What makes a person evil? Is that how they kidnap the boss’s daughter and force them to get married? Or is that how they beat their cousin inside the red cage to get their submission? If these examples seem strange to you, it may be because you are new to the world of high heels (bad guy/girl) in professional wrestling. Peacock’s new WWE Evil documentary takes a look at some of the worst villains to ever grace the squared circle.
Season 1 of the original Peacock consists of eight episodes, each about 45 minutes long, analyzing the careers of a particular wrestler – or in one episode two wrestlers. GameSpot was offered seven of the eight episodes in Season 1. The episodes provide a look at wrestlers from various ages, starting with Hulk Hogan in the 80s and leading up to Sasha Banks and Roman Reigns in the 1980s. year 20. These are the people introduced in Part 1.
WWE Evil episodes:
- “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan
- The Miz
- Sasha Banks
- Brothers of Destruction
- Randy Orton
- Stephanie McMahon
- Ric Flair
- Roman Dynasties
WWE is no stranger to document stores. In the past – mainly on the WWE Network – there has been a lot of material about characters, stories, and generations from the WWE world. As these movies evolved, WWE tried to compete with ESPN’s hugely successful 30 for 30 series, but it always failed to do something as simple as attracting more audiences. Mostly attracts die-hard fans – mostly those who are more up to date on current production.
WWE Evil, however, has a much broader appeal, particularly suited to your casual viewers or even those who don’t know much about the business. It’s easy to follow, introduces the characters, their history, what makes them so bad, and easy to understand.
The Peacock series tries to reach people who don’t “know,” and why shouldn’t they? The streaming service paid WWE a lot of money to get the streaming rights of the promotion, so why not actually promote it with an original series that includes some of the biggest stars and moments. its? Was it successful in that respect? Sure. Will it turn off the wrestling fans who already know all these stories? Is not. We’re bookmarking and eating it because the appeal lies in hearing the WWE superstars, the journalists, and the people behind the scenes tell the stories you know as well.
One thing WWE Evil does very well is that it doesn’t treat viewers like an idiot. It’s 2022, and the wrestling world shrouded in mystery is no longer a thing. We all know these wrestlers are playing the character. They don’t pretend they’re from Samoa and don’t speak English other than wrestling. We know that the matches are predetermined. We knew we were getting what was essentially a spectacular TV stunt – without the safety padding. While wrestling isn’t fake by any means – those mats aren’t soft – it is dramatic storytelling, whether that story is told over the mic or in the ring. WWE Evil is not trying to convince us that every punch is 100% connected. In the episode of Randy Orton, it is explained that wrestlers often portray themselves at a volume of up to 10. In the episode of Stephanie McMahon, she repeatedly refers to what’s happening on TV as happening with the character Stephanie McMahon.
WWE Evil is about heel dissection. There are things that high heels can do that will always work. Episode Miz delves into the importance of being cocky, annoying, easy to play, etc. to turn the crowd against you. It has worked for a lot of other people, but The Miz made it his calling card, and the way he breaks it down is amazing. And every episode has a few moments like that, where the person behind the character discusses their thought process behind “going bad.” It’s fascinating.
Additionally, the series delves into what’s going on behind the scenes, allowing each wrestler to tell their story, even if it doesn’t make the person behind the character look good. Hulk Hogan’s creative control contract, The Miz being banned from the locker room, and interviewers slapping Randy Orton are all part of these wrestlers’ journeys. Yes, the show may be a trove of material, but it’s one of Peacock and WWE. There was some expectation that it would turn out to be a cheerleader for the company, but it was interesting to see at least a little bit of the weak point of the business.
In terms of production, WWE Evil looks great. Blending archival footage with state-of-the-art interviews, the show successfully tells the stories of these wrestlers while showcasing what they did – or did in some cases – in the ring. Most importantly, it doesn’t fall into the trap of most WWE-produced documentaries, where old interview scenes used over and over in different projects are recycled again.
When it included more contemporary wrestlers in its first season, WWE Evil featured The Miz and Orton – WWE veterans. The season also includes Sasha Banks and Roman Reigns, and while Banks has done most of his WWE career as the villainous Boss, Reigns’ tenure as a short heel, in a grand scheme of things . Most of his journey was as a babyface (the good guy), and although he was hated for his solo activism, right before the pandemic, he wasn’t a heel. Reigns is doing some of his best work as a badass right now (and the best heel in WWE the past two years, period). However, much of the episode’s length is spent trying to convince viewers that he’s always been. The problem is that he’s mostly the good guy on television, even when most of the crowd booed him. While an episode of Roman Reigns is a great idea, we’re in the middle of his first time being the bad guy, so the story isn’t over, and conversely, it makes this episode feel. like it has a lot of extra stuff in it.
WWE Evil is one of the best documentary or documentary productions to come from the wrestling company, probably because Peacock got his hands on it and knew it needed more marketing than long-standing wrestling fans. . This is an exciting gateway product to WWE, and it does a great job of introducing viewers to the world of wrestling, by dipping their toes into the shallow heads of the most famous and beloved wrestlers. It can be a little weird when people start getting involved – watch the documentary about a TV show that desperately spent its early years convincing you that everything that was going on was actually real – but WWE Evil is sport wrestling and character justice.
