‘WWE: Unreal’ makes good on pulling back the curtain, albeit not all the way

As Awful Announcing’s resident pro wrestling fan — every sports website needs at least one — I eagerly volunteered to review Netflix’s WWE: Unreal, a.k.a. the pro wrestling version of Drive To Survive.

At some point during Episode 3 of the five-episode series, however, I began to question if I was the man for the job. Not because I didn’t like it; I was enjoying it fine enough. But more so because this clearly isn’t a series intended for me.

Nor should it be. After all, WWE already has me hooked for life. And just like Drive To Survive singlehandedly spawned a new generation of F1 fanatics, it makes sense to that WWE would attempt to follow a similar formula with a show geared toward casuals and non-fans as opposed to marks who subscribe to Dave Meltzer’s newsletter like myself.

But while the first three episodes will likely seem redundant for most pro wrestling fans, as they are filled with storylines that introduce stars we already know while explaining an industry we’re already familiar with, the show does make good on its promise to show WWE like it’s never allowed itself to be shown before. Specifically, there are multiple scenes — not enough, I’d argue — that take place in the WWE writers room, as well as footage of wrestlers interacting as colleagues and even friends immediately before and after matches with each other, an idea that once seemed (and to some, still is) sacrilegious in an industry built on deception.

As it promised it would, WWE pulls back the curtain, albeit not all the way. For example, the second episode showcases the conversation in the WWE writers room in which the seeds were planted for Jey Uso’s shocking win at the Royal Rumble. But the series never actually shows the reasoning behind the thinking or the final decision to alter one of WrestleMania’s main events ultimately being made.

The first three episodes are entertaining enough and it’s worth mentioning that the entire show is shot beautifully, as one might expect from a WWE/Netflix/Omaha Productions creation. I’d imagine, however, that those episodes will be much better received by non-diehard viewers, as they largely exist to familiarize everyone with the world of pro wrestling and WWE’s main characters.

The same, however, can’t be said about the final two episodes.

If WWE: Unreal was a match card, then Episodes 4 and 5 serve as a worthy double main event, the first of which focuses on John Cena’s shocking heel turn. I won’t attempt to litigate how much of the story told is actually the truth — the backstage explanation admittedly seems a bit too cohesive compared to how the on-screen storyline actually played out — but the footage provided is nothing short of spectacular.

Particularly as the actual heel turn takes place, with WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque taking over the show’s direction without allowing even those responsible for punching up the camera shots to be aware that Cena was about to kick Cody Rhodes in the nuts. Regardless of whether you buy WWE’s version of the events that led to the turn and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s role in all of it, there’s certainly no doubting how few people knew it was coming, including the on-screen announcers.

The final episode focuses on WrestleMania 41 and also addresses what had become my largest criticism of the series to that point, which was that everything seemed a little too hunky-dory. I’ve followed pro wrestling long enough to know backstage drama is often a feature, not a bug. And yet, it was hardly anywhere to be found through the first four episodes.

That changes in the series finale, with Episode 5 addressing both Jey Uso’s lackluster run to WrestleMania and the Charlotte Flair vs. Tiffany Stratton promo that went off-script. Both segments are brief, but at least help drive home that not everything that happens in WWE is all part of the plan, despite how Levesque can often portray it.

The rest of the episode focuses on WrestleMania 41’s main matches, where the access admittedly feels carefully crafted. Sure, it’s fun to experience WWE’s biggest show of the year from a backstage perspective. But it’s also hard to imagine that everyone was actually as happy with the Cena vs. Rhodes main event — one of the worst-reviewed high profile WrestelMania matches in recent memory — as the show made it seem.

As Levesque explained it, Cena vs. Rhodes was never going to match the previous night’s main event between Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and CM Punk from a match quality standpoint and that was never the point anyways. Ultimately, it did what it needed to do to advance the story — one that never truly ends in the world of WWE.

I’d argue the same is true of WWE: Unreal, which is far from perfect and would benefit from deeper insight into the company’s creative process. But if the unprecedented access provided and progression from Episode 1 to 5 are any indication, then any future editions of the series should only benefit from the foundation that the first season laid.