THIS Is WWE's Secret Biggest Problem

by Michael Sidgwick
daniel bryan triple h
WWE.com

WWE has battered the defiant energy out of their fans - which, again, wasn't good, because you're meant to actually have the fans onside, ideally - who are vanishing in outrageous number. The January 27 RAW drew an average of 2.4 million viewers. The July 13 episode, the lowest-rated ever, averaged 1.5. WWE at one point in 2020 had lost nearly one million viewers in less than one year - when the previous year's ratings were considered so terrible that the USA Network intervened with creative pitches of their own.

Nobody gives a f*cking s**t about WWE anymore. This is serious. They do not give a f*ck.

WWE inspires only detached mockery from those who have long since given up, and impassioned defences from the ultras. There is no hope. There is no contrarian, talismanic figure on which to project hope, because they are all hopeless.

WWE's secret biggest problem is that something like the so-called Yes! Movement - a development WWE really should have received as the macro indictment that it was - is impossible in 2020. WWE fans once endured WWE, with no star-studded, big league competition in the US, because it represented the last echo of the spectacle they grew up spellbound by. The spirit that drove it exists elsewhere now, if it isn't outright dead.

We are firmly in the Nihilism Era of WWE.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!