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A cool swerve WITHOUT decent exposition...
IMAGE CREDIT: WWE.com |
When I read the No Way Out results and saw that A.W. appeared to have turned on Epico and Primo to side with The Prime Time Players, I actually felt like it was a neat little swerve. After all, the company has put far more emphasis and initiative into developing Titus O'Neil and Darren Young in a couple of months worth of Smackdown appearances then they have Epico or Primo their entire career.
But I also got a bit disappointed, because it could've been so much more than it was. I won't start getting all mushy about "the old days" where stories were longer. I'm not even going to talk about length here. I'm just talking about the potential the story – and the impact of the swerve - could've had full stop, length be damned.
Not to play Monday morning booker, but how much more effective would A.W. siding with O'Neil and Young been had the problems with his business relationship with Epico and Primo been brought up before last night? Let's be honest here, since he 'signed' them, they've done nothing. Zilch. Now some might say that that was the point, the whole narrative was that A.W. was keeping Epico and Primo from their title shot to eventually ditch them for O'Neil and Young. Was it? How did you know?
Seemed more to me that WWE creative cobbled together a narrative on the pre-show (literally MINUTES before the swerve took place) to half-heartedly try to explain things. Instead of showing Epico and Primo's increasing frustration over a few weeks leading up the swerve, nothing happened. WWE didn't even bother setting up that A.W. had ANY connection to O'Neil and Young before the show last night. We haven't seem him or Epico and Primo on TV since they sat in a skybox watching a tag match and talking.
The tag team division (along with the mid-card, and divas division) has sorely lacked a solid feud for several years. Well, a feud that stretches beyond "the contenders continually beat the champions in non-title matches, so here's a title match."
I'm just saying, had WWE set the table a little better before last night, A.W. turning his back on Epico and Primo to align with O'Neil and Young would've meant far more. It would also have put O'Neil and Young in the spotlight better as they head for a title match. But like with everything not named John Cena, it got thrown together without care. And WWE actually wonders why nothing below the upper mid-card draws a murmur from the audience.
I'm not asking for WWE to build even the lowest level story up over months on end. I'm not even swooning over the old days and wishing things would go back to the way they were in 1985 because that's ridiculous. I'm simply asking them to put a little bit more thought into things. That's not such a tall ask, is it?
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