WWE Should Present Itself Like the Cruiserweight Classic

As wrestling becomes more and more accepted as a sport, perhaps WWE should treat itself as a sport rather than a soap opera.

Last Wednesday, the Cruiserweight Classic aired a bracketology episode on the WWE Network in preparation and anticipation for the experimental tournament. The bracketology was fresh and exciting in its presentation, in particular, how the CWC was treated like a sport, and its competitors, as athletes, as wrestlers, which is rather unusual for WWE who prides itself on its brand of sports-entertainment and its WWE superstars.

With their partnership to ESPN, WWE has found itself in the public eye once again, this time as a sport, thanks to ESPN’s presentation of the product, as opposed to how WWE opts to market itself, or how USA chooses to promote the WWE, as a television show.

must read: WWE Cruiserweight Classic 2016: Bracketology

As the times change and wrestling continues to evolve, perhaps WWE too, has to adapt to the rapid advancements in the wrestling world. UFC, with the success of their own television series, The Ultimate Fighter, has proven that you can still have drama and personalities and underlying storylines all the while still be viewed as a legitimate sport.

Brock pre-taped many of his promos (in a similar manner to UFC) as opposed to having him talk in front of a live crowd

Interestingly enough, upon his return in 2012 and feud with John Cena, Brock Lesnar’s limited ability to talk on the mic led to WWE having Brock pre-tape many of his promos (in a similar manner to UFC) as opposed to having him talk in front of a live crowd. Though Brock likely had the benefit of having multiple takes, WWE edited it all together and the end result made Brock look strong and confident, rather than potentially exposing him with a live mic. WWE revisited this tactic in 2015 when Brock feuded with Roman Reigns going into Wrestlemania, although by this time, Paul Heyman had been Brock’s mouthpiece for the better part of three years.

It allows for the talents to not necessarily focus so much on being able to talk a crowd into seeing them perform, since this generation is largely judged for their in-ring abilities more than their mic work

In NXT, where many of the talents are still working on their mic skills, it is not uncommon for NXT to pre-tape a good majority of the promos in the same manner as they did with Brock. With the CWC closely more resembling NXT than WWE, the same tricks have been applied. It allows for the talents to not necessarily focus so much on being able to talk a crowd into seeing them perform, since this generation is largely judged for their in-ring abilities more than their mic work. Although being a good promo is still very important in pro-wrestling, these days it’s not the end all be all; case(s) in point, Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns.

WWE has already pulled the curtain back to a considerable degree with their Breaking Ground show on the network, where it presented the NXT talent as athletes with their day to day training at the Performance Center, and the matches and events as a proper sport. Rather than only utilize this method for NXT and now the CWC, maybe WWE should start bringing it over to Raw and Smackdown. It certainly would not make for a worse product, just something new and different.

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JBL’s commentary since he rejoined the announcer’s table has been great in the sense that he talks about the wrestlers and their resumes like they were athletes on a comparable level to a Kobe Bryant or Lionel Messi. It is a very effective way to make WWE look legitimate. Brock Lesnar’s accolades don’t need to necessarily include that he’s a WWE World Heavyweight Champion, but when you pair it with his NCAA Division 1 Championship, his UFC Heavyweight Championship, and his IWGP Championship, it makes the myth of the man that much larger. Brock certainly isn’t as world traveled as many wrestlers today and those that came before, but upon reading his credentials and hearing them on a nightly basis makes you believe that he is.

In no way will good mic skills be completely outdated and useless; there are still many great talkers in WWE today, such as Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens. But in today’s pro-wrestling landscape, fans are more concerned with a talent’s ability to wrestle over their ability to talk, and that includes Rollins and Owens.

A simple minute long pre-taped promo combined with various snippets of their in-ring work works wonders in presenting a talent

Nobody is dying to hear any of the CWC competitors talk; not that they can’t, but what has sold us on the CWC is the wrestling itself. WWE can help its cause by presenting itself and its performers the way they have spotlighted many of the CWC competitors. A simple minute long pre-taped promo combined with various snippets of their in-ring work works wonders in presenting a talent.

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There are many in the WWE main roster who could benefit from this as they are often not given a chance to even hold a mic to sell themselves and their stories to the audience. It serves extremely well for the UFC and allows the audience to get a good grasp of who the fighters are before they get into the meat of the event: the fights themselves, which UFC devotes the most of its screen time to. A standard three-hour episode of Raw has an hour’s worth of commercials and likely another sixty minutes to segments and promos, not giving much in terms of actual wrestling time.

Although WWE may not want to admit it at face value, the UFC is one of their chief competitors. As UFC fighters slowly begin to take a page from pro-wrestlers in terms of trash talk on the mic for the sake of selling a fight on a PPV, WWE should begin to repackage itself and their product the way they’ve presented the CWC, which is comparable to an edition of UFC Fight Night.

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If the CWC is successful, it would not come as a surprise to see many of the presentation tricks brought over to the main roster the same way NXT had done for Raw and Smackdown. Such a trend would lead to longer matches, more matches, and better quality matches, which is exactly what the CWC proposes and what wrestling needs more of as it continues to be accepted by mainstream audiences as a legitimate sport.