10 2020 Moments WWE Must NEVER Do Again
7. Going Underground
Speaking of half-baked ideas.
Last summer, Shane McMahon was cast as a testosterone-fuelled host who enjoyed watching people beat the stuffing out of one another in seedy fight rings. His 'Raw Underground' concept was born, and then it died within just a few months when it failed to spike the show's ratings on USA.
It's not hard to see why now; Underground broke one of wrestling's golden rules by presenting itself as superior and real compared to the regular in-ring fare. Basically, Shane harped on about how his fights were grittier than anything else on WWE TV. That was never going to work long-term.
How could it? Just like the woeful 'Brawl For All' of the late-90s (which, admittedly, was even thicker 'cause the fights were 100% authentic), Underground palmed off the very thing fans tune in to see - pro wrestling played background noise to the project until WWE got bored.