Seth Rollins Says WWE Fans Don't Have Patience For Long-Term Storytelling
Here's what WWE's Monday Night Messiah thinks about your attention spans, fellow goldfish.
Seth Rollins believes that modern wrestling audiences "aren't wired" to appreciate "the longer form of entertainment."
WWE's 'Monday Night Messiah' dropped this soundbite during a recent appearance on the Gorilla Position podcast, during which he spoke on the changing way in which younger generations consume entertainment.
"In the age of instant gratification, audiences don't have the patience for long-term storytelling," Rollins said. "When you can binge-watch your favourite series in two days as opposed to two months, it creates a different precedent for how we intake our entertainment."
Seth added that "we are consuming our entertainment differently and wrestling is not immune to this shift. We have to adapt, as well, to keep up with our audiences."
He isn't necessarily wrong in his appraisal of consumer trends in entertainment. Attention spans are shorter than ever, to the point where some scientists claim the average human's is now worse than a goldfish (source), and media feels increasingly atomised. WWE programming offers little evidence to support his claims, though: the promotion's issues with planning and execution long-term storylines are well-known. Relationships like Sasha Banks and Bayley are the rule-proving exception in a promotion where stories and feuds are regularly torn up on a whim, without forethought.