10 Ways WWE Are Destroying Their Own Roster
6. Brands, Not Characters
WWE characters have never been as shallow as they are today.
Granted, professional wrestling has never built personalities with the same level of depth as those found in The Wire or Sopranos, but there's nothing to WWE's massive cast.
What is Seth Rollins other than a series of 'Kingslayer' and 'Burn It Down' motifs, wrapped up in a bow of off-putting snark and rudimentary babyface fire? Roman Reigns is 'The Guy,' but what are his discernible characteristics? What do we really known about 'The Big Dog?'. How how about Bobby Roode? Sure, he's popular, but what defines him beyond a sparkly robe and grandiose entrance theme?
These performers aren't playing fully-formed characters, but brands. They exist primarily to spit catchphrases and sell t-shirts, and while this doesn't necessarily mean that they're bad, there's no depth anymore, and their work often provides only the cheapest of thrills.
One of the biggest reasons that NXT inspires such incredible devotion is because their wrestlers are presented as believable, three-dimensional humans. We can relate to them, and therefore want to root for them, but the main roster's robots make this difficult.