8 Things WWE Can Learn From Star Wars: The Force Awakens

8. Give Us Real Characters Reacting In Real Ways

In the old days of professional wrestling, it was sufficient to have good guys and bad guys: babyfaces, and heels. Everything was based around archetypes, just as in Greek myth. Their stories had simple resonance - bad guys did bad things to good people, and good people ensured that they received their comeuppance, usually on a big show costing money to see or attend. Television changed, and television drama has become more sophisticated: what's more, the audience for that drama has skewed younger. Whereas Cagney & Lacey, Magnum PI and Dallas were watched by a more adult audience, teenagers and young adults are just as into Breaking Bad, Game Of Thrones and Sons Of Anarchy as their mothers and fathers, perhaps more so in many cases. The rise of fandom over the last couple of decades on line has created cult followings even for cancelled TV shows and franchises. The original Star Wars trilogy also dealt with archetypes and archetypical storylines: the hero's journey, the farm boy who is really a super hero, that kind of thing. We may love Han Solo, but is there really a vast amount to his character apart from dangerous rogue with a heart of gold? Rey, Finn and Kylo Ren from The Force Awakens, on the other hand, have backstories essential to their characters. They're flawed, complicated people distilled to an essence that will fit inside a 130 minute feature film. Just as Disney's risk in focusing on new, untested characters rather than old favourites worked like gangbusters, so Disney's risk in making them relatable (and therefore potentially unlikeable) also paid off. WWE hasn't really moved that much with the times: it€™s still trying to run the same old stories, archetypical good versus evil angles. It seemed like things might change during the Attitude Era, where all kinds of characters appeared on WWF/E programming, and audiences were suddenly treated to all kinds of new variations on the classic babyface and heel dynamic, and introduced to the nebulous concept of the 'tweener'. Unfortunately, the company hit a reset button when it chose to step away from that way of doing things: as though the stories being told during the Attitude Era relied on the €˜attitude€™ part to work. The success of NXT as a separate brand has established that someone in WWE knows how to tell a good story. That being the case, it's all the more frustrating that the main roster's angles are so tired and derivative.