Monday, September 24, 2018

The WWE Is Ruining... Tyler Breeze

As a pro wrestling fan, it is a part of our identity to always know how to utilize wrestlers better than the WWE. If WWE would just give me, random WWE fan, a job a the company, ratings would immediately rise to the levels of the Monday Night Wars, despite how television ratings have changed as a whole over the last 20 years. But until that happens, WWE will continue ruining our favorite wrestlers, and that is why it is time to point out the error in their ways. Because of WWE's incompetence, I am literally going to pick a wrestler at random and point out how they could be better utilized, because WWE is ruining everyone in one way or another.

Today, I continue the series with the Prince of Pretty, Tyler Breeze.


If you remember Tyler Breeze in NXT, you will recall how truly awesome he was when he was first beginning his gimmick. He not only took hundreds of selfies before every match, but he also had a live feed from his phone as his entrance video. His first feud in NXT was with CJ Parker, not the Baywatch star but the man now known as Juice Robinson in NJPW, because Parker kept photobombing his selfies. Breeze was so over-the-top ridiculous that the crowd couldn't help but fall in love, and he backed it up by consistently having matches that stood out on NXT, not an easy thing to do.


So it made sense when he got called up to the main roster, even though he was never able to attain gold at NXT. But although he came out hot by immediately attacking Dolph Ziggler, they didn't actually follow up with anything, and he was soon only there as an enhancement talent, losing to basically anyone and everyone that stepping in the ring with him. When a guy loses that much, it's pretty easy for even his biggest supporters to lose interest.


Somehow, with from the depths of creative hell, Breeze emerged, with the help of Fandango, to create one of the most interesting and beloved tag teams of the past few years in Breezango. They managed to get incredibly over by acting as The Fashion Police who originally just gave people tickets for being unfashionable, but somehow turned into detectives who solved mysteries. It was incredibly stupid, but it was also incredible.


Even though they were beloved, they were never able to turn that into championships, and the gimmick has been on hiatus after Fandango suffered an injury. That has left Tyler Breeze in limbo as his run as a singles wrestler has been...completely forgettable. He's 0-4 on Raw, including two losses to Mojo Rawley. He does have two wins on Main Event, but those are over Curt Hawkins and Mike Kanellis, so a world title push seems a bit far off, and it seems like WWE is just biding time until they can reunite him with Fandango.


But can't the WWE do any better than that?


Tyler Breeze is one of the few people in the company who can not only fully embrace his character but can be consistently entertaining while doing it. Just let the man be entertaining. I do think he can have the most win-loss success with a tag partner like Fandango, but wins and losses aren't everything. Ultimately, with the stacked roster that the WWE has, I don't know if Breeze should ever hold a singles title. He could be a transitional secondary champion, but with his character, a belt doesn't do a whole lot for him. In wrestling, one guy wins, which means one guy loses. It's probably best if Breeze loses more than he wins, but there are plenty of guys that Breeze can beat in order to make him a credible threat against more prestigious competition.


I think the biggest thing that needs to happen to maximize Breeze is to let him use his creativity. He was always great at giving backstage interviews, and the Fashion Police stuff with Fandango was fantastic. It's not like he needs a lot of time, so I'm pretty sure they could spare 1-2 minutes each week and just let something entertain the crowd. Also, wouldn't a fifteen minute match between Breeze and Chad Gable be absolutely awesome? Those are two guys that can easily move from heel to babyface, so you can go either way on it and just let them go out and put on a great match. And the beauty of Tyler Breeze is that he can lose yet still be elevated just by putting on a fun match and show personality.

WWE seems to only want to push "cool" wrestlers, but sometimes I just want to watch fun wrestlers. With Breeze, the push doesn't need to end in title reigns, all he needs is time to let people enjoy him as a character and wrestler. For anybody that says WWE doesn't have endless amounts of time, yes, they do. They currently recap recaps on Raw, and they let Roman Reigns talk for 15 minutes. Just let Roman Reigns kick ass instead of talking, and use that time to get two guys over instead. 

This isn't difficult, guys. In fact, some would say it's a Breeze.


Other Wrestlers WWE Has Ruined
Bobby Lashley

Nia Jax

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