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2017: WWE are the only game in town (that isn't named New Japan Pro Wrestling), their feeder school, NXT, is regarded as the best independant promotion even though it was neither independant or it's own promotion and CM Punk is a fading memory.
Everybody understands that WWE is THE company and that they will never, ever, be toppled from their lofty pearch.
Fast-forward 4 years to mid-2021.
2021: WWE have continued their philosophy of standing alone and ignoring the existance of any promotions not under the WWE banner. They are releasing 10s of "performers", including two of their biggest names in Brawn Strowman and Bray Wyatt.
The best workers of these are being snapped up by their nearest competitor, All Elite Wrestling. A company that didn't exist in 2017 but now has a weekly show on TNT.
AEW have opened the "forbidden door" which sees them partner up with New Japan, Impact Wrestling and, to a lesser degree, the NWA and AAA
CM Punk is seemingly about to make his return to pro-wrestling... in AEW. .
Oh, and the most naturally over performer that the WWE have had since CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, is also rumoured to have signed with AEW.
Times have certainly changed fast and these changes are happening in no small part due to what should really be described as a complete disconnect between what WWE's goals are and what wrestling fans want to see.
Pro-Wrestling fans (or sports entertainment if you're one of those cretins that uses WWE as part of your identity the same way Trump supporters do) are pretty simple creatures to keep happy. We want good storylines, good wrestling and matches where the end results mean something. If we can dress that up with cool entrances, good music and some pyrotechnics and lasers, even better.
It seems to me though, particularly with the releases of the last six months or so, which includes but is not limited to some real potentially headline talent in: Ric Flair, Bray Wyatt, Braun Strowman, Aleister Black, Andrade, and Kalisto, that WWE are no longer interested in providing the fans with any sort of engagement or pleasure. Cutting off storylines on a whim and releasing performers that viewers have become invested in.
Maybe they've simply lost the art of booking. Vince is ageing and they've been relying on writers for so long that maybe they just don't know how to do it anymore.
The WWEs promotion of Karion Kross to the main roster (the undefeated NXT Champion) is a shining example of how they've lost their way. Especially compared with how Aleister (now Malakai) Black's debut match was booked in AEW.
Kross WWE main roster debut saw him take a roll-up loss to an ageing mid-carder in Jeff Hardy.
Blacks AEW debut saw him smash golden boy/HHH/Cena booked Cody Rhodes in under five minutes, beating him so comprehensively that he pinned him by placing one foot on his chest.
One of these routes makes a star. The other does not.
So maybe they've lost their way booking wise (they actually lost it a long time ago and this is just the most recent example), but that still doesn't explain what's going on with all these releases. They've all been sold under the moniker of "budget cuts", but the company has the biggest TV deal they've ever had and even under the pandemic of last year posted record profits. So what's really going on?
What's going on, from my perspective, is that big buisness has moved in. WWE don't see themselves as an entertainment company anymore, they're simply a publicly traded business. The goals of a publicly traded business are not to give value to their customers, but to create the most profit possible for their investors.
Nick Khan is the President and Chief Revenue officer of WWE, and seems very much to be aiming to ensure that the company continue to post record profits. A goal they'll continue to achieve as long as they have big TV contracts. But, and this is a big but, the TV contracts come based on viewership, and as Khans cuts turn more and more people off the promotion, this will become an issue. This is surely something that the company understands.
If the company understands that, then why are they going down this route?
Well, an interesting rumour doing the rounds on the internet is that Khan has been asked to prepare the company to be sold. This would definitly tie in with the releases as WWE would continue to have that TV deal but with far less expenditure for the wrestlers contracts, making them a very profitable company (and attractive to potential purchasers) in the short-term but with falling profitability in the long-term if the fan engagement issue is not addressed.
WWE are unlikely to fail as a business. They're simply too big. But if they continue down the route they're currently heading for too long, they'll certainly leave the door open for other companys to become THE destination viewing location for pro-wrestling. And that's not something we could have imagined at any point in the last 20 years.
I suppose what I'm saying with all of this is that not since the Attitude Era and the Monday Night Wars has there been a more interesting time to be a wrestling fan...and maybe this is even more interesting because there are more moving parts in play...
So, they are some things that I'd been thinking about and I wanted to post on the internet to see whether anybody else had any thoughts on them?
Everybody understands that WWE is THE company and that they will never, ever, be toppled from their lofty pearch.
Fast-forward 4 years to mid-2021.
2021: WWE have continued their philosophy of standing alone and ignoring the existance of any promotions not under the WWE banner. They are releasing 10s of "performers", including two of their biggest names in Brawn Strowman and Bray Wyatt.
The best workers of these are being snapped up by their nearest competitor, All Elite Wrestling. A company that didn't exist in 2017 but now has a weekly show on TNT.
AEW have opened the "forbidden door" which sees them partner up with New Japan, Impact Wrestling and, to a lesser degree, the NWA and AAA
CM Punk is seemingly about to make his return to pro-wrestling... in AEW. .
Oh, and the most naturally over performer that the WWE have had since CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, is also rumoured to have signed with AEW.
Times have certainly changed fast and these changes are happening in no small part due to what should really be described as a complete disconnect between what WWE's goals are and what wrestling fans want to see.
Pro-Wrestling fans (or sports entertainment if you're one of those cretins that uses WWE as part of your identity the same way Trump supporters do) are pretty simple creatures to keep happy. We want good storylines, good wrestling and matches where the end results mean something. If we can dress that up with cool entrances, good music and some pyrotechnics and lasers, even better.
It seems to me though, particularly with the releases of the last six months or so, which includes but is not limited to some real potentially headline talent in: Ric Flair, Bray Wyatt, Braun Strowman, Aleister Black, Andrade, and Kalisto, that WWE are no longer interested in providing the fans with any sort of engagement or pleasure. Cutting off storylines on a whim and releasing performers that viewers have become invested in.
Maybe they've simply lost the art of booking. Vince is ageing and they've been relying on writers for so long that maybe they just don't know how to do it anymore.
The WWEs promotion of Karion Kross to the main roster (the undefeated NXT Champion) is a shining example of how they've lost their way. Especially compared with how Aleister (now Malakai) Black's debut match was booked in AEW.
Kross WWE main roster debut saw him take a roll-up loss to an ageing mid-carder in Jeff Hardy.
Blacks AEW debut saw him smash golden boy/HHH/Cena booked Cody Rhodes in under five minutes, beating him so comprehensively that he pinned him by placing one foot on his chest.
One of these routes makes a star. The other does not.
So maybe they've lost their way booking wise (they actually lost it a long time ago and this is just the most recent example), but that still doesn't explain what's going on with all these releases. They've all been sold under the moniker of "budget cuts", but the company has the biggest TV deal they've ever had and even under the pandemic of last year posted record profits. So what's really going on?
What's going on, from my perspective, is that big buisness has moved in. WWE don't see themselves as an entertainment company anymore, they're simply a publicly traded business. The goals of a publicly traded business are not to give value to their customers, but to create the most profit possible for their investors.
Nick Khan is the President and Chief Revenue officer of WWE, and seems very much to be aiming to ensure that the company continue to post record profits. A goal they'll continue to achieve as long as they have big TV contracts. But, and this is a big but, the TV contracts come based on viewership, and as Khans cuts turn more and more people off the promotion, this will become an issue. This is surely something that the company understands.
If the company understands that, then why are they going down this route?
Well, an interesting rumour doing the rounds on the internet is that Khan has been asked to prepare the company to be sold. This would definitly tie in with the releases as WWE would continue to have that TV deal but with far less expenditure for the wrestlers contracts, making them a very profitable company (and attractive to potential purchasers) in the short-term but with falling profitability in the long-term if the fan engagement issue is not addressed.
WWE are unlikely to fail as a business. They're simply too big. But if they continue down the route they're currently heading for too long, they'll certainly leave the door open for other companys to become THE destination viewing location for pro-wrestling. And that's not something we could have imagined at any point in the last 20 years.
I suppose what I'm saying with all of this is that not since the Attitude Era and the Monday Night Wars has there been a more interesting time to be a wrestling fan...and maybe this is even more interesting because there are more moving parts in play...
So, they are some things that I'd been thinking about and I wanted to post on the internet to see whether anybody else had any thoughts on them?
