What’s wrong with WWE?
This is an awfully loaded question and has many facets. It’s no secret the WWE’s ratings, attendance, and revenues are down – way down. Everyone can see it – the magic is missing, but what exactly does that mean? What is the WWE not doing, that they WERE doing when the company was on fire only a few months ago?
We’re going to examine the many things, which are responsible for the decline of the #1 wrestling company in history. Can they come back? Time will tell, so let’s dig in to the first and one of the most important changes affecting The WWE.
Please bear with me as I give some necessary background. What is the main accomplishment Vince McMahan has achieved since steering the WWE(F) in the early eighties? Was it marketing Hulk Hogan? No. Was it making the Ultimate Warrior a household name? No. Was it the crash TV style that revolutionized the wrestling television show and drew in millions of ‘casual’ viewers? No. Then what was it? It was Vince’s marketing genius that’s true, but what did he market better than anybody else?
Give up?
He marketed the WWF brand! Vince knew wrestlers would come and go so if the brand was strong, it could survive the departure of any disgruntled or greedy talent if push came to shove. Do you realize how ingenious that is? Make the brand so strong – no talent has leverage in an environment of negotiation. Have you ever noticed when the “legitimate” media talks about wrestling they always say WWF? It’s like Kleenex. One doesn’t ask for a tissue, they ask for a Kleenex. That’s marketing! Do you know where are we going with this?
When the World Wildlife Fund (Foundation) won the court case effectively securing the rights to the initials –“WWF” – the WWF(E) lost out on all those years of programming the audience. The conditioning of the audience to think “WWF” every time wrestling was brought up (remember Kleenex?) was gone. Part of the WWE identity and familiarity were gone. That’s huge! People had a good feeling when they thought of WWF, that no longer exists and is replaced with a hard to relate to – WWE. Will fans embrace the new name? Yes, they will over time, lots of time. Add in Vince McMahon’s marketing machine working overtime - the fans will accept WWE, but in the meantime…..
The second half of the WWF’s loss of identity is a direct result of splitting the rosters. Raw wasn’t doing great ratings when EVERY superstar was on each Monday, so the WWE decides to further hurt themselves by splitting the roster. There are two problems with that
1. The
writing wasn’t strong enough to keep both shows interesting
with access to all the talent.
2. Imagine you’re a diehard Los Angeles Laker fan who
never misses a game because you love Shaq or Kobe. Now, think
what you would do if they only played Shaq in half the games?
Would you be willing to watch knowing your favorite player won’t
see action? That further hurt WWE because fans couldn’t turn
on Raw or Smackdown to see their favorite wrestlers, they had to
choose. THEY DON’T WANT TO CHOOSE! That cut viewership by it’s
self. Until new talent has caught on with the audience – the
ratings will suffer. Vince McMahon has always said, “The
audience will decide.” It looks like they’ve
decided they don’t like the way things are.
2. CRASH TELEVISION
Five years ago, Vince Russo burst on to the wrestling scene with a revolutionary style of wrestling programming. Russo made the WWF’s televisions ‘must see’ because one never knew what would happen next. I defected from WCW to the WWF in January of 1999. I had never heard, let alone thought of the radical, ‘laugh in the face of the traditional wrestling’ television Vince Russo created. Russo took us behind the curtain, into the wrestler’s lives, and took us on a whirl wind series of stunts, car crashes, marriages, father verses daughter, son, and wife stories in which we could never figure out what was next. Vince Russo changed the way wrestling was watched and perceived. It was OK to be a wrestling fan – back then everyone was.
Then what’s wrong with this picture – it hasn’t changed. The WWE is writing the same way Russo did, but without his creative genius. It’s a watered down version and the edginess and “in your face” style of television is gone. It’s being “half pregnant,” you either are all the way or you aren’t at all. The WWE has lost its “Attitude” and until a revolutionary writer or some kind of change comes along – they’ll just be treading water.
3.NO SHOWS
Injuries are a part of athletics, but right now the WWE is missing their best all around performer to elbow surgery. HHH is the best the WWE has as far as a guy who can have a great match with everybody. There’s an art to making the other guy look good without making you look bad – very few performers have had that gift. HHH does and it’s times like these that a talent like HHH can really make a difference. He’s needed badly and his injury compromises the WWE’s ability to deliver in the ring. That’s where the magic occurs – in the ring. All the skits, vignettes, and angles are paid off in an in-ring confrontation. If the build up is good, but the payoff sucks – everything sucks. In the business we liken it to sex….you figure out what that means!
As we wind this up, that leaves two WWE superstars left to discuss. Their situations are worlds apart. The Rock is as handsome, articulate, and charismatic performer as the wrestling business has ever seen. Hollywood and millions of dollars will take the Rock from the WWE. It couldn’t happen to a better guy. The Rock deserves all the wealth, fame, and glory he’s getting. He’s as down to earth and real as any man I’ve ever known. The wrestling “push” never went to his head and he’s a role model after which I’d proudly tell my son to follow. He will do what every veteran wrestler dreams of doing – going out on his own terms. He deserves to.
That brings us to Stone Cold Steve Austin, the man’s man, the working man’s hero who told his boss to ‘take this job and shove it” jettisoning the WWF to the most profitable period in wrestling history. Austin became a hero and as big a star as there ever was, so what happened? Austin was cresting the wave of his popularity when I arrived in January 1999. I had known Steve in WCW and wrestled him 100 times. He was funny on the mic and in the locker room. He had a pace in the ring that would wear out a greyhound. When I saw Steve for the first time in 1/99, I went to hug him and tell him how excited and proud of him for all he’d done personally, but also for the rest of the WWF. He kind of pulled away and stuck his hand out saying, “How are ya?” like we just met. I saw a different Steve; the office personnel were more like valets catering to Steve’s every wish. That was OK because think of the tremendous pressure he was under to deliver every single night. And deliver he did. The WWE will “ride a horse’ (wrestler) until he drops. The window for fame and money is fleeting; so get it while you can.
Steve carried the WWE on his shoulders for 5 years. He knew his character and refused to compromise the Stone Cold character if the situation wasn’t right. Many times Vince McMahon over-rode our suggestions in favor of Steve’s instincts; Vince always said Steve had great instincts. So, if Steve has great instincts regarding his character and repeatedly asked for better storylines and didn’t get them – why is the whole WWE turning on him when he’s protecting the character that made them all money?
None of us know the whole story, but I’ve been in the trenches of live TV’s, taped shows, PPV’s, early morning radio shows on no sleep, and really having no life to myself. I was never near the star Steve was, so I can imagine how burnt out and under appreciated he must have felt. Now, all the people who routinely told him how great he was – are knocking him to the public. I think that sucks. The public doesn’t need to hear all the negatives from the crew that once loved Steve and who profited from Steve’s popularity. What’s that say about the crew that turned on him? Maybe Steve wasn’t the only guilty party? Maybe he was, but I just can’t see airing family business with the outside world. It’s none of their business.
Sooner or later, Steve will be back in WWE (You’ll see) and how stupid will the people who knocked him look when they start kissing Steve’s ass to garner a rating? But what should we expect?
The WWE always says, “Anything can happen in the WWE and usually does!”
Until next week,
Terry Taylor