If you needed more proof that WWE CEO/Chairman Vince McMahon doesn't really know what he OR the audience wants, you can look no further than what has happened to two of the Raw championships over the last two weeks.
Take, for example, the cruiserweight title. On August 14, Japan's Akira Tozawa became the first Japanese cruiserweight since Sho Funaki to win the title, besting England's Neville. Six days later, at Summerslam, during the pre-show, Neville won the title back, and now likely will be asked to work with Enzo Amore.
At Summerslam, Sasha Banks became a 4-time Raw women's champion, unseating self-proclaimed goddess Alexa Bliss. So what happens? Eight days later, Bliss regains the title, clean as a whistle, in the main event on Raw, and now will have to deal with Nia Jax, who turned on Bliss after the match. With Bayley on the DL, an emergency face turn was in order, but who's the face? Bliss or Jax?
That question will be answered another time. The problem I have is that neither Banks nor Tozawa were allowed sufficient time to grow as champions, and in Banks' case, this has happened every time she's won the title over the past year and change. Yes, it's easy to blame McMahon, and chalk it up to his age (72) and declining mental faculties, as well as a glaring lack of faith in both Tozawa and Banks, not to mention a few others. At the same time, he insists on keeping the Intercontinental title and the World title on heels who can't win matches by themselves (Miz, Jinder Mahal), regardless of who the challengers are, and refuses to balance the scales so that the face challengers can counter-balance the heels. We know the reasons why Miz ("Total Divas") and Mahal (forthcoming tour of India) have their titles, but that no longer matters.
All this adds up to a even more glaring lack of respect toward the titles and the audience in general. With the NFL's regular season soon to begin---and there will be a Monday night college game on Labor Day---, ratings won't be going up any time soon, even with John Cena now on the red brand as a part-timer. In order to win fans away from football, McMahon must finally recognize the one fact that everyone but him has acknowledged over the last 15 years. He's the problem, and in order to effect the solution, he needs to step aside, as gradually and gracefully as humanly possible, so that the company can move forward. It's not that hard, but he's making it hard because his heart is hard.
Well, Moses broke the Egyptian Pharoah. Fate will break McMahon. It's that simple.
