The 5 News Week Look-Back: A Look Back At How WWE Messed Up Naomi's Push, Why WWE Hasn't Aired Content For FS1 Anymore?

For those who are new, I did 3 look back articles that spanned throughout December last year.  

But, this year, I'm only gonna do one as I'm taking Sundays off for the entire month and the first few weeks of January because it is the holiday season, after all, right? 

Nevertheless, we all can agree that 2020 was eventful, awful, wild and surprisingly quick. 

The amount of content I can fill out about pro wrestling in 2020 is so wide, it would last months. 

In any case, this is the 5 News Week look back where I look back at the 5 major and minor news of 2020 so here we go. 

The 5 News Week look-back 2020 edition. 

Why WWE Hasn't Aired Content For FS1 Anymore? 

Other than an occasional Smackdown episode, have you guys noticed that there is barely any WWE content on FS1? 

If you have then you ain't the only one. 

WWE's YouTube channel specifically for content on FOX is dead other than some interviews with Ryan Satin. 

They were airing old PPVs on FS1 that did around 150,000 to 270,000 viewers (by the way, the average rating for Fox Sports according to Statista was 319,000 for 2019). 

The biggest sign of them not putting content over there was when the powers that be over at Fox, cancelled WWE Backstage. 

A show that I actually enjoyed. 

Now, why has Fox been lacking on WWE content other than Smackdown? 

You may think that I'll answer the question with "#BlameCovid" but that isn't the case. 

When Fox Sports had its massive layoffs back in June, the reasoning behind this was, of course, the ratings. 

Here's how John Ourand described it on Sports Business Journal in late June: 

"Job losses at Fox are a result of programming changes from poorly rated studio shows on boxing, WWE and soccer." 

To put that in context, WWE Backstage didn't make it to the top 150 cable ratings 3 weeks in a row. 

It sucks that people had to lose their jobs. It seemed at one point that Fox was all in on WWE's backlog of programs.  

A Takeaway Of The Bret Hart Interview On Broken Skull Sessions.

On the first 5 News Week of 2020, I wrote about a PWInsider report where the Hitman himself filmed an episode of Steve Austin's Broken Skull Sessions podcast.

Now that the episode has already been released, I decided to highlight one key takeaway of this conversation with two legends in the business.

That takeaway was when Bret Hart brought up an instance where he had a talk with Vince McMahon about Steve Austin well before the rattlesnake signed with the federation (from Wrestling Headlines): 

"I was going to Vince all the time and trying to bring new guys in. And I remember talking about you. 

I think you had just signed with ECW. And I said why didn’t you guys grab Steve Austin? He was free, he was available. 

I said you’re looking for new guys all the time. I said he’s one of the best guys down there and they just let him go at WCW. 

Talked to Vince about it. And I remember the next week you were sitting in the dressing room."

That begs the question, did Vince sign Steve Austin because of Bret Hart telling the boss about this blonde kid from Texas or not? 

Think about it (also,  I'm disappointed that they didn't talk about their banger of a match at Survivor Series 1996 in detail. A match that I prefer over their submission encounter at Wrestlemania 13 but at least they mentioned it. Unpopular, I know). 

A Look Back At How WWE Messed Up Naomi's Push. 

This has to be one of the biggest misbooking opportunities in years. 

The aftermath of this past year's women's Royal Rumble match saw Naomi absolutely blowing up on Black Twitter with 100k likes and millions of views from that clip of Naomi's return to WWE. 

You would think that the company would've given her a push to the main event scene and written her well, right? 

Well, to quote Wade Barrett, "I'm afraid I've got some bad news". 

While she did feud with Bayley for the  Smackdown women's title and took part in a multi-women bout for the same championship at this year's Wrestlemania and pinned the same champion 4 months later.  

Those moments felt so sidelined, unimportant and forgettable.

Let me quote myself from a 5 News Week article from June 28th about her booking because it describes her current position within the show greatly: 

"Naomi's current utilization in WWE scratches my head. Her return at this year's Royal Rumble was so popular that it had Black Twitter talking. 

There was even a non-wrestling fan that made a Naomi artwork because of what that person saw. 

That right there is the power of representation in media and the fact that WWE didn't keep the water boiling speaks volumes. 

Because of it, it actually turned out to be one of the most missed booking opportunities in recent memory. Rant over."

The Massive Layoff And Releases In April. 

I wrote a feature talking about the career highlights of some people that were released from WWE (which while really outdated, you should check it out here). The people that I talked about were: 

• Lio Rush. 

• Fit Finlay.

• Zack Ryder. 

• Drake Maverick.  

• Andrea Listenberger (the writer that worked on the Mandy Rose and Otis love triangle). 

Now, where are all the guys now (damn, I asked way too many questions on this piece)? 

Let's start off with Lio Rush who recently was on MTV's "The Challenge" and just joined NJPW (a fantastic signing, by the way). 

Fit Finlay was brought back to WWE as a producer for the company's yellow brand. 

Speaking of the yellow brand, they brought back Drake Maverick and used his firing as a storyline going into the cruiserweight tournament. 

Yikes but at least they wrote a sweetheart of a storyline with Killian Dain that abruptly ended, am I right? 

Zack Ryder, now Matt Cordona, signed a short time deal with AEW. 

The writer that worked on the Mandy Rose and Otis storyline is back to the company according to the site that shall not be named.  

Given the outlet's history, I do not know if it's true or not but that's the only info I could find about her. 

Is There Some Truth To The Revival Of The Nation Of Domination Or Is It Just A Mystery? 

Another story that I've talked about was the possible revival of the Nation Of Domination. 

To put it simply, Ron Simmons was supposed to lead the new Nation Of Domination stable according to Davey boy Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio back in July. 

The idea was nixed because it "would be incredibly tone deaf considering what is going on in the country right now." (From wrestlingnews.co). 

Is there some truth to that? Well, yea? 

Because the head of creative himself Bruce Prichard talks about it and whether it'll work in today's age on his podcast, "Something To Wrestle About" (from Wrestlinginc): 

“I don’t know if something like that could exist now, I mean you never know, but it was a unique way to put Ron Simmons in a prominent spot and be able to protect Ron in the ring because Ron was injured at the time, and we wanted to protect him and keep him healthy as long as we possibly could 

It’s the world! You know the world changes. Tastes change and what the audience is looking for changes over time, and you adapt and you try to adapt to your audience and change. Change is good." 

I thought I'll never say this but I actually agree with Bruce Prichard. 

So, here's your answer, I guess?  

The 5 News Week will be back with more major and minor news to talk about on January 17th. 

Stay safe smarks and happy holidays.