Lazy Storytelling Is Killing Character Development
Terrible. That’s the word DPP uses to describe WWE writing? Read on to see why…

I tried looking online to find who the head writers are for both Raw and Smackdown, but frankly I don’t care. It doesn’t matter who’s writing for these shows. What matters is, they are terrible. And I know what everyone is going to say when someone says the writing sucks for both brands… “let’s see you try and do the job if you think it’s so bad.” Believe me I’d love to, and then somebody else would be writing this article stating how bad of a job I’m doing. But I digress…
In the midst of the brand split, the WWE has an incredible roster of talented wrestlers. And with the additions of the NXT talent that was built up, if given the opportunity, one could argue that we have a roster that could rival the Attitude Era. There are so many wrestlers that could be world champions right now that guys like AJ Styles are headlining the US Title picture.
Maybe that’s where some of the problem lies. With so much talent, what do you do with them? Well, instead of booking singles matches and coming up with storylines for all of them, let’s just throw them all into one match and that way we don’t have to come up with any ideas for them. That’s about where we are at right now heading into SummerSlam. The Universal Title match has now become a Fatal 4 Way match. This gives the writers an out to not have to put anybody over. It doesn’t help with character development either. If the title changes hands, the winner doesn’t look as strong because, while they had to defeat three opponents, they can win without looking like they overcame the champion. Whether or not Brock Lesnar is pinned, the whole buildup of Lesnar as an unbeatable champion is wasted when you could have built up someone as the superstar who took down the beast.

The women’s division has been the biggest victim of this. How many PPV’s and television matches have we seen 5 way matches to determine number one contenders for their respective brands in the past few months? I feel like I haven’t seen a one on one match in this division for months. We’ve seen Lana given title matches and lose in less than a minute. Nia Jax has been booked as a dominating female but can’t seem to be given a title opportunity, destroying any credibility to her character. And a lack of secondary storylines hurts any chances for these women to have any character development.
Character development is not just lost in the women’s division, it’s everywhere. The lack of secondary storylines causes fans to lose interest in the up and coming contenders. It’s the ultimate reason the cruiserweight division has fallen on its face since its inception. We don’t know who these wrestlers are and have no reason to invest our time in them when they get the call to challenge for the title. Then these matches are continually scarred by poor finishes that we feel like the payoff is not worth the time invested in the character. Bray Wyatt’s character has produced the same promo for years against every different superstar they could feed him, and he has lost almost every single match against them. There has been no evolution to his character, and what was once an awesome idea has been destroyed because of this. What reason do I have to believe his persona?

The Enzo and Cass split has been wrecked with a poor finish to the story. They rushed through what should have been a fun feud between the two just to get Big Cass vs. The Big Show at SummerSlam. These guys had been together since the beginning of their careers in NXT, and all we got was one PPV match and a then a blow off match on Raw a few weeks later that was only a catalyst to further the feud with the Big Show.
Jason Jordan was moved to Raw because why..he’s Angle’s son? Did Raw have to trade anybody for this?
AJ Styles stated that he was bringing back the US Open Challenge for the US Title, only to lose it the next week at Battleground. What was the point of giving us that tease?
The Fashion Police storyline was supposed to be paid off at Battleground to find out who had been attacking them and destroying their office, and we didn’t even get that. I know it’s a lower story in the show, but it’s a trend that continues to disappoint.
I’m certainly fine with storylines that go for months. I have been an advocate for longer storylines. However, it needs to serve a purpose. It has to build the characters, give us a reason to invest, and eventually give the payoff. But that is not happening right now. The writing team keeps changing their minds day by day about where they are going. We are reaching a point in the WWE where we tread the line where I just cannot become invested in storylines when I can’t expect that the writing team is going to give me something to care about. I’m just tired of seeing the women in 5 way matches. I’m just tired of the lack of ideas for all these great wrestlers. I’m just tired of waiting for a payoff that doesn’t come and doesn’t further the characters. I’m just…

