The Riyadh road trip feels like a filler episode
We are less than two weeks away from Night of Champions in Riyadh, and I’m struggling to find a reason to clear my calendar. On June 27, WWE returns to Saudi Arabia for a show that feels about as urgent as a dentist appointment on a Saturday morning. If you think the build has been electric, you’re probably confusing excitement with the sound of your own monitor humming.
The current booking is painfully predictable. We keep seeing the same six-man tags and count-out finishes that serve only to kill time until the next commercial break. It’s hard to get invested in championship stakes when the matches themselves feel like rehearsals for a house show in Topeka.
Missing the mark on big-show gravitas
Night of Champions should actually feature championships being contested, right? Instead, we are looking at a slate where the mid-card titles are being treated like afterthoughts. Fans want to see stakes, but the last month has been a masterclass in treading water.
We are watching storylines get stretched so thin they’re practically transparent by the 14-minute mark. When you build a premium event around the *concept* of defending titles but provide zero narrative weight to the individual feuds, you lose the audience. Even the main event scene feels bogged down by circular logic and rematches we have already seen twice this quarter.
The creative fatigue is real
I genuinely love this sport, but the creative team is currently allergic to taking risks. We are seeing a complete lack of innovation in how these stories move from point A to point B. It’s all formulaic, paint-by-numbers booking designed to keep everyone in a holding pattern until the summer slump passes.
Sure, the production values will be high and the pyro budget is likely $2,000,000 for the entrance ramp alone, but that doesn’t hide the lack of heart. A shiny stage doesn't make a mid-card title reign interesting if the champion hasn't had a clean finish since May. The reliance on safe outcomes suggests management is terrified of anything that might actually shake up the roster chemistry.
If you're wondering what the logic is behind these decisions, you’re honestly giving the writers more credit than they deserve. It’s not about grand strategy; it’s about filling three hours without causing a PR headache. By the time we hit the June 27 date, it will likely be another night of perfectly competent wrestling that nobody remembers by the following Tuesday.
There is a blatant disconnect between the stature of the event and the execution of the card. Bringing in established names just to have them walk through a 15-minute match with no heat is an insult to the talent trying to get over. They need to stop coasting on the brand name and start booking like they actually care about the outcome of the matches.
What it takes to win back the room
To salvage this, WWE needs to stop playing it safe. Give us a title change that nobody saw coming or a heel turn that makes sense for once. If they stay on this current trajectory, the post-show social media reaction will be a graveyard of boredom.
This isn't hard. Connect the dots, stop treating the audience like they have the memory of a goldfish, and for the love of everything sacred, let someone win a clean match. As Wrestletalk has noted, there’s plenty of room for surprises leading into the show. Let's see them actually pull the trigger on one.
