The Secret Reason WWE Is Failing

You might counter that this is a good thing. The wrestler's prime is said to peak in the mid-thirties, as their sharpened athleticism, and the muscle memory instilled allowing for zero hesitation, intersects with years of training in the dark arts of manipulating a crowd. This, one presumes, is why so many main WWE main roster acts are around that age (as well as the inherent "trust" required by management that Road Dogg discussed on After The Bell with Corey Graves).

In addition to the production polish, rehearsed scripted promos and regulation matches, the average age of the WWE wrestler is consistent with what is a heavily ironic pursuit of perfection. Everything has to be just so. Except narrative continuity, of course, but you get the meaning. There's no raw sense of soul to any of WWE's programming.

These stats made the rounds after the Rumble on Sunday, but the ramifications seep beyond the obvious. Yes, an ageing roster has a corresponding impact on the demographics of viewership. Yes, the Rock's meteoric ascent made him, in part, because there was very little f*cking around. And yes, that so many name acts only get a push on WWE programming when they reach a certain age is detrimental to the immediate potency of, to use an example that has been brought into focus recently, Yokozuna's instant and seismic introduction in 1992. Much of the audience has already seen the best of the WWE performer down in NXT. Even if WWE's main roster was as good - at least as good as NXT at its peak - there'd still be something lacking. Even the greatest performers find themselves in tedious loops.

Weekly episodic TV is merciless.

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