WWE Wildcard: 3 Reasons Why the New ‘Wildcard Rule’ Should Be Scrapped. Here at SportsRush, we present to you 3 reasons why the Wildcard rule should be scrapped and how it will have negative repercussions on the company.
This week Vince McMahon introduced a new concept in WWE. He called it the WWE Wildcard while screaming ‘‘I’m a genius!’’.
The new rule allowed a limit number of wrestlers to cross brand for a one night only appearance. The number was initially set at 3 but was later increased to 4. Top stars such as Roman Reigns, AJ Styles, Kofi Kingston and Daniel Bryan have taken advantage of the rules.
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This is an obvious ploy by WWE to address their record low ratings last week. However, this is merely a short-term solution to what is a much much bigger problem. But that is a discussion for another article.
Today we will look at 3 reasons why the new WWE Wildcard Rule should be scrapped:
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The WWE have not followed it’s own established rule.
There has been an episode each of SmackDown and Raw since the creation of the rule. Both these shows have seen the rule broken already. There were 6 SmackDown Superstars on Raw this week. Roman, Kofi, Bryan, Lars, Elias and Shane. And this was after WWE increased the number to 4. On Smackdown there were 5 Raw Stars. AJ, Sami, Jey and Jimmy Uso and The Miz.
They have broken their own rule over before fans can even understand what it is. Doing this gives an impression that they don’t care and if they don’t care then as a consumer, why should I?
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It will affect storylines on both brands.
Having Superstars cross brand can make it hard to follow storylines and even adversely affect the ongoing ones. What happens if a smackdown star beats Rollins and brings the Universal title to Smackdown? How do you explain The Uso’s challenging Daniel Bryan and Erick Rowan for the Titles while it was still up for grabs but Heavy Machinery only showed up after the titles were already won? Don’t get me wrong, the Wildcard will definitely create exciting matches, but it can come at the cost of puzzling storylines that are unnecessarily convoluted.
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It will stagnate the already stacked card and prevent the creation of new stars
One of the things that the Brand Split allows, is giving a chance to previously overlooked wrestlers. By having 2 different brands with separate rosters, there is more time to distribute between wrestlers. The WWE features a multitude of the best talents from around the world, but their continued focus on a handful of them have led to many wrestlers being stuck in a Mid-Card purgatory. With this new rule, the few wrestlers that had a chance will now be side-lined to promote the wrestlers that the company thinks will improve ratings.
This goes to show how myopic the WWE is. By the end of their experiment they’re going to be left with a lot of disgruntled employees looking for a way out. A focus on a handful also means that WWE is not creating any stars for the future.
Conclusion
Instead of looking for a shortcut, the WWE needs to address the underlying issues that have plagued the company for a long time now. They should do away with the Wildcard rule and focus on their wrestlers instead. Build characters and write stories that the fans care about. They need to give a reason for fans to tune in. A good product would be a very good reason to watch.
