Maven says WWE “is in trouble” and explains why he thinks the company “is on the wrong track”
In a video published on his YouTube channel titled WWE is in Trouble, former WWE star Maven commented on the state of WWE in 2026. Here were some of the criticisms that he made…
The lack of live events: “The current talent is wrestling as much in a month now as we would wrestle in one week, sometimes even less. Younger me would have loved that schedule, but I also recognize now, with a little bit of age and a tiny bit of wisdom attached to me, that you only get better by doing something repeatedly, over and over. You flat out don’t get better as a wrestler by not wrestling. And by limiting house shows, it’s not making the guys’ in-ring work any better.”
Choreography: “Every match looks like a dance. It looks structured. It doesn’t feel free-flowing—listening to the crowd, reacting, giving what your opponent gives you. It looks like everything is laid out and diagrammed like routes on a map. To me, that hurts the product, especially for casual fans. You can’t bring in casual fans if everything looks choreographed. As Al Snow always said, this is supposed to be a fight. When it doesn’t look like one, it takes people out of it.”
Pricing: “I’m also concerned about the long-term health of WWE because of how expensive everything has become. Not just tickets—though those are high—but everything. Streaming costs money. Watching on Netflix costs money. ESPN+ costs money. Merchandise costs money. There’s something to be said for affordable family entertainment. Parents shouldn’t have to spend a fortune just to follow wrestling. If fans feel priced out, they’ll go elsewhere—especially when there’s no shortage of entertainment options today.”
Too many advertisements: “I recently watched an entire episode of Monday Night Raw, and the biggest issue wasn’t the wrestling—it was the number of ads. It felt like there was a commercial every few minutes. Just as you’d get invested, you’d be pulled out again. If there’s no flow, fans will stop investing their time. And if they don’t invest their time, they won’t invest their money. That’s what really hurts.”