10 Step Investigation: Just How Successful Is WWE In 2017?
7. Star Creation
Wrestling is a star-driven industry; lost amid talk of brands and diversified revenue streams is that draws draw money. That's why they're called draws. If that wasn't the case, WWE would not have to rely on established part-time nostalgia acts to boost business in the short term.
WWE's approach since the last bonafide megastar they created - John Cena in 2005 - has been dire. CM Punk and Daniel Bryan got over more by accident and attrition rather than carefully mapped-out design. They had the balls and or carefree disposition to connect with crowds using their own sense of enterprise. Punk routinely ripped up the lame promos penned on his behalf. Bryan started the "Yes!" chant because he thought it would be funny.
And yet, both were never seen as true, top tier stars. Punk grew so disenchanted with his treatment that he simply left without notice. His exit in turn forced WWE to see in Bryan what everybody else did.
That clamour for change has since been recognised. Never before has there been such a surfeit of critically-acclaim internet darlings populating WWE's ranks. But those darlings are hamstrung by mandated scripted promos and sidelined by part-time superstars from yesteryear. There are several stars in WWE, but few are allowed to express themselves to their true potential. The system is broken; until it is fixed, we might never know who has the reach to headline WrestleMania 40 on a part-time basis.
The critical mass that mega-show is approaching is its own indictment of the process.