 What's good, Joshua Ross back again with another video. So we're going to check out. We hear you times WWE listen to their fans. Now, I definitely wanted to check this out because we're starting to, you know, I guess you can say as some of the WWE fans, we're starting to feel like WWE is not truly listening to us. Once again, you guys know L.A. Night is one of the most over individuals in WWE right now. And there have been rumors and speculation saying they're going to push L.A. Night after Summer Slamming. And there's also been some rumors where, you know, the, you know, I wouldn't say he has issues backstage right now. But, you know, maybe some people don't like his attitude. That's some of the rumors. And it's like the fans clearly want this guy to be potentially the next top guy in the company. And for him to not have won that fatal four way to decide who to decide who was going to be the ultimate number one contender for Austin Theater's United States Championship. It's just it's just a potential waste, man. Just a potential waste. Just one of the very few. We're not few. It's WWE. They do this a lot, especially Vince. They they will sit up there and not listen to fans for whatever reason or whatnot. And it's clearly the fans have chose who they want to be, you know, in a top spot and Vince, you just, you know, either he'll do it later and and at that point to push, you know, saying like the fan hype is not the same or he won't do it at all. Or he gets into a situation where he's he's pretty much forced to the point where he ain't got no choice but to to listen to the fans in certain situations instead of it just being organic and listening to the people that, you know, come to the shows and and and and put money in your pocket, you know, saying, why not listen to these people? So we're going to check out the moments when he actually did or I'll say he was probably forced into because of crowd reaction and stuff. So we're going to check this out. Appreciate it. I love this part. Should be a good one. Let's do it. Paul's of the WWE. It's always been about what one man and one man alone wants. Of course, but that's not to say Vince McMahon has never listened to the people. In fact, on occasion, he's given them exactly what they wanted. It's rare. What are the biggest examples of this? It's very, very, very, exactly what we're going to be looking at. Super rare. So join us as we take a deep dive into we hear you times. WWE listened to their fans. I wish they would do it now for a late night. Hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later. And if we're going to start anywhere, why not do so with one of the most notable examples of this in recent years because it was in February of 2015 that after a match pitting the Bella Twins against Paige and Emma only lasted 30 seconds, fans demanded the company give Divas a chance. But while for most of their history, WWE would have responded to this by stubbornly doubling down on what they were doing, perhaps by limiting the women to 15 second bouts the following week. Here, the optics on social media looked so bad for them that they were forced to take action. So that's what led to the Divas Revolution, a good idea wrapped up in some cold corporate branding that began on July 13 later that year when Stephanie McMahon came down to the ring and proclaimed that it was time for a change in the division. How would this change begin? Well, with the introduction of three of the four horsewomen from NXT, Sasha Banks, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, a trio of competitors who'd been changing the game down in the developmental brand for some time prior to this. And while the first few months of their time on Raw did have its hiccups, this proved to be an excellent move in the end. As come the time of WrestleMania 32 the following April, a new era was certainly underway for female wrestling in New York. Yes, gone were the 32nd matches and now in their place were competitive contests where the women were being treated like real athletes for the first time in a long time. And that also led to the reintroduction of the women's title, the addition of other extremely talented names like Asuka, Io Shirai and Bayley and just generally a sense that the women's bouts no longer represented the bathroom break of the evening. Such a success was the whole thing. WWE even made some legit mega stars out of the endeavor when over the next few years, all three of the aforementioned horsewomen went on the main event WrestleMania, becoming three of only four women to ever do so to date alongside Bianca Belair in the process. And if that isn't a sign the Divas revolution was a good idea, then we don't know what is. But it's not the decision which turned business around for the company the most over the last decade. No, for this, we have to look to the heel turn of Roman and here's the thing about this. Here's the thing about this, bro. If Colby doesn't happen and Roman, you know, doesn't have to, you know, step away, you know, for health reasons. I don't think we get this. I just don't. I don't think we get this. I'm being so dead serious here. I think Vince still keeps doing what he's doing. I don't think we get a heel turn like this. I think we got a heel turn because Roman was gone. COVID was a thing and Vince was willing to take more chances there and roaming themselves like I'm not coming back unless we do it this way. This is how we come. This is how I come back. I'm gonna be honest with you. We got what we wanted, but I don't. It was circumstances just like the day of Brian. Yes, moving. We're going to talk about that. We got what we want. Not because I Vince was going to do it. It's because of circumstances that happened that allowed that to happen. You know what I'm saying? Sometimes it's the fans pressure, which is very rare. They kill actually do it because of the fans. And a lot of times it's circumstances when Reigns. That's right. Despite entering Vince McMahon's company to much fan support in 2012 as part of the shield by the time Roman Reigns was split from the faction two years later and fast-tracked to the main event from there. It didn't take long for that support to turn sour. Why was this? Well, while the big dog certainly had all the raw tools required to be the next top guy in New York, he was clearly too inexperienced to be in that position yet. And as if that wasn't bad enough, once fans realized he was being pushed down their throats at the expense of other more popular stars, they felt were more deserving. It only made them angrier. So that's how we got an eight year long odyssey where the boss continually tried to sell live crowds on the idea of Reigns being their new superhero only to respond to this by very loudly booing him out of the arena. Never worked. Of course, this was until 2020 because at that point finally after Roman had taken a sabbatical and decided there was going to be terms to his return. Vince caved in and allowed him to do what everyone had wanted him to do for almost a decade and that was turned heel. Yes, this go unsurprisingly, it went excellent because suddenly the tribal chief, as he now called himself, felt like an all new man. Yes, no longer struggling to play a character he didn't believe in and was instead commanding the screen at every turn and we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that this was also what directly led to the birth of the bloodline angle. The most successful storyline WWE has created in decades and the one which is actually led to an upturn in business for them. Yes, sure. Maybe this could have happened back in 2014. Probably would have turned Roman heel then, but we'll take a win where we can get it in this situation and just be thankful that things worked out all right in the end, just as we're thankful that the company eventually saw the light and pushed Daniel Bryan in 2013. Now, if you're a wrestling fan, you're no doubt well aware of this one as in 2012, the only thing anyone wanted to chant at a WWE show was two words Daniel and Brian and yes, why was this? Well, following a very poorly judged 18 second loss to Seamus at WrestleMania 28 audiences finally decided they were sick of the greatest wrestler alive being treated like an afterthought and so they began gradually hijacking shows with calls for him to be in the main event scene cut to Summerslam 2012 and this movement had worked so well that Brian even made it to the WWE title match against John Cena. But while this should have been the end of the story, it only proved to be the beginning because after getting screwed at the end of the show and eventually sent back down into the upper mid card again, fans took their protests to the next level. Honestly, at certain points, it got to a stage where it was disrupting the company's ability to do shows. It was allowed were the rebellious Daniel Bryan chants every week. Still, even in the face of this, Vince McMahon remained stubborn as there was no way he was going to go all the way with a guy who was so small, but in the end, even he was forced to cave because after a catastrophic Royal Rumble in 2013, where the crowd turned on the match itself over the fact Brian wasn't even in it. The boss finally decided to give fans what they wanted and that led to one of the greatest feel good moments in wrestling history at all. And also see him punk leaving. But that's the thing people got to understand. I don't think he's going to mention it. Yeah, that does sound right. You know, saying, but he's in Randy Orton main event crowd was going to shit on that. But because CM Punk left, that's why we really got the match because if CM Punk doesn't leave, we don't get that match. I don't think we get that match still. And guess what? That main event becomes one of the worst main events of all time. So once again, circumstances, WrestleMania 30 went over the course of one night. The American Dragon defeated Triple H, Batista and Randy Orton to win the WWE World Heavyweight title to an absolutely rapturous response. So good. Sure, the company had to be dragged to this point, kicking and screaming. But at least they did the right thing eventually and it would be a similar situation, which took place a few years later. Has it happened when the tables were flipped on Brian and he became the villain of Kofi Mania. And once again, situational, this wasn't supposed to be even Kofi spot. It's supposed to be Mustafa Mustafa Ali's spot, but he ended up getting injured. So this happened and then once they saw what was going on with Kofi and the reception was getting they decided to play into this is one of the few times I like they call they called the audible though they saw the audible played into it and it actually worked. Yeah. Now to be fair to WWE, they didn't exactly fight their audience this time around. No, they didn't know once Kofi Kingston lifetime mid Carter, but incredible talent got surprisingly over during an elimination show about in February of 2019 over. They quickly realized that they had something special on their hands. So that was why at this point while in storyline they were still trying to keep Kofi from reaching the mountaintop in reality, plans were already being made to capitalize on the situation by canceling the plans Kevin Owens versus Daniel Bryan bout for the WWE title at WrestleMania 35 and replacing it with the New Day member in that challenger. I thought it was going to be Mustafa. I could have sworn he was supposed to be the guy that they were going to push and he ended up getting injured. I thought that's what it was. That was what I was hearing rumors that it was going to be Mustafa. He got injured Kofi Kofi took his spot and then that's how it happened. I didn't even know Kevin Owens was even in the mix. So role instead and it's just as well. They did this because what followed was pure lightning in a bottle magic when at the showcase of the immortals an all time great moment took place when this time it was the American dragons turn to fall to the new hero of the people, which is great after a battle which waged for almost 24 minutes. Kingston was able to score the pinfall to become the first ever African born star to hold that belt. Sure, you could argue the booking of his subsequent title run was poor, but that can never take away from what happened on that night, but it wasn't the only big climax to a story taking place then. No, later on in that same show, Becky Lynch would become the undisputed women's champion, a journey which began for her a few months earlier when wwe decided to run with the man as a baby face. That's right. Things almost went very differently for arguably the biggest star in all of women's wrestling because initially her Steve Austin asked rebel character was supposed to be a hill. Yeah, when she introduced it after finally deciding she had had enough of Charlotte Flair taking all her opportunities. This is such a good moment and you saw how the crowd reacted. Such a good state cheered her and she tried to come out there. I think it was on I don't know if it was raw. I think it was she was on Smackdown at the time. I'm not sure she tried to come out there and and try to heal it up. The fans. They didn't care and they canceled that quickly. She tried for two weeks. I think to heal it up. It didn't work. We knew what we wanted to see and then they had to pull an auto in the summer of 2018. The site of her laying out the Queen was supposed to be the ultimate dastardly act. But of course, fans who had been following her underdog story prior to this saw through any such attempts to present her as a villain and so rained down cheers on her regardless. Even when during those early weeks, she was actively trying to get them to boo her. Yeah. And then reactions only got louder as the weeks went on to making it obvious for all to see what the company were doing simply wasn't working. Basically, it would be like if WWF insisted on presenting the Texas Rattlesnake is the bad guy against Shawn Michaels in 1998. It's unfathomable, right? And to their defense, rather than get caught up in another Daniel Bryan situation, Vince McMahon realized this pretty quickly and so made the necessary changes to the story to now present Lynch as the anti-hero instead. Yeah, there you go. She would still act villainous, but that was part of what people liked about her at this point. She was an outlaw and someone who wasn't going to lay down for anybody and as we all and that's what man, we need some more anti-heroes not these goody two shoe baby faces. No, someone that, you know, I'm saying they're they're not the they're not the squeaky is clean baby face, but people like them people, you know, saying cheer for them. They will, you know, they will try to abide by the rules as much as they possibly can, but they see some shenanigans. They're going to definitely act upon it and we need more characters like that. No, with time, the fan support for her, the man character grew and grew to such a level that she become the de facto face of the company and the first woman to ever win in the main event of a WrestleMania. Hell, even after that initial excitement died down, she'd continue to be one of the biggest stars in all of the industry, a position she remains into this day. Honestly, it's impossible to not see her as a future Hall of Famer now. And just a thing. Glass and WWE not made the decision to run with her as a baby face. It might never have worked out that way. Of course, it's not all modern situations like this where Vince McMahon has listened to his fans in spite of himself. No, even back during the initial embers of the Attitude Era, there was still a contingent of people who weren't happy with the way he was booking some of their favorites. And that's what led to him eventually feeling he needed to give fans of the 90s product something they wanted, a baby face, Stone Cold, Steve Austin. Really, you could make a solid argument. The decision to do this was the smartest in the history of the industry. For sure. As it directly led to the birth of the second boom period, a time where the entire world was watching what was taking place inside the ring. Yes, back in the latter half of that decade, there was perhaps no other figure in pop culture who was cooler than the Texas Rattles Bay. Part of the reason he was so cool was because during his early run in 1996, he'd been portrayed as a complete villain. Not some pantomime cackling one, though. No, rather, he was a rebel who played only by his own rules and who cheated at any opportunity if it meant he got one over on you. And sure, in the prior decade, this might have been a recipe for one of the greatest bad guys of his era, but something interesting was happening in the 90s. This was the time of South Park M&M and Marilyn Manson. And so all people were interested in getting behind were the anti-heroes. Yeah. So because of that, as each week progressed, the cheers for Austin got louder and louder, despite the company's repeated attempts to portray him as the ultimate villain. Clearly then, something had to give. And this would happen at WrestleMania 13 in March of 1997, when the greatest double turn in wrestling history was executed as Austin and his chief rival, eternal babyface Bret Hart, formerly switched roles and the villain now became the anti-hero and needless to say, following on from there, the industry skyrocketed in popularity, as with the rattlesnake at the helm as the ultimate man of the people, more of those people that ever started to tune into raw on a weekly basis because people could see themselves the everyday working man dealing with the boss BS and wanting to stun their own boss. So to see Stone Cold giving Vince McMahon the beats on a weekly episodic show, it gave people escapism. Like, man, I wish I could do that to my boss, Stone Cold's the man. You know what I'm saying? That's that. It worked. Works. Hell, even WWF's competition felt the sting of this, as despite them being on a huge role at that point and with the NWO storyline, they simply couldn't provide anything as exciting as Austin's weekly wars with his boss. See, that's it. Really, if you weren't around at that time, it's impossible to overstate just how popular Steve was and just how much audiences adored him. In fact, the only person you could argue they ever adored more is our next subject, a man who was a key player in the NWO up until his return to WWE in 2002. That said, with him being a heel back then and fans being lost in a wave of nostalgia, it was clear a babyface turn had to come sooner or later. Yup. So it's just as well Vince McMahon did this when the night after WrestleMania 18 he brought back Hulkamania. That's right. While initial plans may have been to bring the New World Order over to New York in February of 02 to inject a lethal dose of poison into the proceedings, by the time the Hulkster had his iconic showdown against the rock on the grandest stage of them all just one month later, it was clear fans were far more interested in seeing him play the hits of old instead. After all, nostalgia is a powerful drug and when given the opportunity to relive their childhoods again, if only for a little while. Well, that was something which couldn't be passed up by audiences, even if it meant hobbling the NWO before they could ever really get out of the starting blocks. Yes, the unfortunate casualties of this one were Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, but you could argue the rewards were far more valuable and satisfying than seeing them go through the motions of being the invading force one more time anyway. Sure, we didn't get that full for life experience in New York, but in its place, we got the red and yellow spandex making a full comeback the night after WrestleMania. Yeah, they had to because he was just too over. Like it was crazy how that match happened. It was like a double turn. He was to heal and rock was a face, but it didn't matter that cloud. It just was pro pro Hogan and they decided to do a turn. Then if that wasn't enough, we got to see the now fully babyface Hogan turn back the clock and go up against some modern stars such as Triple H with him even beating the game to win the WWE title for a sixth and final time. Was this title win necessary in hindsight? Probably not. But at that point, people were so in love with seeing their childhood hero again that they didn't care. All they cared about was that it felt like 1984 again. Of course, this wave of nostalgia couldn't last forever though. And come the summer of that year, the Hulkster was starting to work his way down the card again. But even if it was only brief, it should never go forgotten that for this shining moment in 2002, every fan who grew up watching in the 80s got to feel the same magic they had back then for a little while. But what happens when nostalgia for something isn't quite as strong as that of the power of Hulkamania? What happens when it's for a concept instead? Could this work out as well? Sure it can. And if you need any evidence of that, you only have to look to the time WWE listened to the calls of their audience and brought back the brand extension in 2016. Sure, the prior brand extension had it ended so well as after a certain point any sense there was real loyalty to one particular show between performers was when it's not even happening now. It's not. It's not. It's not even happening now truly. It's I don't know what's the point. They have people going to different shows still so with no rhyme and reason. So washed away in a sea of nonsensical booking. That said, the remained a soft spot in the hearts of many people for this one anyway because when it was at its best it was pure magic. That's right. In 2002 when the company had first chosen to divide the rosters up it made things feel exciting in an all-new way as now everyone's favorite stars were going to be potentially separated by show with the idea being that there would be very limited crossover and that each side would be vying for fan supremacy in the ratings. Basically it was a way to try and recreate the Monday night wars following the end of the Attitude Era and while it certainly worked at first as we all know Vince McMahon's inability to stick to a long-term plan soon turned the whole thing into a mockery. But with these lessons learned however many believed a rebooted version could work better by the time the mid-2010s came around. Hell it wasn't as if the absolutely stacked 2016 roster couldn't do with something to make it more manageable anyway. And that all led to the endless social media posts finally getting through to the halls of New York when in the summer of that year they announced they were indeed going to bring back the draft. How did this go? Pretty much the same as last time unfortunately because with Vince still in charge and him only having gotten more erratic with age it didn't take long for brand delineations to mean nothing as people just started showing up on whatever night of the week they felt like. Still during those early few months it was undeniably great particularly on Smackdown and the important thing for the purposes of this video is that it didn't work in the long run. No, it's that fan demand got through to WWE and forced them Smackdown Live when they brought it when they actually did the brand split Smackdown Live was the show to watch. Even now Smackdown is in my personal opinion I read a watch Smackdown didn't wrong. I really do because it's it's much more entertaining kind of get straight to the point so. To do something for their audience for a change and it's in that same vein that our next subject gets an inclusion in this video too because well his WWE title run never really panned out to much long term the moment RVD pinned John Cena to win it felt iconic for everyone watching iconic but then why wouldn't it because this was right in the middle of the Super Cena era of WWE a period where everyone was centered around one man and his inability to lose to anyone. Of course well this may have been hugely over with kids for adult males it very quickly became tiresome and so after a while all anyone wanted was to see someone lose. in the champ enter Rob Van Damme pretty much the antithesis of Big Match John in the 2000s after all he was cool edgy and it cut his teeth in the streets of Philly as part of Paul Heyman's extreme championship wrestling and with ECW in the midst of starting a revival at this point it felt like the perfect time for a change to come a change which would see someone else on top for a while that said few believed such a thing would ever happen even when Cina and RVD were booked to go up against each other for the gold at one night stand 2006 in fact it was expected the champ would walk away the victor in the end yeah but that's not what happened of course because in and at the time rare example of the boss listen to what his fans brought in he chose to have Mr. Monday night go over here and win the title a decision which lead to an absolutely insane crowd response facts and yes Van Damme would ruin this for himself soon thereafter by getting caught with weed in his car by a cop but again it didn't take away from any of the specialness of that initial moment when fans felt like their voices were being heard but we've talked a lot about the times Vince McMahon caved into fans so let's shift over to a time Triple H did this instead that's right we're going to go into the time he brought back Bray Wyatt at Extreme Rules in 2022 one of the the saga of Bray Wyatt and WWE should be familiar to any regular watchers of this channel but in short he burst onto the scene in 2012 with the fantastic Bayou cult leader gimmick then got booked so bad he had to leave and come back with an all new character luckily for fans though this one proved to be arguably even better than the last as it was the introduction of the fiend a horror movie monster ripped straight out of his nightmares the only problem was this one got so mishandled to that by July of 2021 Bray Wyatt was out of a job and that was how most assumed the situation would end at this point all up until Vince McMahon was forced to resign and Triple H took over the the helm of creative that was because with him seeming to have his finger on the pulse of his audience that much more it was hoped he would hear the constant cries for the Florida native to return but would he actually bring him back yes after a cryptic online mystery of QR codes riddles and minigames starting in September of 2022 most came to believe this was the moment that Bray was finally going to make his comeback the only question was where would it happen well that was answered at October's extreme this is such a crazy comment Bray to say this got a huge pop then was an understatement ridiculous and it was a clear message from the game that things were going to be different in his era it's just a shame this one hasn't really panned out too much since but ultimately like with other entries we've discussed today that doesn't matter no what matters is that when push came to shove wwe were every now and then willing to listen to their and like I said it's that's got to put a I guess you could say the astro behind that because he he hears it doesn't mean he's going to act upon it some of these situations weren't just you know him acting upon it listening to the reception some of them were some of them were literally just lucky circumstances so yeah man this was this was definitely definitely a a good video man I believe there's another one that said head in the sand times wwe ignored the fans we're definitely going to have to check that one out as well because we're dealing with it right now we're there ignoring the fans when it comes to LA night so I think that may be the next video that we're going to check out but I appreciate all love and support guys are shown on the channel road to 150k and I'm still getting speedy to the rest of the world appreciate y'all kicking me see