1. How Do We Make The WWE Product Cool Again?
Cool is good. Cool makes money. Cool draws in casual fans. Like the swing states in US politics, casual fans of wrestling are vital to the growth of the industry. The core fanbase, by which I refer to the rabid, beating heart of the business, i.e. the guys that go to indie shows, buy every Pay Per View and enjoy everything from WWE, TNA, ROH, AAA, NJPW, AJPW, IWGP, NWA (and every other set of initials you care to name) will keep the fires burning at all times, but wrestling wont get big again until non fans start watching it again. Its happened before. Hulk Hogan and a plethora of celebrities ushered in the WWEs Rock n Wrestling era with WrestleMania I, this attracted umpteen million viewers, made Hogan a household name and brought more people to wrestling than ever before. Those fans tuned out by the mid 1990s, but they returned in the late 90s/early 2000s to see stars like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mankind, HHH, Kurt Angle, The Undertaker and The Rock. Essentially, most people love wrestling, but only when it appeals to them. The right angle can draw in casual viewers in the same way that a big fight draws people that arent boxing fans. The trick is to make wrestling cool again and get it talked about on the right TV shows and featured in the right blogs. To do that, the product needs to be cutting edge, modern and interesting once more. Cutting the crap, getting rid of the same old, same old mentality and aiming for new storylines, new characters and things weve never seen before is the best way to get people interested again. If the WWE product were promoted as the cool thing to have, people would want it again. Simple as. A talent reshuffle, a bit of re-branding and new company outlook would probably be all the WWE would need to get those profit levels flying again. Once the young talents were given the opportunity to break through at the top level, Vince would be laughing his evil laugh all the way to the bank. None of this is actually beyond the reach of WWE, which has a genuinely superb talent roster right now (ESPECIALLY if you include NXT) and more than enough money to get themselves out of this current mess, but will they make the necessary changes, or wont they? In any instance, 2015 will be a make or break year for the WWE. Well either get something new, or more of the same and whichever outcome they give us will determine the companys financial status and fan response over the coming 12 months. ...So thats it, a fans perspective on WWE, circa 2014. Thank you for reading and have a Happy New Year.
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
