Im not going to pretend that we all dont mark out at the return of Sting or every appearance The Rock makes. Those things are awesome and should definitely be worked in whenever possible to throw a bone to us longtime fans that miss the guys we grew up cheering for. The problem lies in relying on those past stars to sell your events. Its a startling lack of long term planning when you have to depend on The Rock and the pipedreams of a Steve Austin return to build WrestleMania around. WrestleMania 31 the unquestioned biggest show of the year featured Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Sting, The Rock, Ronda Rousey, Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Billy Gunn, Road Dogg and X-Pac, all of whom had a combined ONE WWE match between them in 2015 up until that point. Was it fun to see those people on the card? Of course, but the well is running dry and its time to start building toward the future. When Kane, Big Show, Mark Henry and The Undertaker are still winning significant matches over younger, gifted talent that should be positioned as the foundation of the industry for years to come, something is drastically wrong. Nostalgia is not a sustainable business plan, and its something theyve resorted to in order to sell pay-per-views, video games and network subscriptions. Surely they have to realize they cant keep this up.
Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
