Smark Out Moment

Hi everybody, RazMansReality back again to drop some more "smark knowledge" on you. Originally, this was supposed to be an immediate reaction to the recent Night of Champions pay-per-view/event, but due to circumstances beyond my control I wasn't able to write one last week. As such, this column has morphed into my take on the state of the WWE following the show. I'm not going to talk about every single match that took place on the show but rather highlight three feuds/scenarios that have continued and where I think things are going as a result of things that are happening now and how to fix them.

The divas division is a complete mess

I seriously cannot figure out what the WWE is trying to do with the divas division.

First, they pointlessly split up the Bella Twins in order to create "drama" for the Total Divas TV show. Then, when they realized that the Bellas are absolutely terrible as singles performers, they seemingly combined the two feuds by placing Nikki Bella in the title picture. Myself and many other wrestling fans that I know thought that management somewhere wanted a championship on a "total diva" and that once she was inserted into this match, it was a foregone conclusion that she would win it. Then, like it or not, we would see a one-on-one feud between Brie and Nikki over the title.

Instead, what happened is that AJ Lee became a three-time WWE Divas champion. Why?! This simply makes no sense at all! If you weren't going to place the championship on Nikki Bella, then why in the world would you take it off of Paige?! She's the one with all the momentum right now and she's the one who needs to be wearing the championship. There's simply nothing to be gained from a third one-on-one match between the two in which you would hope would be at least a third title swap between the two. The only way that this can work in my mind is that if you actually do something unheard of by WWE "standards" today and actually allow the two best workers in your division on your main roster to engage in a truly physical battle inside Hell in a Cell at the upcoming pay-per-view/event. Otherwise, it's just one more match between these two that while we know it's going to be awesome is simply not needed.

Which brings us back to the Bellas. As I mentioned earlier, the proof is in the pudding with these two. They simply aren't ready for a one-on-one feud but it's what we're receiving nonetheless. The promos get worse and worse every week especially from Nikki; and Brie—who I honestly thought was the better wrestler of the two—hasn't really been allowed to showcase her skill all that much because she's being placed in the ring with other "total divas." The reality of the situation is that, eventually, these two are going to have to wrestle one another one-on-one. But with the absolute train wreck program WWE is giving us between the two, instead of the split making them two huge stars that the E! Network wanted, it simply makes fans want to turn off the television every time they're on screen.

It's time for Rusev to lose

I'm not going to sugarcoat it here ladies and gentlemen. I'm about the furthest thing from a Rusev fan you will find. That being said, I take pride as a columnist at being objective.

When WWE placed Mark Henry as Rusev's opponent at Night of Champions it seemed like they had finally found the one person who could give Rusev a relevant feud. He was more believable as a hero for the USA against big bad Russia then Jack Swagger was and he seemed poised to win the match. As we all know, that didn't happen and instead, Rusev beat him twice in the span of 48 hours and he's been pushed aside as an opponent in favor of The Big Show.

While I do think it's fantastic that Mark Henry has seemingly turned heel on Bo Dallas (because I've always thought that he is far better when working as one then when working as a face) the flip side of the coin is what we're now going to be forced to endure with Big Show. That wasn't meant to come off as a dig on him because I know a lot of his being irrelevant over the last several years has to do with how he's been booked. I was instead pointing out the fact that he appears to just be the next in line to have Rusev destroy him before he moves on to someone else.

WWE needs to stop this and stop it now! You're invested in Rusev and you think he's a future star in the business. That's fine we get that but if you want anyone to care about him than you actually need to give us fans a real feud. If we already know that every time he comes on our screen and has a match set up for him he's going to win, then just like how we are now the majority of us will be bored by his matches and be waiting for them to end. So please do yourself and your performer a favor.

Rather than having the "knockout punch" from the previous SmackDown be a tease to the audience actually let it lead to Rusev losing his first match and actually becoming "human." This is the only way that I can see myself and many of the wrestling fans that I've had discussions with be able to be entertained by him going forward. The simple truth is that no matter how much you like a performer he or she just simply can't continue to do nothing but win because it simply just stops being believable at some point and you've reached that point with Rusev.

It's Rollins and Ambrose's time to shine

My final bullet point is exactly what I'm afraid of.

The Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose feud is the best thing going in WWE today on the main roster. It's as old school as old school can get: two guys with a believable backstory and history going at each other and putting out great promos which will hopefully lead to more fantastic matches! While it's definitely not a good thing that Roman Reigns is now injured and we all wish him the speediest of recovery, I was thrilled that once again the door was able to open for Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins to finish what they started. The problem is WWE backed themselves into a corner and they've done a stupid thing to try to get themselves out of It that may ruin this feud.

Seth Rollins is your current "Mr. Money in the Bank"—a fact that is very easy to forget with how rightfully dominate of a WWE World Heavyweight champion we currently have in Brock Lesnar. WWE did two things right during the Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena rematch at Night of Champions.

First, they had John Cena look stronger and planted the seed of doubt in our minds that he may actually win. This is always the right choice to make if the first match (or in this case, the first match in the latest feud between two wrestlers) was so one-sided as the match was between these two at SummerSlam.

Secondly, they had Seth Rollins come out and attempt to cash in the Money in the Bank contract; something they had to do to remind people that this is somebody they want to be seen as a future WWE World Heavyweight champion.

The problem that those smart decisions have created is this: John Cena now has to want "revenge" for what happened to him. This has myself and every other wrestling fan in a panic because for the past 12 plus years, this has been "the guy." For whatever reason, Vince McMahon in particular seems to think if Cena isn't going over, the company is going to fall apart. This, of course, is making everyone afraid that it will be John Cena vs. Seth Rollins at the upcoming Hell in a Cell which would mean that Dean Ambrose would be stuck facing Randy Orton, which makes absolutely no sense and leads us to our second problem.

When this all first went down a couple of weeks ago, I was thinking this wouldn't be so bad because you've got two of the best wanting to put over the future of the business. The issue with this is that Ambrose is arguably outshining Rollins right now and sticking him with Randy Orton is sticking him with a guy that the audience feels so much of a "been there, done that" mentality with that we don't care anymore. No matter how good Randy Orton is in the ring, we all look at him as a guy who got way too much way too soon and now anything he does is completely irrelevant in our minds.

Then, if Seth Rollins doesn't defeat John Cena, it undoes all of the great work you've done with him up to this point. The "Ambrose live" segment from this past Monday on Raw confirmed what most of us already felt. Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins is the most entertaining thing on WWE TV right now and they don't need these two veterans around to mess things up!

However, since WWE didn't do the smart thing and just give John Cena and Randy Orton an event off, all we can hope for now is that the young stars both go over no matter what the scenario is going to be involving the two veterans between them and that this outstanding feud is allowed to continue afterward. It's about the future WWE, not the past!

What do all of you think about the current state of WWE and the discussions I've brought up here today? Do you agree with me or do you actually think WWE is making the right choices and you like the current direction? Let me know via our comments section down below and I'll be back to drop some more "smark knowledge" on you next time.