JBL Says WWE Shouldn't Give Fans What They Want
Giving the people what they want wouldn't be a winning formula for WWE, says JBL.
John Bradshaw Layfield, who presumably isn't an O'Jays fan, has spoken out on instant gratification in professional wrestling, stating his belief that WWE shouldn't immediately gives its audience what it wants to see.
Speaking on Chavo Guerrero's Suplexes and Cervezas podcast, the former WWE Champion likened drew parallels with dramas like The Walking Dead and Games of Thrones, saying, essentially, that WWE should draw things out before reaching satisfying conclusions (h/t POST Wrestling for the transcription):-
“If I was writing [The] Walking Dead and I had gotten my way, The Governor would’ve been killed the first 15 minutes of the first show. I had to watch two seasons to see this guy get his head cut off or whatever happened to him. That’s the business. You wanna kill a territory? Let the fans book it because they’re gonna do what they want. You can’t give ‘em what they want. I don’t wanna see a movie and get what I want because I want to see Joffrey, King Joffrey get killed right away in Game of Thrones. Instead, you take him out for several seasons but that keeps you interested.”
Not rushing to the finish is a tenet of good storytelling, so JBL has a point. Joffrey losing his head in the third or fourth episode of Game of Thrones rather than choking on a poisoned meal after four seasons of tyranny wouldn't have the same impact.
Still, the argument that WWE should perhaps pay more attention to its base's needs and desires is a compelling one considering the organisation's chronically declining popularity, having lost more than half its TV audience since 2014.