10 Indisputable Reasons Why Vince McMahon Is Not A Genius
2. His Ratings Keep Falling
At the height of the Monday Night War, over 10 million Americans were watching professional wrestling every week. These days, Raw is watched by about four million. Of course, keeping up that huge number wasnt sustainable in the long run, but WWE losing more than half the wrestling world was preventable. Instead of trying to innovate, or actually listen to his audience Vince has remained stubborn and paid the price for it.
Besides his daughter and son in law in high profile positions in the company, hes also relied too heavily on Kevin Dunn. When Raw and SmackDown split, a handful of writers in WWE felt it was best to have a different director for each show to give it a truly unique feel. According to former SmackDown head writer, Dunn put up a big stink about this and eventually got his way. Instead of a true feeling of brand separation, the shows still feel basically the same to this day. Likewise, Michael Cole and JBL are horribly overexposed, but Vince can't seem to find two other people to announce SmackDown. So much monotony brings about apathy, which turns viewers off.
McMahon would be considered the showrunner in WWE if you compared his product to a regular TV show. As the guy in charge, he stumbles to put the right people in key positions to succeed. Any other show suffering such ratings losses would see heads roll behind the scenes. Not in WWE. You have to admire Vince's loyalty, but not when it comes at the expense of the quality and success of his product.