20 Things You Learn Watching WWE Since 1997
6. The Company Has Gotten Increasingly Sanitized...
Today's WWE is way different from the company of the late '90s, and it's not just because of the TV-PG rating. The company is a global entity, a publicly traded business, and an employer of nearly 1000 people - there's a lot more accountability, and way more cooks stirring the pot.
All of this seems to have given WWE more of a sanitized, homogeneous quality. Promos are scripted (badly) and most of them sort of sound the same. The company's Performance Center - a state-of-the-art facility for training the next generation of superstars - has produced more flops than hits, and most of the flops even wrestle sort of the same way.
Worst of all, it doesn't feel like the most interesting superstars rise to the top. Current project Roman Reigns has been driving off viewers for two years, and while he is talented, his success has clearly come from managerial fiat. Maybe they were better at manipulating fans back in 1998, but it felt like the cream rose to the top more easily.