Rassle Inn #40

The draft.  It's over, but I don't claim to be topical.  Can we talk about how it's f*cking useless?  At one point in time, brand separation seemed prudent.  WCW had just folded, and ECW was heading down strikingly similar tubes.  Suddenly, Vince McMahon bequeathed a veritable toy box of roster additions.  It is now well-known that certain stars (*cough* Sting *cough*) were paid handsomely to go on staycations, but what to do with all those nugatory midcarders?  And Scott Steiner???

Some wrestlers would appear on Raw and some wrestlers would appear on Smackdown.  Okay, got it.  Where do you put your heavyweight champion?  Wouldn't it make sense to allow your top guy to roam wherever he pleases, his belt being the golden ticket that annuls the partition between your flagship shows?  Yes, so of course, Vince didn't do that.  It wasn't long before WWF/E accommodated two champions.  Coincidentally (I use that term loosely), it was right about that time when pro-wrestling lost its foothold in America.

I know that there are a vast multitude of reasons why ratings declined, but in my personal opinion, the awkward situation in the main event was chief among them.  Which main event am I referring to?  Exactly!  Let me put it to you this way; how many teams won the Super Bowl in February?  And the World Series last year?  Professional wrestling should always try to mimic legitimate sports, whether the public knows it's a work or not.  Likewise, rasslin' should appeal to outsiders.  That's the only way to augment your fanbase and ensure that the business will be around for years to come.

This past Monday night, WWE took steps to excogitate (I use fancy words to describe fancy bullshit) a new world champion that will stand apart from the Universal Champion.  This will do nothing to rope in the common man, much less the common woman.  And while I'm on my handicap-accessible soapbox, who the hell cares which "superstars" are on which shows?  Unless you're exceptionally committed to your favorite color, does it matter if, say, Becky Lynch is on Raw or Smackdown?  It would be one thing if these programs were drastically different from one another, but they aren't.  In fact, they're virtually identical!

Good point, Dom.  Thanks, Dom.  Okay, I'm talking to myself, so that's my cue to leave.  Stay tuned to find out if I'm drafted to Bleacher Report or PWInsider.