8 Dropped Ideas That Could've Helped WWE Ratings

5. The WWE Universe Is The Authority

Don’t you just hate it when you make a big hoopla about something, say a load of really great soundbites, only for it all to come back and bite you on the ass?

For WWE brass, that’s clearly been the case after promising fans the world back in December 2018. To be precise, it was the 17 December episode of Raw when the McMahon family appeared to apologise for their own turd-tastic product.

Firstly, Vince McMahon claimed that WWE “change with the times,” before Stephanie explained how they “haven’t being doing a very good job for you lately” and that they “haven’t been doing the thing our father taught us to do, which is listen to our audience.”

As Triple H explained to the WWE Universe, “We’re going to give you what you want. Something new. Something fresh. As of now, you are the Authority.”

All of this was great news, right? Finally, the WWE Universe was going to actually be listened to for the first time in what felt like forever. The in-ring marvels, the underutilised talents, and those who were forever battling the WWE system would now get a chance to shine, right?

The whole “you are the Authority” notion turned out to be complete BS and, bar a handful of NXT talents being largely misused on the main roster, nothing really changed – as reflected in the dwindling TV ratings experienced by Raw and SmackDown in the aftermath of this rah-rah speech.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.