The WWE Title tournament looks like being a massive missed opportunity.
 

The majority of people would suggest that WWE writing has, at best, lacked originality or creativity and at best been paint by numbers every week to get to PPV matches. It has divided opinion on the forum and every thread ends up being about it.

But, similar to the Invasion angle, they get presented with a massive opportunity, just thrown into their laps, and it looks like they are taking the easy road once again, when a more measured and creative path could have led to all sorts of positives.

I am talking about the title tournament. Here wa s a chance to make the WWE title the focus of one of their biggest events of the year. To have a tournament on PPV that could have had intriguing booking throughout the night, focused on different personalities, created new feuds, but most importantly, had everyone's focus on the WWE title. This could have been built up to be the biggest event of the year.

Instead, it looks like WWE writers have looked at the opportunity as an excuse to fill up a few weeks of TV with bracket matches and give us the sem finals of a dud tournament on PPV. Sure, those matches could be good quality and something intriguing might come from them, but I can't help but feel this was a chance to put all their focus on the big prize.

If they had done that, every feud, including the main "story" of the winner would have had everyones full focus and it could have given us stories and feuds on the basis of the tournament matches and the big stakes of it being on PPV, for the next 2-3 months.

I could be wrong, but it looks like the easy option has been taken, and a once in a blue moon event, has been turned into a series of matches to fill 3 hour RAWs and Smackdown up to the PPV. None of these matches feel special, and that's because they aren't. I don't buy Ryback/Kalisto as a tournament match buried on Smackdown. Now, if they had fought and won the right to be on an 8 man PPV tournament, and we got the incredible upset on PPV, this would have boosted Kalisto and could have been the start of a story for Ryback.

That's just an example. It could have been the biggest night of the year with so much going on, but I feel like they have taken the gloss off it and missed a massive opportunity to do something special.

Thoughts?

Agree, fell like WWE missed a big opportunity. They just go by booking 101 to quote The Cynick. No creativity went in to the tournament, they just filled slots with who ever. No Wyatt's or New Day members at all is just dumb. They didn't have to win it but you could set up a program through the tournament. Should have had Wyatt be the focus and front runner useing his new powers and stuff only to be attacked by Undertaker at Survivor Series to start that program. New Day could have had Woods in the tournament and cheated their way through a couple rounds and have Woods loose a match off a Uso distraction to set that up. Every thing should have been involved in the tournament and set up feuds from the tournaments early rounds.

It's tough

This got sprung on them last minute. It's not luke they had weeks to come up with a plan and not have it screw up existing stories they are working on our trying to get to. You don't want that WCW feel where they reset the angles every 4 months and start from scratch.

I personally would have preferred a 16 man tournament that had qualifying matches on RAW and SD (like they did), and then have the 8 man tourny all on the PPV. However I know WWE isn't a huge fan of the single night tournament, so I also didn't go in expecting that to happen.

I understood why they didn't have Wyatt in the tournament. They have been promoting Survivor Series all month, and those commercials are shot and in the bag well in advance of the show. So it would have come off really odd to not have Taker in a revenge match with Bray and co.

I don't have a good explanation why New Day wasn't included other than they probably want them in another match for the tag titles and didn't want them to lose randomly in a tournament match.

The problem with this tourny is you see how thin the star power is right now. I feel like the tournament itself has been booked fine. You've got the intrigue of what will Roman do, you have some good matches booked (Roman-Cesaro), and an upset or two.

At the end of the day unless they had access to some bigger names (Lesnar, Rock, Jericho, etc) it was never going to come off as this earth shattering event. I'm still looking forward to how the Finals to see if there is a Reigns heel turn or an Ambrose heel turn, or maybe they strap a rocket to Owens.

I've always wanted a 64-man tournament every year, such an easy way to make feuds, whether they be major or minor, instant feuds can be created with a little thought.....Just off the top of my head:

-IC/US/Tag Champion loses clean, instant feud
-midcarder upsets established star, instant feud
-midcarder face gets accidentally DQ'd, snaps and attacks opponent, turns heel, instant feud
-young Rookie goes on hot streak, upsets a few stars, makes young kid
-outside interference/distraction costs match, instant feud
-previously eliminated star costs wrestler who eliminated him, instant feud

The possibility are essentially endless....

mmm hmmmm

Yeah I think that would be a good post Mania idea to set up a new challenger for the champion. 64 sounds like a lot though. I mean I guess you could even bring in outside talent. Almost like the concept of the FA Cup where even a lower tier team could play Man U.

Would give you 63 matches that could be spread over several months. Maybe that widdles down to 8 guys, and you have your King of the Ring Network Special. But the KOTR becomes a championship that you hold for the year, rather than a goofy gimmick. Maybe the winner gets the Summerslam title shot.

They found out and pulled the title off of him a week ago. It's not like he just got hurt a day before the taping on Monday night.

They had ample time to rearrange the ppv card, seeing as only Reigns v Rollins was confirmed.

The Taker Wyatt feud could've been extended with Taker being reborn at the event he made his debut at, New Day and the impending Uso feud could've been given a kick with singles matches, as well as del Rio v Swagger, as well give more direction for guys who are a bit aimless right now in Cesaro, Owens and Ambrose.

Instead they're just kind of going with it in a way that's completely uninteresting.

It already seems horribly booked and the brackets are random nonsense with a very obvious final. Who does Stardust vs Del Rio benefit? Cesaro, who is seemingly in a program with Stardust, is just going to be make Roman look strong while Stardust looks like a total pushover.

Del Rio's next challenger isn't even "good enough" to get a place in a world title tournament featuring Titus O'Neil and Kalisto. At least put Swagger in there and give him a win over Barrett to rebuild him a bit instead of Neville doing it for the 50th time in a row and accomplishing nothing. Mr Money in the Bank can't even get past the first round so look forward to that cash in.

Having Bray and the New Day involved would also make a bit more sense, since they are actually over enough to look like a threat to Dean Ambrose at least.

Absolute wasted opportunity (To push Johnny Curtis to the moon)

This tournament is trash. THE RYBACK losing to El Torito or whatever that mexican's name is, is awful. Serious business this tourney aint. It's a big ol stinkin pile of poo. The only thing worse than this tourney is the racism of owenbrown. Please come back to tpww owen!

I read that as "come back to the TPWW oven". Owen's antisemitism is affecting my brain.

Part of it is due to how rushed it was done because of Rollins sudden injury and the other due to the lack of stars the WWE has at the moment.

If they had the time, could have spaced out the tournament longer but only having 2 weeks till Survivor Series didn't give them that option.

The lack of title worthy stars is another problem since its obvious they want Reigns to be in the finals and the bracket has too many guys as filler instead of legit contenders. WWE has done a pretty bad job at building the midcard to be strong enough to carry them whenever they get into situations like this.

This whole deal seems like it'll fit in the "Jump the Shark" thread like so much stuff over the last decade. The company simply breeds apathy, and every piece of fantasy booking that each of us did, even if it included Dwayne Gill, was more imaginitive, creative, and dramatic than the slop they are serving.

Enough of this WWE dumb booking shit.

New discussion: If there was a TPWW oven, who would you throw into it?

Wow a whole week!

You realize cards are finalized before they are announced on TV, right?

A week is plenty of time, what's the point in Creative if they're never creative. A team of writers should be able to come up with something other than just throwing something together that doesn't make sense.

Not using Bray in the tourney while also not using him in the match at Survivor Series is the biggest crime and then none of New Day being involved is the next.

NormanSmiley.

A week is plenty of time. Card subject to change exists and Vince is no stranger to having to adapt on the fly. You mean to tell me you are under the impression that professional writers and the greatest promoter of all time couldn't come up with a more creative and exciting way to use this tournament as a way to really hard sell Survivor Series all the while giving some shine on the current talent as they all chase the title?

Even you have come up with more exciting angles and storyline suggestions than anything they have going on. They had time to announce injury, pull the title off of Rollins, announce a tournament to crown a new champ, but not enough time to rebook a card that had only the main event booked? C'mon.

He died of shame already. RIP.

They are supposed to be writing 5 hours of television a week, no problem booking a tournament on short notice.

If they had a few ideas and felt pressures, have your qualifiers on TV and get the 8 guys you want in there, and have a live draw on the pre-show for the brackets. A Champ winning 3 matches in one night is epic and memorable. It's the kind of thing they bring up for the rest of their careers.

Don't buy the time excuse at all, and I think it is a massive opportunity they have missed.

I would have done it like this. 8 guys are as follows:

Ambrose
Reigns
Cesaro
Batista
Barrett
Del Rio
Ryback
Mystery Opponent

You read Batista right. Authority brings him in as their personal choice to win the title. Night of Survivor Series goes like this.

Cesaro puts up a good fight, but falls to Reigns in a tough match. They shake hands after the match and Reigns puts him over. Del Rio beats Ryback with chicanery, setting up a program. Ambrose gets past Barrett no problem. Batista's mystery opponent is given a long intro to tease Daniel Bryan. We see him kept from the arena by security. The actual opponent is... Zack Ryder. Batista naturally squashes him.

Semis feature Reigns narrowly getting past Del Rio. Ambrose comes out to face Batista, but is jumped by the New Day, with chairs. Batista acts shocked, but it was obviously set up by the Authority. As in, Triple H hands them a big wad of cash on stage obvious. Match goes on anyway, but Dave goes over easily, despite Ambrose showing heart.

Finals has a tired Reigns vs. a relatively fresh Batista. Despite the long odds, Reigns somehow manages to win the hard fought contest. His arm is raised, but just before he can get the belt, out comes the Authority. It seems they forgot to mention that the winner of the tournament has to win 1 more match before getting declared champion. Sheamus cashes in his Money in the Bank briefcase right then.

Reigns tries, but 3 hard matches catch up to him while facing a fresh Sheamus, who wasn't even wrestling that night. Sheamus wins, and he is the Authority's Champion.

Why is Kurt Angle not a thing? Guy is dying to go back to the WWE. Surely it cannot be his health, he could easily be protected. If it is sour grapes then that is dumb dumb dumb business.

It could be because of his health/addictions/craziness. I feel like Vince has proven he won't let sour grapes get in the way of business if he thinks it'll make money.

The tournament does feel very flat. What the hell did Kalisto and Titus do to qualify that Sin Cara and Darren Young didn't? Really odd choices.

With Cena and Lesnar on leave, and Orton, Rollins, and Bryan on the shelf it really shows how little they've done to make certain guys really matter. I like Owens, Cesaro, and Ambrose but I've no faith in them getting the push. I'm not a fan of Ryback but what the hell!? I just don't get what they're trying to achieve with him.

The whole BoD/Wyatt thing has been set up awkwardly. Bray claims the souls, BoD say "nope". They set up a tag match instead of a SS match. Can only assume that BoD mow through Harper/Rowan to leave a showdown with Bray/Braun. Not all that compelling.

All wrestlers are crazy. The on air product should be what matters above all, not the WWE's image. I get that they are public but come on. Nothing would bring that stock up more than amazing ratings and more eyes on the product.

I haven't read this entire thread, but I'm going to, because I'm sure everyone has some interesting and valid thoughts to say on the subject (including CyNick, despite my heatless feud with him at the moment). But this seems like the perfect place to post this:

I had an idea for the quarter-finals that I think is so good and gets the most guys over that for the first time in TPWW history...I'm not going to post it. I don't want to jinx it. But given what everybody wants out of this tournament, what the company wants, and what I think it realizes it NEEDS -- I feel there is a strange chance this might actually happen. I'll probably be proven wrong in favor of the predictable, but it was something I had never considered a possibility until I was just mulling it over and it popped into mind almost experimentally.

It would work, it would feed storylines for not only the immediate future, but months ahead. It would save blowing off some major potential angles too early, and it would elevate a few guys to a position where they could get a permanent footing in the casual fan's main event perception of them. And -- a bonus, given that the WWE have so many guys out -- if this flops on its face, you can always go back to the status quo.

I'll just say this: I have a strange inkling that one of the quarter-final matches on RAW is not going to turn out like we think it will. Quite possible, but it will probably be one I don't want it to be.

Tournaments in WWE only ever seem to work if the company or at least an angle is totally on fire. Most of the King of the Ring tournaments were boring, and any good that came out of them was usually born from the aftermath. The Deadly Game tournament happened at a time when everything WWE did seemed brilliant; to expect the current minds in creative to become masters of artful booking just isn't intelligent. They've clearly approached this as a way to re-book the main event rather than build the entire PPV. At least they'very done something to attract interest instead of pressing the pause button.

One of the Wyatts has to turn and make that a 3-v-3 match. Otherwise wtf.

This feels like an excuse. Why couldn't they write an intriguing tournament? How are people not intelligent who want some thought put into these things? They are getting paid very well to do this, why can't it be done?

The only reason they didn't press the pause button was because it is a 9 month layoff and they couldn't, so no credit there.

Creative is supposed to take long term plans and figure out how to make the journey interesting. When an injury luke the one to Rollins had a trickle down effect on multiple matches, you have to determine a new direction, or you figure out another way to get as many of the guys in the same spot they were going to be in. It's not as easy as you are describing it.

Makes no sense for Bray to be involved in anything other than the Taker storyline.

When armchair bookers on here are coming up with better, more beneficial versions of the current lackluster tournament in less time devoted to the idea, something is wrong.

They could've easily planted seeds for new feuds while continuing current ones with the benefit of pushing out the payoff matches. Taker cuts off a dominating Wyatt, the New Dayand Usos costing each other matches, del Rio and Swagger coming to an unresolved finished, Ziggler and Breeze, Owens getting some direction, Ambrose getting direction, and of course getting the belt on Reigns in a way that's beneficial to his character, heel or face.

Instead they just randomly threw guys in who make little sense and made it glaringly obvious the whole thing was done to get Reigns to the title.

What matches were effected again? The only match confirmed was the main event. Nothing else had been booked. There was no trickle down effect. And, as you yourself have pointed out, creative has changed directions at the drop of a hat countless times when things weren't working out or the situation changed.

This is no different. They have existing storylines that could've easily been forwarded and extended via the tournament. They just chose not to.

Anyone can come up with an isolated tournament that is exciting. My point is the writers have a long term direction. A thing came out saying one rumoured plan was Cena v Reigns at Mania both as babyfaces. If that was the plan, maybe they still want to get there. So they need Reigns to be a conquering babyface to tell the story they want to tell. Hence they create a tourny where Reigns wins. Should they revamp ALL their plans just because the HHH v Rollins match is out the window?

On the flip side, maybe they completely scrapped the existing Mania plan and have a new direction. We don't know the plan. We can speculate, but nobody knows. But even if they have a new direction for Mania, you still have guys in certain places, that you can't just change to make one tournament more exciting. Would Bray being in the tourny be better fit the tournament? 100% yes. But would it also screw up the planning and ADVERTISING that has already been done for Taker? 1000% yes.

The roster is incredibly thin right now due to injury and other commitments. Given that, I think the tournament had been okay.

You don't seem to understand the difference between booked and announced on TV. I would wager the top matches at Mania were already booked, but won't be announced for months.

If you don't get that difference, this conversation will go nowhere.

That's ONE way to book a show.

But it means you leave most of the roster off Survivor Series. An 8 man tourny and maybe one match will fill a 3 hour show.

Having an exciting tournament and achieving long term goals with it are not mutually exclusive and certainly shouldn't be for well-paid, professional writers.

As for the second point, how many more wrestlers would actually get on the PPV otherwise? You would still have time for a Taker 4-4 match. That would be 16 guys on PPV. You have just said that the roster is thin...

Do you know if Batista is free on 5 days notice? Do you know if he wants to come in to work multiple matches and ultimately lose?

You want a one night tournament to culminate with a MITB cash in? Sounds like an FU to people invested in the tournament.

No excuse. It's just what they're doing. It's their established pattern and whIle there are a number of options that could be far better in execution, there's no reason to think that they would go those routes. Basically I think they decided to replace Rollins vs Reigns with Reigns vs Ambrose, keeping the Shield Brothers narrative with a bit of tweaking. They've gotten as close as possible to the match they wanted with as little disturbance as possible. Quite frankly I'm surprised they didn't just announce that Reigns would be keeping his spot then have Ambrose win a battle royal for the second spot., then immediately turn Reigns heel. The tournament will at least give the sense of a culmination to the PPV match. I cringed when an heard the tournament announcement because in WWE "tournament" is almost synonymous with "missed opportunity."

Aside: Regardless of how this is playing out, it will be good for Reigns in a storyline sense. He won the Rumble and then defended his WM spot against Bryan only to be fucked by Rollins when the match was teetering. Now he wins a title shot in a 4-way, only to have to fight through a tournament to regain that shot. Getting fucked again will hest him up SO well for a heel turn.