Last week, WOW made their relaunch and made a lot of announcements regarding their future and talent involved with the promotion. Instead of excitement for a new promotion on the rise, WOW received a lot of criticisms because of their botched relaunch.
Tessa Blanchard: The Elephant In The Room
The biggest criticism WOW received by most fans was the hiring of Tessa Blanchard. Blanchard was heavily featured on the relaunched and positioned as “the ace” of WOW.
For those not familiar with her situation, last year several wrestlers came out with racism and bullying allegation against Blanchard. The third generation wrestler has denied these allegations. Blanchard is also not the easiest wrestler to work with, if you don’t believe me, ask IMPACT.
WOW and Blanchard releasing a shirt with the word “nuclear” making a reference about her “nuclear heat” with promotions like WWE and AEW was probably not the smartest move for WOW and their intention of getting eyes for their product.
Bad Planning
Excluding Tessa Blanchard, the relaunch presentation was a mess to begin with. Having the relaunch take place in the middle of Dynamite was a bad move and people’s attention was focused on AEW than on WOW for obvious reasons.
The relaunch announcement should’ve taken place on a different time and make it all about them, but then again, all the comments would’ve been about Tessa Blanchard and for all the wrong reasons, so making it take place during Dynamite was a way to minimize the criticisms.
Having AJ Mendez (AJ Lee) as part of the promotion as a producer and hinting about a possible in-ring return was a smart choice, but this goes back to having Tessa Blanchard as “the ace” of WOW and how that affected any excitement people had for this promotion.
What’s Next ?
It’s hard to tell what’s next for this promotion. They’ve already alienated a lot of people in just their relaunch. The promotion has an uphill battle with getting people excited with their product.
The negative cloud surrounding WOW will make it hard for them to sign any top free agents and\or start any working relationships with other wrestling promotions.
Only time will tell if WOW will be able to comeback after such terrible relaunch.
