5 Ways WWE Can Fix Its Broken Product
Bored of WWE programming? You aren't the only one.
Even the staunchest WWE loyalist will admit that WWE television is in something of a rut right now. Historically the months between WrestleMania and SummerSlam are a time of place-holding and treading water, but this lethargy seems to have been around since the end of 2013 and Daniel Bryan’s perpetual screwing. RAW in particular has become not just boring, but legitimately difficult to watch.
Predictability in itself isn’t always bad, but there’s only so many times a show can follow a formula that was tired from the beginning before you simple decide to switch off.
This isn’t to say the situation is unsalvageable however. In many ways, WWE is in a great position, it just hasn’t managed to put the pieces together for a while. In the following article I will look at five ways in which WWE can put together an objectively better product.
It’s easy to slip into fantasy booking with such articles sometimes, so I will resist the usual unlikely options and stick to realism. John Cena isn’t turning heel, RAW is sticking to three hours and Dolph Ziggler will rule the midcard for years to come. Let’s get into it.
5. Focus On Wrestling
My final point might seem a little farfetched in modern day WWE, but hear me out. Vince McMahon may say that WWE is in the business of telling stories, but stripped down the truth is fairly clear; nobody develops a love for professional wrestling because of the story. The stories are integral to the product, but if the product wasn’t dudes and dudettes throwing each other around the fact is we wouldn’t be watching. Take the current Rusev/Summer Rae/Lana/Dolph Ziggler love rectangle for example. I’m yet to meet someone who is clamouring for the next instalment of their romantic woes, but Rusev and Ziggler going toe-to-toe? Count me in.
The Max Landis ‘Wrestling Isn’t Wrestling’ video was a blast and made a hell of a lot of sense to fans, but it also comes from a fairly defensive place, the continued need that wrestling fans feel to defend why they enjoy it. It’s high time that we just accept the fact that sometimes watching a guy throw another guy into something is fun. In their desperation to find some sort of modern legitimacy, WWE has forgotten that the reason fans stay so loyal isn’t because Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage argued about Miss Elizabeth for a year, it’s because they fought in the ring and seemed larger than life. Very rarely in wrestling does the story transcend the in-ring action.
Heck, more often than not what goes on in the ring is the story. One of the great things about New Japan Pro Wrestling right now is that their stories more often than not revolve around what happens in the ring. Tomohiro Ishii and Togi Makabe weren’t fighting because one spilt coffee over the other; they were grappling because one wanted to prove that they were tougher than the other. Simple.
We don’t grow up dreaming of becoming a WWE superstar to pretend to be king with a plunger and a bed sheet, we dream of becoming a WWE superstar because of how enraptured we are by the wrestling. By remembering what brought it to the dance in the first place, WWE could go a long way towards fixing its broken product.