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Cook’s Top 5: Ways WWE Listened To Their Audience In 2019

Many thought it was only lip service but, Steve Cook gives us the Top 5 ways WWE actually listened in 2019!

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You may recall the end of 2018. WWE was in something of a lull creatively. They were largely presenting things their audience didn’t particularly care about. Sure, they had their defenders who were all about Baron Corbin’s never-ending push as Raw Constable/General Manager/whatever the hell title he had at the moment, and there were plenty of folks popping for Universal Champion Brock Lesnar whenever he showed up, but the majority of the audience wasn’t smelling what WWE was cooking.

The McMahon family response? Hit the ring, claim they were listening, and promise to give the people what they wanted.

12 months later, WWE Raw is largely in the same position they were at this time last year. The 8PM hour of Raw was fourth for the night in the 18-49 demo on December 17, 2018 & December 16, 2019. The numbers are down across the board, but the same could be said for other shows on the list each year as people continue to shift the ways they consume programming. (The biggest gainer? Fox News. That audience doesn’t shift the way they consume anything, and the outrage in their circles is high these days, so you would expect viewership to be up.)

The main question is this: Has WWE lived up to their word & listened to the fans? Most people I saw online discussing this scoff at the idea, but I was able to find five ways in which WWE has listened to their audience since December 2018.

5. WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship

Sasha Banks Bayley WWE NXT

This was a very, very hot topic right around this time last year. Bayley & Sasha Banks had been publicly campaigning for the new championship for months, the fans were feeling the idea, and WWE finally made it official on the episode filmed the same night as the McMahon segment. Bayley & Sasha were the first champions, followed by the IIconics, Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross, and Asuka & Kairi Sane.

To be honest, things got off to a bit of a rough start. Bayley & Sasha’s run as champs was shorter than expected & may or may not have led to some hurt feelings. That would have been fine if the IIconics’ four-month reign led to anything of note other than hilarious Billie Kay GIFs & memes. It didn’t, but things look to be on the right track now with the championship having main evented the most recent WWE Network Event.

4. Kofi Kingston as WWE Champion

Kofi Kingston WWE WrestleMania 35

I don’t think people realized how much they wanted Kofi to be WWE Champion until he was put into the Elimination Chamber Match and the entire Houston crowd got behind him like he was Hulk Hogan in 1985. The fans made their request, and WWE listened. Kofi was inserted into the spot that reportedly was originally intended for Mustafa Ali and wound up defeating Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35.

WWE is often criticized for being slow to react to things like a sudden burst in Kofi Kingston’s approval rating, but they weren’t hesitant to jump on it here.

3. NXT being elevated to Raw & SmackDown’s level

WWE NXT Survivor Series Women's Team

One of the points of emphasis of Vince’s speech was the idea of new stars & new matchups. Those who don’t feel WWE has lived up to the promises of last December point out that Baron Corbin has gone from being heavily featured as an authority figure on Raw to being heavily featured as a king on SmackDown. They point out that Brock Lesnar has gone from being the rarely seen Universal Champion on Raw to the rarely seen WWE Champion on Raw. Some key roles have not seen a new infusion of talent, or new matchups that people are really interested in seeing.

However, we have seen the elevation of NXT. It’s largely happened as a response to TNT picking up All Elite Wrestling, but few would claim that the NXT talent doesn’t deserve to be featured on USA weekly. Casual viewers that either don’t have WWE Network or don’t regularly watch NXT on the Network are now being exposed to the Undisputed Era, Tommaso Ciampa, Keith Lee, Rhea Ripley & many others on a weekly basis. Maybe that wasn’t what Vince originally meant, but WWE has presented fans with the new stars they clamored for. You just kinda feel bad for the NXT people that got called up the main roster to do nothing before the brand got elevated.

2. Roman Reigns not pushed as strong as previously

Roman Reigns WWE Leukemia

The level of push for the Big Dog is something that’s been a point of contention for WWE fans for many, many years. Once the Shield split up, Reigns was immediately inserted into the main event picture and always featured as one of the top guys. Reigns was featured in four straight WrestleMania main events, getting booed in each one while being portrayed as a babyface. Ironically enough, one would have expected Reigns’ return from leukemia to result in an even bigger push. It didn’t.

Reigns was kept on the upper mid-card level pretty much all year. One could say that WWE didn’t do the most it could to capitalize off of fans won over by Roman defeating cancer. After getting drafted to SmackDown, Reigns spent his time feuding with Shane McMahon, Daniel Bryan, Erick Rowan & King Corbin, nowhere near the WWE Championship that many assumed he would win to be the undisputed top guy on SmackDown. Didn’t happen. The fans that didn’t want Roman Reigns shoved down their throats won the day.

1. Seth Rollins as the top guy, brother!

seth rollins wrestlemania universal championship

Around this time last year, I wrote an article about how Seth Rollins had delivered stinkers in several PPV matches. Boy, were people outraged! They couldn’t imagine somebody having the temerity & the unmitigated gall to claim that Rollins was anything other than a Crossfit Jesus inside the squared circle. At that point in time, Seth Rollins could do no wrong and everybody wanted him to defeat Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship and become the top man in WWE.

So that’s exactly what happened. Rollins whooped Lesnar at WrestleMania, became Universal Champion, and was the focal point of WWE programming for most of the year. The WWE Universe asked for it, and WWE gave it to them. What happened afterwards with the fans turning against Rollins after the man turned out to be bad on Twitter can’t really be held against WWE.

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Opinion

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS: WWE Bash In Berlin Immediate Reactions

Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM

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Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM

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@TheMindlessPod @PCTunney @ChairshotMedia

prowrestlingtees.com/TheChairshot – TONS of Great designs…MAKES A GREAT GIFT!

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Opinion

AJ’s Top 3 Favorite SummerSlams

AJ is back with his annual opinion article, and this time the SummerSlam buzz got him wondering about his personal Top 3.

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It’s been a while since I have done any form of writing and SummerSlam is this Saturday. Of all the SummerSlams I’ve seen over the years; which ones are my favorites? While it’s not a revolutionary idea, I figured everyone loves to debate favorites of well, anything. Don’t worry though because this isn’t just going to be pure recency bias. I’ve watched the majority of them so with the ones I put on the list, it hit me more in some way shape or form whether it was story, a really good match or it just felt like a solid event.

At least this proves WWE is trending in a good direction for me, when it gets the ol’ brain juices flowing just because a show is around the corner!

#3: 2022 (Ol’ Brock Lesnar Has A Farm)

r/Wrasslin - when did Brock lesner begin his farmer and cowboy gimmick and when did he stop doing the gimmick ? is it worth watching I believe it was 2021 but not sure when he stopped the gimmick
Starting off the show, we get Bianca looking for a rematch against Becky from last years SummerSlam and it was better than the 21 second affair that everyone claims was a squash. This time Bianca holds her own and beats the Man in a fairly decent match, good way to get the event started. Next up is the heat seeking missile, Logan Paul against the former heat seeking missile because, well he wasn’t cut out for it and wasn’t a guy in everyone’s eyes, The Miz. After they had their blow off at Mania with Logan coming out on top which… isn’t awful, I just don’t like Logan Paul because he has that dude bro aura and swagger to make him more hateable than any other person on the card. Which I suppose is his gimmick…so…kudos?

First Championship match is for the US Championship and it’s as expected that in Theory, he should never beat someone to the caliber of Bobby Lashley which is no surprise. Dominik and Rey still back when Dom wanted the good fight against the Judgement Day before joining them later. The former Colts players, which they hammered it dahn in this match up showed that the canal swimming, trash talkin’, podcastin’, current RAW Color Commentatin’ goofball we all love, Pat McAfee came out on top again Bum Ass Corbin.

Usos putting the Street Profits on lockdown in the penitentiary since I believe this was peak Bloodline with the belt collecting and running all of WWE. Liv beat Ronda Rousey which isn’t astonishing but it’s not something people had on their bingo cards for anything with WWE so it was a nice little shock factor. The most memorable part of the night is obviously the Main Event, Lesnar brings the tractor, Roman catching the Microphone and Brock stands on top of the vehicle. Damn good match that showed off what they do in the ring since Roman caught his stride as the main bad guy and Brock… liked people after all of this? That is still a weird statement in my head. Brock being a good guy people person. If Liv wasn’t on bingo cards for wrestling, that is not on bingo cards in any aspect of life really.

That is more of the event that had solid matches and story going for it. No weird double count out, multiple people involved, 5 tag matches on the card. Things made sense and weren’t convoluted, had shocking moments that were great to see like Liv actually getting a title defense and there were the results we all expected at the time like Theory losing in 4 minutes to Bobby Lashley.

#2: 2009 (Are You Ready for The Return?)

10 Greatest Summerslam Entrances in WWE History - GameSpot
This event wasn’t that strong. It was strong with the star power involved in 2009 with guys like Rey Mysterio as Intercontinental Champion, Orton and Cena for the WWE Championship as it was becoming as stale as month old chips and CM Punk was facing Jeff Hardy before he ultimately returned to TNA at the beginning of 2010 after this PPV. For me, it’s not so much of the show itself, it was more of the memories because the Balai as our friends Chris Platt and Rey Cash like to call my brother and I, we were just coming back into wrestling and we were TNA Fans. We didn’t watch WWE that much really, it was just what came on after another channel had old ROH shows before they moved to three hours and swallowed the 8pm Eastern Slot. No, the reason why this has so many memories for me is three main reasons. First, Orton and Cena. They have had their rivalry since the beginning it seems, being each others foils like Hogan and Piper before them and there had to be a stipulation where if Randy was Counted Out or DQ’d, he’d lose the championship regardless. This was prime Viper Randy and the obvious joke we had of Super Cena where he very rarely lost, unless it was SummerSlam surprisingly enough.

Number two reason was CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. Hardys known for the Ladder and TLC matches in the past and this being the penultimate match for this feud and it was a banger of a match. If you didn’t know Punk before, it was a great introduction to his wrestling. I used to like Punk a lot because of this match because he could talk, wrestle… and not insanely personal with things in wrestling. In all seriousness, this was a great match. Ultimate risks, high reward for Punk grabbing the World Heavyweight Championship and he was given his next feud because of the final boss of SmackDown at that time. Thanks, Teddy Long.

The main and final reason though why this match gave me the memories flowing back is more of the fact that one of my closest and longest termed friends of 23 years, also loves wrestling. Back when we were younger, he’d do MoCap videos on YouTube with his figures. We’d have friends come over for parties at his house and we’d do the one thing WWE always told us not to do and that was try it at home. He was always stronger than me, I was always more charismatic. He had the power aspect and did things with brute force, I could talk my way out of trouble with parents if we did something wrong. There was always one thing that our respective mother’s always called us though… it’s on the tip of my tongue… oh right, ‘Degenerates’.

As soon as we were called that, we kind of parodied the DX line. I was limber enough to do the HBK pose and do a Superkick before it became the new DDT and he would just Spinebuster people and knew how to do the water spit. So what do you think was the main reason we even ordered this PPV for his 13th Birthday? I think the two guys we were pretending to be were set to return on a tank and toss out some glow sticks. The return of DX, Shawn Michaels coming back after Mania with Triple H to deal with the Legacy problem was an amazing return for them and made everything so much fun.

So we have the solid card and this one has a personal story… what’s my number one SummerSlam? Is it personal? Well yes but not going into that. Is it a good card? To me, it was a phenomenal card! Is it memorable? Seeing how wrestling fans still mention at least three matches to this day.

#1: 2005 (Octopus in the Washer, Lover’s Quarrel and Where the F%#$ is Vickie?)

Vickie Guerrero on Rey vs. Dominik Mysterio: 'I wish I was part of it' -  Cageside Seats
Quite possibly some of the best matches I’ve seen and one that was just the most hilarious moments of overselling in wrestling history, I know why I love this SummerSlam but it’s also a really good card at the same time. Redacted beats Orlando Jordan in 25 seconds for the US Title and they made jokes about it like, he can make a coffee faster than he beat Orlando and stuff like that, it’s pretty funny. Angle getting sick of Eugene’s antics for his Gold Medal was also a great bit they had play up, the Year long feud of Randy Orton and Undertaker was still going on where Orton comes out on top this time around to get the win back from Mania, Jericho returning for the match with Cena in a whole promotional thing for each other’s groups, Fozzy for Jericho and the Chain Gang doing Bad, Bad Man for Cena leading up to a match for the WWE Championship. JBL won a 20 man battle royal on SmackDown to win the Championship…… Opportunity to face the newest member of SmackDown, Batista but the three main matches that a lot of people talk about to this day; Edge vs Matt Hardy, Rey vs Eddie for Dominik and Hogan vs HBK in the Main Event.

I have reasons to enjoy the Hardy/Edge match but it looked like a real fight, it really made us believe that Matt Hardy was going to kill Edge because real names were dropped during this tirade from Hardy. It wasn’t Edge and Lita, it was Adam and Amy. Matt was so dead set on beating the hell out of Edge that they made a situation into gold and it was a great moment for this match to happen, I believe it was also an Unsanctioned Match too which added the intensity until matt got concussed and knocked senseless that it looked like he couldn’t fight for anything but the build up was what made it seem like a marque match. It made it feel real, it made it feel awesome and it made it feel personal.

Eddie kept tormenting Rey Mysterio about Dominik not being Rey’s but Eddie’s for the summer. That’s all you heard from Eddie being the weasel he was is hanging out with Dominik, making the world believe it’s his son and what not (Let’s not do a fast forward to today where he has the mullet, mustache and everything like Eddie) but they settle this in a Ladder Match where the top of it is a document for the custody of Dominik and my god, this match is better than it should have been. I expect nothing else from Eddie because the man hated having a bad match, Dom got involved and stopped Eddie, Vickie was late and stopped Eddie. The whole match was good it was just very weird with the premise but was a great match. I wonder if Rey regrets his decision to win the match now…

Octopus in a Washing Machine… those five words have resonated with Shawn Michaels’ performance in this match, forever. It was supposed to be an amazing match up between Hogan and Michaels, Icon vs Icon it said and suddenly Hogan’s back gives out, can’t do a trilogy of matches so we can only do the one and then pull out of everything after. This match was set up to be a classic and instead turned into the most unbelievable sell fest ever. A Hogan big boot caused Shawn to tumble 3 or 4 times, getting crotched on the ropes had HBK bouncing higher than he should have, being tossed out of the ring made it look like Shawn never broke his back in 1998 from how much he flopped and flipped around like crazy. It’s bad… or maybe even good that a lot of current wrestlers watched this match that went, “I can sell like that, I want to be a wrestler” and did. So good or bad, I don’t know but for some reason this PPV has always had a place in my heart for how memorable it was.

Those are my top three SummerSlams so far but who knows, 2024 has potential to maybe bump something or at least get me to consider a shift. Should be fun to see how the show plays out! What are some of your favorite SummerSlams?

About Chairshot Radio Network

Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!

 MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)

TUESDAY - Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)

WEDNESDAY - The Greg DeMarco Show (wrestling) 

THURSDAY - Keeping the news ridiculous... The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)

FRIDAY - DWI Podcast (Drunk Wrestling Intellect)

SATURDAY - The Mindless Wrestling Podcast

SUNDAY - The Front and Center Sports Podcast 

CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS

Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history)

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS...IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends

Patrick O'Dowd's 5X5

Classic POD is WAR


Chairshot Radio Network Your home for the hardest hitting podcasts... Sports, Entertainment and Sports Entertainment!

All Shows On Demand


Powered by RedCircle


Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!
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