The House Of “M”: …Dive Debate & WWE’s Superiority Complex


Hello WNW people! Mitch “Big M” Adams here welcoming you to my fortnightly editorial on Wrestling News World called… THE HOUSE OF “M.” This being my house, I get to talk about what I want to talk about and share my opinions on the art form known as Pro Wrestling. Although, I should point out that I’m only renting this house from WNW, so obviously the views I express here are solely mine alone!

If you don’t agree with me, I’m more than willing to hear you out as you are as entitled to your opinion as much as I am entitled to mine. But, just remember you're a guest in my house, so try to keep things civil!

I am just going to come out and say it WNW people! I believe WWE has a superiority complex and the continuing growth of independent wrestling and its stars is only making it worse. Now, I know what you’re thinking? You’re thinking “But WWE is the biggest promotion in the world, why would they have a complex about other promotions which could never compete?” But, you have to try and see it from the companies rather narrow perspective.

They have no real competition, and yet so many fans keep talking about other smaller promotions. They have the deepest talent pool in their entire history, but a growing number of fans continue to voice their dissatisfaction with the product. The talent pool is putting on amazing matches, but a lot of fans keep talking about matches that happened elsewhere.

To make a long story short, they simply can not fathom why fans would ever want to watch anything wrestling related that doesn’t have the WWE logo on it. They simply don’t understand why there is an indie boom going on. And they simply don’t understand why workers like the Young Bucks or Kenny Omega are making so much money outside of WWE and don’t choose to take a substantial pay cut to sign a developmental deal with them.

I have mentioned this before on a few occasions! I firmly believe that there is a growing number of fans who are splitting into three equally sized and distinct factions. The Pro-IWC, the Anti-IWC, and the Casual Audience!

The Pro-IWC (Which I tend to side with 90% of the time if I'm honest) feels that WWE is going in the wrong direction creatively. And that more experienced workers who have had success in other smaller companies are seen as “B+ players” by WWE higher-ups. The Anti-IWC feels that the Pro-IWC are just a vocal, biased minority who nitpick WWE’s product too much. They also feel that Pro-IWC members treat WWE homegrown talent unfairly and should just be quiet and try to enjoy the show. And the casual audience is blissfully unaware of all of this and never really analyze the product (man alive how I envy them sometimes). Most of these fans don’t watch WWE TV every single week and maybe even only watch it with their children.

If pro wrestling were like politics (you know, before western politics somehow turned into something from a novel written by George Orwell or Sinclair Lewis). The Pro-IWC would be considered left-wing voters, the Anti-IWC considered the right wing voters and casual audience considered nonpartisan voters. There are a lot of extremists on both sides of the political fence that give both right and left wing ideologies are bad name as we all know. And The Pro and Anti IWC factions have the same problem!

Extremist Pro-IWC members do nothing but criticize WWE and are never happy with anything they do. Extremist Anti-IWC members have swallowed the WWE narrative whole and look down at anything not associated with WWE from day one with great contempt. Both sides are completely biased. Both sides refuse to admit they are wrong no matter how the facts are presented to them. And both sides drive everyone else nuts!

Now WWE is in an impossible position trying to keep all factions of the audience happy. And I do not envy them one bit and completely understand their frustrations with fans these days. But out of all the factions, I think it’s obvious which one WWE’s higher-ups like the least! I mean come on, do you really need three guesses who?

The problem with that is, unlike the other two factions, The Pro-IWC are 100x more likely to seek out and enjoy other promotions that feature workers who don’t work the “WWE Style.” So in the last few years, smaller promotions have experienced a HUGE surge in popularity. And as a result, WWE as a whole developed the superiority complex that I named this article about.

I know some of you still have your doubts. I mean, after all, even with all the success, the indies are experiencing they still don’t hold a candle to WWE. So I don’t blame you if you think I’m full of it. But why don’t you read on as I list three of the most glaring examples of WWE’s superiority complex that are on show for the whole world to see every single day! The amazing thing is they happen so often you don’t even notice them.

1. They Can’t Stop Picking Fights On Twitter

This should be painfully obvious to everyone! From Road Dogg constantly arguing with fans on Twitter to Randy Orton retweeting the same old rubbish (about today's wrestling is just acrobatics, not storytelling blah blah blah) from bitter old veterans who worked in the territory days like Rip Rogers. This is where WWE’s superiority complex is on full display! The whole “DIVE” debate is one of the dumbest things I’ve seen in pro wrestling. Here is the scoop guys… pro wrestling, just like any other form of arts and entertainment is subjective!

For example, some people like brilliant thought provoking cinema while others just want to watch a movie where superhumans fight and shit gets blown up. One isn’t better than the other; they are just appealing to different segments of an audience. And yet lifelong “WWE guys” feel the need to trash the indies at every turn.

Randy Orton’s sarcastic apology was the kicker for me! Going on and on about how much money he made on the European tour and that he doesn’t really care about the indies. Anyone with half a brain would immediately ask the question, “You’re making this much money, why should you even care enough about the indies to trash them?”

2. They Always Feel The Need To Say “We Are The Only Company That Matters.”

If you watch even ten minutes of WWE programming, you’ll have this message hammered into your skull a hundred times over! But the most glaring and most recent example I can give of this is the main roster debut of Shinsuke Nakamura! Here is someone who was arguably the biggest star in Puroresu in the last decade…and they wait a month for him to have a match on the main roster? Not only that but Dolph Ziggler spent that whole time cutting heel promos on how no one knew who he was and that he shouldn’t be pushed into the spotlight so soon (a not so subtle dig and Pro-IWC criticism of WWE).

When WWE faces criticism over this, they used the new WWE Network show Bring It To The Table (a half-hour round-table show where Corey Graves and JBL insult and demean anyone and everyone who dares say WWE isn’t perfect) to respond. The explanation was as predictable as it was insulting, “fewer people watch NXT than SmackDown, and even less watch New Japan so most “mainstream fans” don’t know who Nakamura is, so we had to slowly introduce him!” ARE YOU F*****G KIDDING ME?

If “mainstream fans” don’t know who he is, why did arenas full of people in both his NXT and SmackDown debuts completely lose their mind when his music hit? Who are you trying to convince, fans or yourselves?

3. They Keep Accusing Pro-IWC Fans Of Hypocrisy

As I mentioned above, Pro-IWC members can be a little unfair towards WWE born and bread workers. But the accusations of hypocrisy WWE throws at critics when they complain about someone like Jinder Mahal gets a big push out of nowhere but rarely do when someone like Nakamura does are complete BS! The reason why critics don’t complain about guys like Nakamura getting pushed out of the gate is because he has proven he is a main event level worker and a huge draw elsewhere. So obviously, most fans feel that should be taken into consideration when he starts working for WWE. Meanwhile, Jinder Mahal became WWE Champion out of the blue when a month prior he was jobbing to Mojo Rawley for crying out loud! Is it really so hard to understand why people would cry foul over Jinder being Champion when guys like Zayn, Ziggler, Styles, KO, etc, etc. are on the roster and have been killing it for months?

More to the point, Jinder’s push is largely tokenistic, I mean let's be honest here! WWE trying to expand in India is the ONLY reason he’s the WWE World Champion right now. Short term it makes a TON of business sense, but long term?

Conclusion: Keep It Up WWE, You're Only Contributing To The Growth Of Puroresu and Indie Wrestling

You would think that all the digs that the indie stars get from the biggest pro wrestling company in the would start to wear on them. But instead, they are taking it for what it is…people in WWE suffering an attack of the green-eyed monster! They are even showing their business savvy by poking fun at the whole “DIVE” debate every chance they get! I’m sure you’ve seen the countless videos online of workers in Japan, and indie shows, having fun at Randy Orton’s expense and getting themselves a ton of buzz because of it. And guys like Will Osprey and the Young Bucks have new “DIVE” inspired merchandise in the pipeline that will surely make them lots and lots of money!

So, by all means, WWE guys, keep having digs at Japan and the indies. Keep saying they're just doing acrobatics and not telling stories. All it does is help smaller promotions and indie stars get even more eyes on them. Which in turn feeds into your superiority complex and the cycle starts all over again even bigger than the last time! So, on behalf of indie stars and pro wrestling fans everywhere… Thanks for the indie boom dummies!

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