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| Photo Credit: WWE.com |
People talk about how WWE doesn't pay attention to details. I agree with that statement to a point, but it's hard for WWE's creative staff and its final checkpoint, Vince McMahon, to catch the small details when shit like the above happens. Dean Ambrose should not be shaking anyone's hands except for Roman Reigns at this point. He shouldn't be shaking McMahon's hand. Now, that action might seem like minutia, but here's the thing. Ambrose is supposed to be the fucking Lunatic Fringe.
He doesn't shake hands or kiss babies. He might shake a baby, but I don't wanna throw around baseless accusations. He's a weird loner who fights against everything Authority stands for. Sure, Vince McMahon may have put his daughter and son-in-law in a pickle, but he's still the most overbearing, untrustworthy, archetypical evil boss character ever. Ambrose cavorting with him, no matter how short, no matter how much in a throwaway manner, is a fatal flaw in WWE's master plan.
A show is only as strong as the integrity of its DNA. You don't want to bother with longterm continuity? Okay, I can get the appeal of booking to an audience of goldfish, especially when those lapses in continuity are still steeped in the zeitgeist of what's been established recently. I can forgive Dolph Ziggler eschewing his deep past of sugar-mommaing on Vickie Guerrero because those attempts at gold-digging came up empty and maybe he learned his lesson, but because he's been established as such a folk hero recently. But I can't forgive WWE allowing an avatar of anti-authority to shake hands with, well, The Authority.
If you can't keep track of your characters' integrity or the stories you're telling, then you're a broken entity. WWE's biggest strength in the last few years has been allowing its characters to wrestle and act regardless of what the script says, but it's becoming inherently clear that the institutional incompetence of Creative is becoming so immense that even dynamic personalities like Ambrose are finding it harder to overcome on a consistent basis. Maybe I should just start skipping RAW and catching the recaps on Main Event weekly as I go to a Network-only mode of consumption...
He doesn't shake hands or kiss babies. He might shake a baby, but I don't wanna throw around baseless accusations. He's a weird loner who fights against everything Authority stands for. Sure, Vince McMahon may have put his daughter and son-in-law in a pickle, but he's still the most overbearing, untrustworthy, archetypical evil boss character ever. Ambrose cavorting with him, no matter how short, no matter how much in a throwaway manner, is a fatal flaw in WWE's master plan.
A show is only as strong as the integrity of its DNA. You don't want to bother with longterm continuity? Okay, I can get the appeal of booking to an audience of goldfish, especially when those lapses in continuity are still steeped in the zeitgeist of what's been established recently. I can forgive Dolph Ziggler eschewing his deep past of sugar-mommaing on Vickie Guerrero because those attempts at gold-digging came up empty and maybe he learned his lesson, but because he's been established as such a folk hero recently. But I can't forgive WWE allowing an avatar of anti-authority to shake hands with, well, The Authority.
If you can't keep track of your characters' integrity or the stories you're telling, then you're a broken entity. WWE's biggest strength in the last few years has been allowing its characters to wrestle and act regardless of what the script says, but it's becoming inherently clear that the institutional incompetence of Creative is becoming so immense that even dynamic personalities like Ambrose are finding it harder to overcome on a consistent basis. Maybe I should just start skipping RAW and catching the recaps on Main Event weekly as I go to a Network-only mode of consumption...