2. Injuries That Mean Something
If a superstar was kayfabe injured in the ring once upon a time and dragged up the ramp by paramedics and the like, it used to mean something important. If a football player is rushed to hospital it is very rare that in next week's game they would be fresh as a daisy and raring to go, so it made sense for WWE to do the same in order to show it's legitimacy as being a show about athletes. However, in the Entertainment Age that the WWE now finds itself in, the idea of a slow burning angle like a injury is much more frowned upon (unless the wrestler in question is filming, it seems). Instead of trying to sell an injury to put wrestlers and angles over in the mid to long term, the constant fear of a ratings drop has seen the WWE hotshotting all of its angles so quickly that people that had cracked vertebrae the week before all of a sudden can perform in professional wrestling matches. So give wrestlers the time off in order to build speculation. Then, when they are ready to return, you can hype it up (a la CM Punk at Payback) or have them come in as a major surprise (a la Cena or Edge at the Rumble). Either works, and the star is rejuvenated from his time away from the ring. "That's all very well," I hear some cry, "But without major stars, how will WWE draw?! Major stars are what brings the bums on seats!" Not necessarily...