't need to see Dusty finishes to PPV caliber matches because they don't want to give the finish away on television. It's embarrassing they haven't figured out the formula yet.

Yeah just after the 2015 royal rumble fiasco. Promos and sit down interviews are good. There’s always a place for them. In fact a lot of the heel heat Brock used to have came from him coming off like an indifferent bully who came back just to hurt people in his sit down interviews. Mick Foley and Triple h had great sit down interviews with Jim Ross to help get them over as singles stars. The interview with Austin and the rock just before Wrestlemania 17 was great stuff. The promo that Jericho cut in late 2002/early 2003 about how he patterned himself after Shawn and then made a point to break out and be his own guy so he could outshine him is the sort of thing you don’t see anymore. I recall RVD basically giving a speech in front of a camera in the back in early 2006 about how much missing out on 2005 with that knee injury ate at him and how focused he was to either get the title match at Wrestlemania or to win money in the bank so he’d get a shot at the title. These sort of things go a long way to get someone over and having them on tv each week without overexposing them.