Brandon Jackson

Post WrestleMania 32, it seemed like nothing changed. Shane McMahon didn’t win, the company was still pushing Roman Reigns down people’s throats, the people who should be top babyfaces were beaten by part-timers. But the Raw after Mania and this week’s Raw provide hope for change. Hope is hard to come by in the WWE Universe, with the only really good storyline being Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks rising up to challenge Charlotte for the Women’s title.

In the last 8 days, Apollo Crews, Baron Corbin, Enzo and Cass, The Vaudevillains, and Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows have debut on WWE television. That alone is change in itself. But there’s more. A.J. Styles is the no. 1 contender for the WWE Championship. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are getting A LOT of screen time for their feud. Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt have turned into dynamic characters that are grey on a usually black and white face/heel spectrum.

All of the complaints fans have posted on the Internet are finally starting to be addressed. There hasn’t been a 20-minute long opening promo, the women are all called Superstars now and are getting time to have good matches, and good wrestling is becoming more of a focal point of the show.

For pro wrestling fans, uncertainty drives the excitement and is one of the main factors in choosing to watch. For the “smart” wrestling fan, this is a time to (once again) get your hopes up. There are so many questions that need to be answered in the weeks leading up to Payback. Is Reigns going to work like a heel in Chicago? Will the Bullet Club help Styles? Will Finn join the main roster soon? Is the rumored Bray Wyatt push really starting? Could Owens and Zayn feud until Summerslam?

The best part of all the change coming is that it involves talented wrestlers. This is a professional wrestling company no matter how much WWE tries to say it is sports entertainment, and they have built the best professional wrestling roster on planet Earth. Names like Styles, Owens, Shinsuke Nakamura, Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, and Samoa Joe to name a few. Even people rumored to be coming to NXT soon, like Kota Ibushi, or possibly Zack Sabre Jr., Will Ospreay, or Ricochet.

It is a great time to be a WWE fan. Change is coming and so will the love of professional wrestling.