I didn't watch WWE Fastlane. I felt like it was a pointless stop between the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania. Even though I canceled my subscription to the WWE Network after the Royal Rumble (for reasons that didn't have to do with that hashtag telling people to do so) I still had the chance to get February for free and I didn't. Think about that for a minute. If any other professional wrestling promotion in the world said, "Hey, you can watch our PPV this month for free" you know I'd be all over it. ROH. CZW. Shine. NJPW. PWG. CHIKARA. Shimmer. FIP. And the list goes on. So what is it about WWE that makes it seem like you wouldn't take what they were trying to sell you even if they were giving it away for free?
My biggest conclusion come Monday morning was that I didn't need to watch a replay of WWE Fastlane simply because it would be recapped enough on RAW, Smack Down!, Main Event and Superstars that if I did watch it I'd most likely end up regretting it. Which leads me to the bigger question with WWE: Why do they feel the need for so many recaps? On one hand, if they have a pay-per-view on a Sunday night to sort remind the viewers on Monday is one thing but then we go through those same replays again on Thursday night for Smack Down!. And then it hits me: Smack Down! is useless. Yeah, I know, Smack Down! has always kind of been useless but since the move to Thursdays they seem to want to make it mean something more and I think that after Wrestlemania they could do just that.
If they don't want to bring the brand split back (and that makes sense) then they need to cut the recap crap or as I've dubbed it for short: recrap. If something happens on Sunday night at a pay-per-view then seeing it again Monday is okay to an extent but why do we need to witness it a third time on Smack Down! On many levels it feels as if WWE is actually punishing their viewers for watching all of their programming. Why can't WWE just play under the assumption that everyone watches everything and if you didn't watch it then good luck trying to catch up. That type of attitude might actually sell pay-per-views.
And then I noticed the biggest part of what I was thinking on Smack Down! when R-Truth came out to do commentary during Wade Barrett vs. Daniel Bryan. The commentators actually talked about R-Truth having a non-title victory over the IC Champion Wade Barrett... wait for it... without showing any clips to waste time. Why can't WWE adopt this practice more? We all know how much the commentators don't like actually talking about the match so why not talk about the history of the superstars in it as opposed to showing us clips of what we've already seen (Because if you missed it, then you'll actually have to pay attention to Michael Cole which might in fact because the best reason to not miss anything. Ever.)
As I was thinking that, later on in the show Smack Down! went from recrapping Fastlane and RAW to events which happened earlier in the show. Really? You feel the need to show me something that happened a little while ago during a show I am currently watching? Either you're insulting my intelligence, don't have enough content to fill the time you have, simply do not care or some combination of the three. (The combination of the three being most likely)
Two of my favorite professional wrestling shows are Lucha Underground and NXT. They each only have an hour time slot and I always feel like they could benefit from having more time. But when was the last time anyone ever said that RAW should be four hours? (I don't even remember anyone saying it should be three) WWE has all this time on their hands and seemingly no idea what to do with it, yet here we have other promotions with less time and making every single second count.
My only conclusion to draw from this, since WWE clearly won't do a brand split or listen to me probably any way, is simply to suggest that after Wrestlemania, WWE begins anew. They stop the recrap. They call up talent from NXT and start to highlight other talent that you might not see every week. They have more than a handful of storylines going on at one time because they have the time and ability to do so. If you have an angle working with two lower card talents and it might not be building towards a pay-per-view match then at least it would make their match on Smack Down! seem that much more important, right?
Most of the matches on Main Event and Superstars seem so pointless. A win here, a loss there and WWE assumes no one is watching closely enough to wonder why someone is losing here and winning there or vice versa. WWE also probably just assumes that anyone watching closely enough simply does not care. No one has ever said, "Why do they get a tag team title shot? Didn't they just lose to Los Matadores on Main Event?" These matches (usually four for Main Event and two for Superstars) could seem important again as well.
Let's imagine WWE was holding a tournament of tag teams to determine the number one contenders to the championships currently held by Cesaro and Tyson Kidd. Even if they put eight teams in the mix, they'd have enough matches that putting one here or there on Main Event or Superstars wouldn't make the matches seem less important-- it'd make those shows feel more important.
Another option is always to bring up talent from NXT or have talent temporarily return to the main roster as they have been in NXT to create more storylines and waste less space with recrapping. Bring up a tag team, give 'em a shot at the tag titles and if they don't win then send them back down. The Lucha Dragons have been on Main Event and Superstars lately, so if they do end up Smack Down! one day have the Vaudevillains come attack them or Blake & Murphy, but then send that team back to NXT. Just have it be a one shot sort of deal.
WWE has all of the talent in the world (Well, not all of it, but I'm saying they have a lot of talent under contract) and all of this time. It's like taking someone to a Chinese buffet and all they eat is an egg roll and then want to go out again later on that night for more food. You have to better utilize what you have while you have it and if WWE did this they could be the greatest thing in the world once again.
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