Whether you watch Raw, SmackDown, NXT 2.0, or all three shows, you won’t have to look far to find examples of WWE’s haphazard booking. One such example that sits near the top of the list is the ongoing feud between The New Day and the trio of Sheamus, Ridge Holland, and Butch (f.k.a. Pete Dunne), apparently named The Brawling Brutes by WWE.
Of course, the wrestlers involved are, generally speaking, great and the matches have mostly been entertaining. That, however, doesn’t mean most fans want to sit through several variations of the same match week after week, but that hasn’t stopped the promotion from doing just that on SmackDown.
This isn’t hyperbole, either: you would have to go back to late February to find an episode of SmackDown that didn’t feature some combination of Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Big E (who is recovering from a neck injury) facing Sheamus, Holland, and Butch. That total doesn’t include the sorry excuse for a match Sheamus, Holland, Woods, and Kingston participated in at WrestleMania 38.
That’s a lot of filler, and WWE has to either rework the story to add some significance to the matches or bring it to an end.
The New Day/Sheamus/Ridge Holland/Butch feud has lasted too long…and is directionless.
It’s reached a point where it’s no longer clear why these teams are fighting anymore. Fans have likely long forgotten that this conflict began with Sheamus and Holland not liking Big E’s all-terrain vehicle and with that pretense gone, they have no reason to emotionally invest in these bouts beyond the excitement of seeing their favorites wrestle.
To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with being happy to see your favorite wrestlers wrestle — after all, this is what we all do as fans — but for an audience that needs a little more, scripting these five workers to work some version of the same match over and over becomes tiresome to watch.
It’s ironic that a promotion that purports to prioritize “telling stories” would struggle to emphasize a compelling one for these talented guys. Well, one that isn’t Butch (a grown man) throwing a temper tantrum after losing and being treated like a child that got lost in the shopping mall.
WWE wouldn’t even need to come up with anything complex for New Day and the Brutes. Something as simple as highlighting how a win over the other would get either team one step closer to the tag team championships would establish an end goal for the program and stakes for the matches.
Yes, it’s possible that WWE didn’t want to hint at another Usos/New Day match or a heel vs. heel pairing with the Brutes and the Usos, but those semantical issues aren’t worse than the nothing matches that WWE has nestled into the middle of SmackDown for the last few months or so.
No one’s saying that this should be the focal point of the show, but a little bit of extra thought from the company would go a long way to making this a little more interesting. If not, then it might be time to find new opponents for both teams.