10 Reasons Why Your Friends Don't Watch Wrestling Anymore
4. UFC Does WWE Better Than WWE Does
As the first decade of the 21st century closed, many wrestling fans reconvened as fans of a new organization -- UFC. While WWE has always denied competition with the MMA giant, citing that their own predetermined nature puts them in a different category from the UFC, that line of thinking is merely an excuse. It's easy for WWE to shrug its collective shoulders and say that older fans want to watch a product that's "real," but that's not entirely true.
Yes, former WWE fans flocked to UFC when the organization became popular in 2006-2007, but it wasn't because of the novelty of seeing real fights -- UFC had already been around for well over a decade at the time, and was part of America's pop culture lexicon. The real draw was that larger than life personalities were building feuds and then fighting, with no frills and clear winners and losers.
The same fans who thrilled to Steve Austin became enamored with Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture for the exact same reasons -- and former WWE superstar Ken Shamrock as a recognizable figure in UFC only helped their cause. When Brock Lesnar debuted with the organization, he brought it to its peak popularity. WWE, meanwhile, was focusing on convoluted storylines and silliness, and they were left in the dust.