Spinning the Wrestling Wheel to Bankrupt

This past week’s episode of Raw had a good vibe going for it originally. Considering the RAW roulette wheel was in play, some much-needed suspense was infused early on. However lackluster matches, which serve merely as fodder until the next pay per view ruined the show. That added with the continually annoying e-mails from the anonymous general manager and an equally annoying Chad Ochocinco made the season premiere of the show nothing special at all.

Between the aggravations Michael Cole causes the audience with his constant observations [Seriously, what ever happened to the good cop, bad cop routine that Raw used to have? Make no mistake about it, Jim Ross is missed] and seeing Ochocinco on a wrestling show, Raw does not cater to its loyal fanbase the way that they should anymore.

Regardless of what the ratings say and how much money the company makes, it is not the same product anymore. Having celebrities involved with the promotion worked 20 years ago, but it does not anymore.

Fans want to see great matches and there was not one on RAW last night. Every match consists of needless meandering, following by a finishing move or a run-in. That is not wrestling. That’s a soap opera with muscle-bound freaks acting.

At its core, wrestling is an art. The art of making someone believe you’re hurting someone when you’re barely touching them. The athletes involved are amazing specimens and if done correctly, the “sport” is a pure thrill to watch. What the WWE is doing though is trying to tease the viewer on cable in an effort to get them to pay for a match at a pay per view. This has been the case for decades of course, but now the WWE believe then can get by on the marks, and those who are so obsessed that they don’t care about the quality of the matches or storylines- as long as the show goes on.

Well guess what?

This show stinks.

The WWE had an opportunity to have a monster of a match between Randy Orton and John Cena and ruined it by having Nexus run in before a winner was crowned. The same thing goes for the matches between Sheamus and John Morrison and the Hart Dynasty and Chris Jericho, which in spite of a few high spots, were nothing special.

It’s understandable that the company wants to save their employees bodies by having them cut down on the hardcore matches and even the big time finishers [when was the last time you saw a powerbomb or RAW?], but what they have here is so watered down, only an idiot can watch it and not be sorely disappointed.

With the start of a new season underway, the WWE needs to spice things up and fast.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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