That is: ask yourself IF this guy left the company, would you miss him after 3 weeks and would it impact the company on a whole?
I think the short list is about 10 guys and frankly, I’m not even sure of those 10 how many matter to the business of WWE. I bring that up because to me it is indicative of the writing that goes into each character and performer. Truly well crafted and thought out characters who are protected matter. WWE focuses on about 5 of those guys out of the entire roster and currently 3 of them are not part of the show (Cena/Roman/Brock). Maybe its a sign that writing a show that builds minimal talent isn’t the best approach.
I think they understand it very well. They signed massive TV deals, are getting boatloads of money from international deals (Saudi, Aussie) and yet everyone wants to yell interest in waning and look at the ratings tank.
The argument that interest is waning is something I actually respectfully disagree with. I think we’ve seen this year that interest in Wrestling is at an all time high. The consumption of anything wrestling has propelled SI/Rolling Stone/ESPN to all cover it in a way they have previously not. The 90s kids are old enough to appreciate and enjoy nostalgia and the new generation of fans can access the content anywhere which means we don’t know what ratings truly mean outside of week to week attention span. People flock to shows like All In and WK and Mania.
I think the ratings tanking is more a sign of attention span and the fact that currently the WWE cannot hold their audiences attention for as long as they desire - which looks bad on their part, but is self-inflicted. Not the lack of fan interest.
I don’t know if you were being sarcastic, but business is up from the Saudi deal and increased tv revenue. Live attendance and viewership is down from people losing interest and not caring enough to watch the product anymore.
That’s what MJ just said… that business was up (profits) and interest is down (ratings). It’s ironic that they are happening simultaneously, not sarcastic.
What I haven’t seen brought up enough is that writing is just one piece of the WWE machine. Booking would be another huge part. When the company decides to push Jinder Mahal I don’t know there’s any writing that could save it.
And we shit on the writers a lot when it’s bad, but give them no credit when it’s good. The Rock has talked a lot about working with writers in WWE. Jericho gives Jimmy a lot of credit for the writing in his last run with Owens. The best promos by Becky, Joe, Miz, Rollins today are still mostly being written, they are just being written to sound more natural and with collaboration with the wrestlers.
Raw has gone to shit for more reasons than just the writers. It’s a systematic failure by all levels of creative and the performers to create a consistently entertaining (or at this point even decent) TV show.