With the news that the WWE ratings have been brutal in recent weeks, I’m not sure why people are acting surprised. If you are a wrestling fan who consistently watches, you could see this coming from a mile away. And if you are a casual fan, well you wouldn’t notice because you aren’t watching….which is the problem.
People will try to blame Covid, or the lack of fans, but we all know what the real issue is, terrible storylines and bad booking.
Look no further than NXT to see why Covid or lack of fans isn’t the issue; they face the same obstacles as Raw, Smackdown, and AEW, and continue to provide strong numbers. The reason people are ignoring WWE flagship shows is because the storylines and the matches aren’t exciting.
I don’t know who is pulling the strings behind the scenes (assume it’s Vince), but the storylines have been horrible these past couple of months.
To start, stop trying to showcase over the hill superstars at the expense of the next generation. The WWE has these amazing talents in NXT, and they “promote” them to the main roster, only to have them flounder in the mid-cards and lose their momentum. Ricochet, Andrade, Aleister Black, the Viking Raiders, and Keith Lee are just a few of the names who have recently had their potential squandered on the main roster. It’s almost like the writers never watched them on NXT and just created a new persona for them the day they showed up for Raw or Smackdown. Hell, the Viking Raiders literally showed up with a new name…..I hope someone was fired for that moronic idea because the War Raiders was much cooler.
Even if one of the NXT stars is able to maintain the momentum, the writers still try to focus on the more “proven” stars and ping pong the young talent through various storylines causing confusion. Either that, or they give up on it before it has a chance to gain traction. Seems like every other week Ricochet in a different feud, and the only reason he’s constantly on TV is because he’s a freakish athlete.
Just look at the Retribution storyline, when it was first introduced, it was exciting; fans were genuinely intrigued by these masked disruptors. Who were these under-utilized superstars who were finally standing up for themselves? But before they even had a chance to go over with the fans, they were taking losses night after night. How do you try to build up a faction who’s goal is to “change the game” only to have them suffer losses so quickly. At this point, nobody cares about them and we just assume they are going to be gone in the coming weeks.
Lastly, the ideas they are focusing on are both boring and unoriginal as they’ve been done a million times before. The only fresh idea in WWE right now is the Fiend and it seems like the writers are doing everything in their power to kill his momentum…remember that loss to Goldberg. The writers just cycle through the same Top Guys over and over again. Otis won the Money in the Bank briefcase (which was awesome) only to not see him on TV for months and then lose the briefcase to the Miz…..nobody cares about the Miz. Apparently the fact that the Miz has a show on E! is a good enough reason to fold him into the main event picture.
Until the WWE writers take some real risks with their stories, the ratings are going to continue to decline. AEW is doing crossover shows with Impact Wrestling, and people are watching. They want to see something new and these other organizations are listening. Sure the WWE took Reigns to the darkside (3 years too late) and Drew McIntrye has done an admirable job at the top these past 6 months, but can we really say he’s had a memorable run? Here’s an easy solution, take half of the NXT writers/bookers and move them to the main roster, then actually listen to them.
