10 Ways WWE's Current Product Mirrors That Which Killed WCW

5. Creative Direction

While this had more to do with WCW existing within the Time Warner corporate structure; when the then WWF was setting ratings records off of the back of the raunchier Attitude Era product it was dictated to Eric Bischoff that WCW would revert to a cleaner, family friendly product. Despite the overwhelming evidence that the wrestling audience was clearly buying into the total opposite of that to the tune of the WWE€™s hundreds of millions of profit during that time period; WCW reverted to the product that had nearly driven the WWE out of business just a few years prior and it ultimately was one of the nails in their coffin because they had built their audience predominantly from the male 18-34 demographic . As Kevin Nash said during a recent episode of The Monday Night Wars: "We got a Standards and Practice guy in our creative room and they've got Val Venis with Jenna Jameson; wonder where that demographic's going to go?" Fast forward to now and, despite the displeasure of their core audience and ratings, buy-rates and ticket sales reflecting it€™s the wrong way to go, WWE is trying to provide a product for everyone with a decidedly family friendly tinge that is driving their audience away. Despite the overwhelming opinion online that things like Adam Roses Bunny and gimmicks like Los Matadores are ruining wrestling for the majority of long time fans; WWE continues to persist with them and other ideas like them. While I understand the reasoning; those who don€™t learn from their past are doomed to repeat it. If a regular TV show like The Walking Dead suddenly changed tact and it caused the ratings and merchandise sales to drop in the way WWE€™s have; then the show would be cancelled by the network. Just like WCW€™s TV shows eventually were.