10 Ways WWE Can Finally Get Their Audience Back
WWE already has the next John Cena on the books.
The complexion of the WWE audience has changed considerably over the last several years.
Reductively, they used to give a sh*t. They used to tell decision-makers that they didn't give a sh*t about the wrestlers that WWE attempted to push at the expense of the wrestlers they wanted to see pushed.
Those fans wanted to see CM Punk disrupt the tedious monotony at WWE's rotting core. Alberto pinned CM Punk at Hell In A Cell 2011 to further ice the Summer of Punk.
Those fans wanted to see Daniel Bryan get the big push as his stupendous work and joyous ring entrance got over big in 2012. He was defeated in 18 seconds at WrestleMania XXVIII.
Those fans wanted to see Becky Lynch as a charming, witty ass-kicker who cut through the verbose bullsh*t in 2018. WWE, before once more realising that going with Charlotte Flair was untenable, went with Charlotte Flair.
Those fans - or at least a significant number of them - have since stopped watching. What's left of the audience just sits there, happy to react only and with polite enthusiasm to the key spots agented by the apparent storytelling company. There's a rabid, quite possibly mentally unwell base on Twitter, but that's as hardcore as it gets. They are brainwashed cultists unable to even grasp what they like about their chosen hobby without criticising AEW. There's only about 200 of them, loud as they are.
What happened to the millions and millions?
10. Rediscover What WWE Actually Is
Vince McMahon once more became the panto villain as he - cruelly or hilariously, depending upon your perspective - gutted NXT of much of its talent and, as will become clear, its identity.
Is this a bad thing, necessarily?
NXT is done as a cool alternative and as a talent development pipeline. It exists now as a polished, purpose-defeating echo of a super-indie scene that Vince was never going to embrace. Realistically, he is far more in tune with his public than his isolated overlord stigma would suggest. Look at the NXT numbers. Look at John Cena's quarter hours and house show gates. Astonishingly, the fans of the promotion that buried indie wrestling for years have not connected with WWE's half-hearted emulation of it.
WWE, at its core, was never a promotion that spotlighted superb bell-to-bell pro wrestling. It was only vaguely competitive in that arena when Vince was no longer allowed to pump his contractors to the gills. Beyond the glory of Bret Hart's peak - and this isn't to say that WWE's in-ring output was always terrible, but rather incidental - WWE excelled at broad, soapy episodic drama told by gigantic men.
Vince has approached this back-to-basics vision in a stunningly petulant way, but it's not a terrible idea. WWE fans want sports entertainment. Just not a super-sh*tty version of it.
On the subject of which...