Stop Doing Live Shows During Coronavirus

Every wrestling fan at this point is very much aware of the lack of viewership in WWE programming today and yes, I know right now are tough times and watching professional wrestling isn’t on the priority list.

It’s for these reasons that the higher-ups need to open their eyes and take a break from original, live programming until this pandemic is over with. Obviously, it’s not safe for talent to be traveling to the Performance Center and encountering each other while the rest of the country participates in social distancing. After all, WWE possesses the largest wrestling video library; just broadcast old pay-per-views every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until further notice. Edit them slightly to properly fill the time slots, meet your commercial break and quarter hour criteria and plug that you can only see this event again on WWE Network. I bet you that if WWE played a two-hour version of WrestleMania X-7, it would easily beat AEW in the ratings.

It will be very interesting to see how some of the companies not running right now decide to do their storylines upon returning. Does New Japan Pro Wrestling keep course with the Guerrillas of Destiny defending against Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kota Ibushi? What about the battle over the United States Title between Jon Moxley and Zack Sabre Jr.? Ring of Honor could benefit from changing course a little bit and maybe doing a Raw after WrestleMania show with some character turns and shocking events. What if Marty Scurll lays out PCO due to jealousy for winning the world title before him? Could Dan Maff and Jeff Cobb become the new ROH Tag Team Champions? Point being is that it wouldn’t hurt to sit back and plan out your storylines for next several months and come back swinging with something nobody expected to see. I hope ROH can have a good comeback and a better year than 2019. The stories of paying all talent even though they’re not performing and giving all major PPV access on HonorClub for $9.99 is a good start to the company’s rehabilitation.

I wonder if Impact Wrestling is working towards an intern world champion in Michael Elgin much like how UFC addresses problems. Elgin becoming a fill-in champion isn’t a bad thing while Tessa Blanchard rests at home waiting for things to return to normal. Sadly, this hurts Tessa’s reign having missed a title defense to no fault of hers considering circumstances in the real world. Elgin vs. Blanchard at a future PPV can be a good match as Tessa is excellent at selling and fighting back while Elgin is a big, strong man.

Is it safe to assume that Shayna Bazler and Aleister Black are the favorites to win their respective Money in the Bank matches? Both are strong Heyman projects, but both are on Raw, which scares me because usually Vince and Co. try to have one briefcase on each brand. If one person on SmackDown were to win, Corbin would be an easy pick. He is the most hated heel and would be the perfect character to win in an Edge-type manner with the cheap shot and champ half dead. While I’d like to see Lacey Evans win and finally take down Bayley, I’m not quite sold on WWE believing in “The Sassy Southern Belle” as a champion just yet.

I’ve been binge watching early 2002 Raw and SmackDown and my biggest takeaway is the roster strength. It was stacked and the storylines helped elevate the talent and create new stars. One could argue that today’s roster could compare to 2002 in terms of talent and match quality. The product today just isn’t good, which shows just how bad the storylines are, the lack of depth in the main event position is and the company’s frustrating inability to create new stars. This shows just how out of touch Vince is at his current state. It’s time for Triple H to take over. NXT year over year is proof enough of what he can do. AEW is clear proof of what talent can do with bullet points and not fully scripted promos.

Perhaps instead of forging ahead during the coronavirus, Vince should take this time to regroup, consider his legacy and ultimately, step aside.