Does WWE Make Money From Angry Fans?
Wrestling fans—really, any devotees of pop culture cults—tend to care more about the creation than the creators. This is the very essence of fandom. Look up archived editions of the Wrestling Observer, and you will find complaints on the old Readers Pages section - even as the white hot WWF product of 2000 intersected best the high art and commerce of sports entertainment. “There’s nohing new going on,” wrote Jamal Alam in the October 30 edition. “Friends who followed pro wrestling one year ago rarely watch it today. WWF is in cruise control.”
“There is too much mediocre product on television,” wrote Dave Katz in the same issue. “WWF is stale. The opening half hour of talk is boring.”
But 2018 feels different. It feels pointless.
Katz also wrote that “Steve Austin is yesterday’s news,” which was not without merit. Vince McMahon did not turn Austin heel at WrestleMania X-Seven because he wanted to plummet his company into the lull period that followed; he turned Austin heel because he sensed the bubbling sentiment, albeit without considering the long-term ramifications or building an acceptable succession plan. In 2000, McMahon was in tune with his audience because his company depended on the relationship. 18 years later, and McMahon does not heed the ominous warning signs of deflating pops and gently sliding TV ratings. He doesn’t even listen to the deafening, sustained drone that receives virtually all of Roman Reigns’ matches. He is locked in an unwinnable competition with what remains of that fanbase because he can literally afford to do so in this depressing new paradigm.
Roman Reigns remains The Guy a full three and a half years after he was loudly and definitively rejected as such. McMahon proceeds regardless, knowing full well that audience reaction no longer matters. Storylines are extended beyond plausibility, rendering the opening and middle chapters a contrived nothing, and since those who eventually win rarely advance up the card, the final chapter usually means nothing, either. Endless rematches; 50/50 booking; lame promos; homogenised match layouts: we needn’t focus on all this to support the argument that WWE television is, at the very least, not great. Not like it used to be.
The main roster product of 2018 is deeply, demonstrably, audibly unpopular, and yet, WWE is generating record revenues.
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