10 Ways WWE Can Finally Get Their Audience Back

10. Rediscover What WWE Actually Is

Vince McMahon once more became the panto villain as he - cruelly or hilariously, depending upon your perspective - gutted NXT of much of its talent and, as will become clear, its identity.

Is this a bad thing, necessarily?

NXT is done as a cool alternative and as a talent development pipeline. It exists now as a polished, purpose-defeating echo of a super-indie scene that Vince was never going to embrace. Realistically, he is far more in tune with his public than his isolated overlord stigma would suggest. Look at the NXT numbers. Look at John Cena's quarter hours and house show gates. Astonishingly, the fans of the promotion that buried indie wrestling for years have not connected with WWE's half-hearted emulation of it.

WWE, at its core, was never a promotion that spotlighted superb bell-to-bell pro wrestling. It was only vaguely competitive in that arena when Vince was no longer allowed to pump his contractors to the gills. Beyond the glory of Bret Hart's peak - and this isn't to say that WWE's in-ring output was always terrible, but rather incidental - WWE excelled at broad, soapy episodic drama told by gigantic men.

Vince has approached this back-to-basics vision in a stunningly petulant way, but it's not a terrible idea. WWE fans want sports entertainment. Just not a super-sh*tty version of it.

On the subject of which...