If one believes everything they read — and really, no one should, especially in terms of wrestling “journalism” — the winner of the Royal Rumble was changed from Chris Jericho to Sheamus in the 11th hour. It was done as a way to throw off the Internet, who had either deducted from common sense that Jericho would win or who had read another nebulous spoiler from a similar dirtsheet who either guessed right or had a reliable source within the company.
Let’s pretend for a second that WWE actually had a fully fleshed out plan for Jericho, the Rumble winner, to make it to WrestleMania to challenge CM Punk. For the sake of having a surprise moment, they threw the beginning of that story out that would have taken them into their biggest event of the year. Okay, not really a big deal, because with two world-level championships, they could always have another person challenge the World Heavyweight champion via a Rumble victory and then have Jericho start a feud with Punk through other means, like what was seen Monday night on Raw.
But what about Sheamus? Was it always a plan for him to take the golden path to WrestleMania? Was he always going to challenge Daniel Bryan or Mark Henry or whoever was holding the Big Gold Belt? That path is a little less clear, especially since people were getting material in the mail stating that one of the headline matches for WrestleMania would be Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton a few months back. Again, I’m not sure how much stock anyone can put in stories like these, but pretending for a moment that there was a long-term plan in place for Bryan and Orton, then why at all would WWE change the narrative just for shock value?
Therein lies the biggest problem with the mentalities of both fans and promoters alike. We’ve been conditioned to believe that the swerve is the payoff. Anything that is “predictable” is bad, no matter how well told that resolution is. That attitude is annoying in fans, no doubt, but it’s bearable, especially since those fans are the vocal minority if anything. However, when WWE starts thinking like those fans, that’s where problems arise.
This is not new ground to cover at this fine blog, but the biggest mistake anyone can make is thinking wrestling is more sport than theater. In show business, the worst thing any creator or producer or writer can do is fly by the seat of their pants (the people behind Whose Line Is It Anyway? being notable exceptions, obviously). There needs to be a story and there needs to be a narrative.
Unexpected changes in cast via injury or running afoul of the law obviously necessitate storyline edits, but since when was the sheer act of leaking a plot development considered reason to change course? Besides, haven’t we all learned by now that the actual telling of a spoiler far differs from how it plays out on screen? I don’t even need to give examples outside of wrestling, as nearly every single thing that has been spoiled to great fanfare in the last, I don’t know, forever, has turned out to play better upon viewing than what was expected via the barebones telling of what happened.
Sheamus winning the Rumble, all things considered though, wasn’t a terrible move. I do not come here to bash him winning, because I enjoyed the match thoroughly and thought he was a great choice to close the show victoriously. That being said, I hope the reason for him winning wasn’t just to throw a bunch of trolls that WWE swears they don’t cater to off the scent of who they really wanted to win the thing. Cool moments get lost in time if the stories behind them aren’t memorable. It would be a shameful thing if that happened here with Sheamus just because a few people in suits were scared a small portion of the audience knew what was coming.
TH writes The Wrestling Blog and broadcasts The Wrestling Podcast. You can find him on Twitter, or at various other spots around the Internet. He also loves Chikara, and quite frankly, thinks you should too.
Edited by Jason Mann.
