10 Ways WWE Storytelling Has Declined Since 2000

10. Lack Of Suspense & Surprise

Like any other storytelling medium, wrestling thrives on keeping the audience guessing. When you tune into Raw or SmackDown, you’re not supposed to know what’s going to happen that night. You may have an inkling, but if the writers are doing their jobs properly, they’ll produce developments that you didn’t see coming without leaving you feeling shortchanged.

Unfortunately, this has declined immensely over the years. Almost every major storyline development can be telegraphed these days, and you have to go back to Goldberg’s squashing of Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series to find the company’s last shocking match outcome. If you’ve watched WWE programming for a while, the patterns are obvious, and more often than not, you’re left coasting towards a boring, predictable conclusion.

The frustrating thing is that mystery and intrigue are still proven draws. When WWE marketed the June 19th episode of Raw around Roman Reigns’ SummerSlam announcement and the unveiling of Enzo Amore’s attacker, the viewership surged to over three million for the first time since April. Keeping the audience guessing is increasingly difficult in a world where everybody has access to the sport’s inner workings, but this example show that it isn’t impossible.