WWE needs to start learning lessons from its little brother; NXT is outshining it when it comes to booking.
While feuds on the main roster often meander, end abruptly or take sharp right turns, NXT continues to showcase effective, direct dramas. The emotional resonance that NXT TakeOver: R Evolution had compared to WWE's recent pay-per-views speaks to the power of simpler storytelling and a scaled-down writing team.
As the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports (h/t Wrestling Inc), Ryan Ward led the creative direction for NXT's most recent live special. Triple H then had final say.
There was no unwieldy writing team working behind the scenes. There was no mass of men and women sitting around a table.
A single storyteller led the way.That shows up in the anchored nature of NXT's rivalries. Overall, it's a more focused product.That's the way WWE used to be as well. During an interview with Vince McMahon on his podcast, Steve Austin recalled (subscription required) a time when it was just McMahon and Pat Patterson sitting at a swimming pool coming up with the company's plots. It was a two-man process for the most part, as he describes it.
After seeing that WWE now employs a phalanx of writers, Austin then asked McMahon, "How did it get so complicated? Did the world of sports entertainment get that much harder when I left?"
McMahon talked about how much the company has grown and changed. That growth, though, doesn't mean WWE can't rein in the size of its creative team.
More is not always better when it come to writers. Austin's description of the WWE writing staff brings to mind the old "too many hands in the kitchen" saying.
When you're watching a particular disjointed movie that seems to have no central thread, you can nearly always count on it having a lot of names under the screenwriter category.
Trying to stay true to multiple visions and multiple styles is like having two people driving the same car.
NXT's tremendous showing at the latest TakeOver event shows what happens when you employ the opposite strategy. Take Sami Zayn's story, for example.
After losing to a series of opponents, including Adrian Neville, Zayn promised to earn his way to the NXT Championship on what he called his "road to redemption." That road never veered in any strange direction. It didn't suffer from start-and-stop booking.
Zayn battled toward Adrian Neville in a taut, compelling narrative.He defeated all the men who had bested him in the past: Tyson Kidd, Titus O'Neil, Tyler Breeze. Desperation wafting off of him, he put his career on the line for a shot at Neville. If he lost, he would have to quit NXT. Instead, he overcame his failures and dethroned Neville at R Evolution.
It was a beautiful story that hearkened back to pro wrestling's earlier days of more grounded stories playing out between the ropes.
The main roster stars haven't had that same kind of treatment.Cesaro has gone from yodeling strongman to skulking cartoon villain. Ryback went through a number of minor incarnations before his injury. He briefly did a gimmick where he trolled Internet fans and also played a bully who beat up on employees backstage.
Ryback during his bully phase.
Source http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2304546-wwe-needs-to-mirror-nxts-streamlined-booking-approach
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