WWE’s Meh Movement

It’s a very thin line as WWE walks along the tightrope of using fans genuine disengagement with its product as a storyline.

This weeks RAW saw a more restrained approach to the ‘Yes Movement’, an anti establishment revolt against the WWE by their fans, as we approach this years historical Wrestlemania 30. The revolution and fans attachment to Daniel Bryan is proving to be lightning in a bottle for the WWE as it marches towards its equivalent of the Superbowl and has become the saving grace to an otherwise lacklustre build up. The ‘Yes Movement’ represented the fans desire for change from the company they loved and a need to be recognised and acknowledged by them in the product. Within the Daniel Bryan storyline it has transitioned perfectly from the real life ‘us vs them’ mentality into Bryan and the fans vs HHH and the WWE. It’s a very thin line though as WWE walks along the tightrope of using fans genuine disengagement with its product as a storyline. Beginning as little nods to the language of fans WWE were able to invest its audience but now all of a sudden the WWE have all the subtlety of a bulldozer and threaten to kill all the momentum of the YES Movement as they manipulate it into the YES brand.

It was a welcomed change in Brooklyn to see a more subdued push of the Yes Movement on its fans because what started with a resounding and vigorous YES is slowly corroding into an empathic ‘Meh’ as WWE heavy handedly and unsubtly try and monetise it.

As a consequence of the Yes movement fans created ‘Hijack Raw’, an organised petition trying to vocalise their detachment to the product and influence Raw in Chicago and Wrestlemania by mostly cheering for Bryan and chanting for Cm Punk. Something not so subtly acknowledged by Daniel Bryan and the WWE in Chicago and then acted out in a horribly unsubtle way in Memphis one week later as fans wearing Daniel Bryan t-shirts flooded the ring and literally hijacked the program. The fact that the fans were all wearing brand new yes-movement themed t-shirts with Daniel Bryan’s face made up as Che Guevara’s just fueled the disingenuous and over produced nature of the segment. The off screen Hijack Raw idea and Yes movement has been built by years of frustration from fans at the product that the WWE were presenting them. The concept for both is rather simple, to get the WWE to listen to their fan base and produce a product that they wanted to see, something not conveyed in Memphis or the on screen Yes Movement.

At its core it is not about pushing the fan favourites or giving certain wrestlers wins or losses but rather acknowledging that the fans exist and have supported the company to the heights it now enjoys. It’s about no longer accepting the WWE treating it’s fans as mindless zealots and telling its audience who to cheer and who to boo. And while although explained aloud both Hijack Raw and the Yes Movement sound almost comical when talking about a fictional fighting organisation the WWE’s attempt to capitalise financially off of both is coming off as rather insulting and wearing away at what made them engaging in the first place. Fans were livid and took it personally when the WWE seemingly disregarded them after they attached themselves to Daniel Bryan. They felt disenfranchised by the company after years of being fed the same characters and an exhaustion of the same storylines and wrestling tropes.

In Memphis fans seemingly got what they had been protesting for as Daniel Bryan had indeed been inserted into the main event of Wrestemania, that is if he manages to defeat HHH earlier in the night. An act out of necessity more than anything else by the WWE but one that is directly linked to the off screen Yes Movement and was a specific objective of the Hijack Raw petition. As the fans piled into the ring and HHH and Stephanie McMahon looked on helplessly while Bryan demanded his insertion into the main event it lacked all the fire and intensity the Yes Movement had gathered to that point off screen. The segment didn’t look like a simple integration of the off screen storyline playing out on screen or a nod to the actual acceptance by the off screen authority that they had been taken to task by their audience. It looked like WWE’s desperate attempt to build towards a big Wrestlemania chant, that would of happened organically anyway, and sell some t-shirts. Nothing about the segment in Memphis felt organic or real.

The Yes Movement was a natural progression that snowballed organically and created a mega star in Daniel Bryan. At one stage we considered that the WWE may have been playing puppet master behind the scenes the entire time, the all knowing WWE always in control and always with a plan. Which was a fun idea and is still completely plausible when you think about and all the subtle nods in the build up. However, since the decision was obviously made to focus Wrestlemania around Bryan it has shown that WWE is perhaps not capable of subtlety or anything rather than full steam ahead. Ever since the WWE abandoned Batista as a good guy everything around Bryan, the Yes Movement and Hijack Raw has felt just so forced and manufactured, so WWE.

That is not to say that it hasn’t been successful because the WWE have been able to masterfully turn their off screen anarchy into a storyline and integrated it seamlessly into the Daniel Bryan narrative arc. What’s more is it has turned the HHH v Bryan Wrestlemania encounter from something the fans didn’t particularly care about into the hottest match on the card by far.Adding the language ‘hijack’ and ‘yes movement’ to the storyline has turned the match into Daniel Bryan and the fans vs HHH and the company which could have been the biggest match the event had seen for the last few years. Adding Bryan into the title match has in many ways devalued the potential to a much bigger match in HHH v Bryan but has been done so seemingly out of desperation to save the otherwise redundant main event. The point is that the more we get this forceful ‘inside’ language and phoney segments the more WWE threaten to devalue their hot property as they reprogram it.

Because the irony is not lost on fans, especially when it is presented in such a condescending and manufactured way. The Yes Movement is now officially the Yes Brand, it’s now completely owned by the  WWE, not Daniel Bryan. The WWE have their audience doing exactly what they want after hijacking the revolution and what they want is fans thinking they have beaten the machine. Which is great! and one of the best wrestling storylines in recent memory, it writes itself, but the problem is that the way it’s being presented has been so heavy handed we as an audience are being reminded about why the Yes Movement began in the first place, because fans were tired of being treated like they are stupid. Yet the audience are being beaten over the head with the fact that their cause has been copyrighted and put on a t-shirt, one that comes with a free #YesMovement sticker no less, and you have to wonder how long the corporate Yes brand will be fun and perhaps how long it will take before fans turn on it. You also have to wonder if Daniel Bryan will continue to be as popular now it is clear that WWE want us to cheer for him because even the  biggest Bryan supporter will tell you that some of his appeal was that the WWE seemingly didn’t want us to cheer him.

Daniel Bryan, wrestling’s 2014 anti establishment personified, would be the biggest casualty if fans did begin to reject the corporate makeover of the Yes Movement. For the moment it seems to be having no adverse effects, even as Bryan shills out things that make me nauseous like “Lets hijack Raw!” and “You don’t own this ring HHH! These people do!” the audience appear to still be eating it up. It’s a fine line though and as much as I enjoy the ‘Internet persona HHH’ character we are currently getting on television who plans to, as he said on Smackdown, “bury” Daniel Bryan the more he and the WWE push the Yes Movement, Hijack Raw, Occupy and hashtags of all three on to us the more yes just feels like meh.

The more WWE tells us to do something the more we don’t want to do it and the less fun it seems, it was the reason the Yes Movement picked up steam in the first place. Fans hated the fact that Batista was brought in to main event Wrestlemania without being tested in front of the audience first. WWE told its audience that not only was Batista the guy that would face Orton for the championship but that he was the number one good guy, and fans wholeheartedly rejected it. Something that could just as easily happen to Daniel Bryan if the WWE continue to encourage the phoney corporate Yes Movement so forcibly and drain the life force from him.

So it is thankful that in San Antonio during the final segment of last weeks Raw that HHH and Daniel Bryan finally brought some real intensity and fire in to their feud. Although there was still some nods to the Yes Movement HHH only touched on it briefly and then really breathed some life into not only his character but also Daniel Bryans. When used as the backdrop in this way the WWE can hope to maintain the same passion that fans have had for Daniel Bryan leading up to this. This segment was all about the bad guy using nefarious tactics to one up the good guy and in this case HHH gave Bryan the type of brutal beating the underdog needed leading up to Wrestlemania. All of the condescending nods to the Yes Movement, the merchandise and the hashtags were gone and in their place was simple wrestling, just the number one bad guy destroying the number one good guy. It was great and the fans were incensed as HHH killed a handcuffed Daniel Bryan while Stephanie McMahon screeched from ring side. Exactly the kind of segment the WWE needed to do if it hopes for the Yes Movement to survive and exactly what the build to Wrestlemania needed.

So without really even realising it fans have transitioned from the Yes Movement to the WWE Yes brand rather seamlessly. The anti WWE movement has ironically become a pro WWE story of their ability to use and manipulate their fans. And while the Raw in San Antonio has gone along way to salvage the corporate yes movement the WWE have run the risk of killing their audiences passion for it by encouraging it so vehemently. This week we saw a much welcomed step back from the Yes Movement push, perhaps an acknowledgment by the WWE that they need to let it evolve organically as the backdrop to HHH vs Bryan.

The only thing that will stop the 80,000 strong Mania crowd chanting for Bryan is the WWE encouraging the chant too much. Fans want to chant because the WWE don’t want them to not because they fake don’t want them to. This is the best thing the WWE have had for awhile, so much so I can genuinely see the match between HHH and Bryan ending in a draw eventuating in HHH winning the world title in a 4 way at the main event of Wrestlemania. The crowd at mania and then the next night at Raw would be at riot level and the WWE could still get there giant Yes chant earlier in the night. But then the happy ending and logical conclusion for Bryan might be too good to pass up. In any case the WWE have lightning in a bottle, all they have to do is not mess it up.

Less condescension and inside nods and more genuine anti establishment us vs them. 

Less meh and more Yes!