Going Broadway: Why WWE will not change their product Submitted by Going Broadway on 06/06/2019 at 01:18 PM
By J.D. Bachman
As ratings continue to dip and revenue continues to fall for World Wrestling Entertainment, many fans are left with their hands in the air wondering when and if the nonsensical product will truly ever change.
It won't.
I predicted this last December when the McMahons came out and "apologized" to fans. However, since December, things have gotten progressively worse sans a few winning storylines leading to Wrestlemania (Lynch/Rousey, Kingston/Bryan).
With All Elite Wrestling's first highly acclaimed show in the books, these same fans are now flailing their arms in disgust wondering fervently when things are going to change. Surely, they will change with competition on the horizon, right?
They won't.
A great example of this is WWE Blood Money, otherwise known as WWE Super Showdown. The hard truth is Vince McMahon is set to make more money from this show alone than what wrestling "smarks" like you or me could possibly give Titan Towers in a single year. Even with all of its human rights violations and moral atrocities, Saudi Arabia is quite a large sponsor of WWE. (Not that McMahon nor his good friend President Trump would allow a little thing like human rights atrocities get in the way of good business, am I right?)
The bottom line is this:
Until sponsors and investors start to flee from WWE to AEW, the product has no real reason to change.
In fact, the McMahons and Mr. Levesque are likely counting on this for the product to ever alter course. They are betting that a large amount of educated fans who want more wrestling than sports entertainment in their diet will equate to less revenue than appealing mostly to the casual fans and their current family-friendly investors.
Stark reminder: WWE carries mostly family-friendly sponsors and investors for a reason.
While as fans we are trained to tune into WWE programming, need I remind you that over a handful of alternatives exist. From NJPW World (New Japan), to RISE Wrestling, Ring of Honor, Impact, Dragon Gate, and now All Elite Wrestling on TNT or B/R Live -- fans have a plethora of ways to tune into streaming services and cable networks for wrestling alternatives that didn't quite exist 5-10 years ago. Yes, we WANT WWE programming to change, and we would love to see our favorites in better situations than say Jon Moxley, who was mostly underutilized and misused, leading to his eventual leave from the company.
And while Raw and Smackdown continue down a ratings sinkhole due to lackluster and uninspired programming, shows like NXT, NXT:UK, and 205 Live still deliver on the goods that many pro wrestling-savvy desire. In short: Until this fanbase starts to care less about NXT and Friends to the point of cancelling subscriptions and tuning out of WWE programming entirely, McMahon will continue going the route of poop jokes, slapstick championships, nonsensical rules that aren't followed in the first place, and a roster featuring mostly 40-something talents.
It is worth noting, that even though product quality has worsened, and rumors persist that the backstage environment is shit, WWE are still making millions upon millions, hand-over-fist.
In conclusion, much like the Monday Night Wars, the WWF never entered the "Attitude Era" until not changing the product was no longer an option. The same goes here.
Until All Elite Wrestling and other alternatives can drive away investors, sponsors, and too many fans from the product, World Wrestling Entertainment will remain put in its mediocrity.
Vince McMahon and Paul Levesque knows this. Now so do you.
