WWE: 3 Help Us, Helps Them Fixes

The WWE may finally be forced to do what it should have been doing all along. And that is listen to its fans. The WWE has finally had its hand forced. And now have to look to their audience. So we help them out with three things they can do to help us, help them.

Do it for the Ratings

Now if you listen to the promos cut by the “powers that be” from Monday and Tuesday night they sound all well and good. The problem is, if you have been a wrestling fan and more namely a WWE fan you have heard this all before. But the last time that the future implications rang this heavy, WCW was knocking down the door and pushing the level of compeition through the roof. And while place like New Japan, Ring of Honor, and to a lesser but improve sense Impact Wrestling aren’t quite ready to go head to head with the “Sports Entertainment” juggernaut. One entity is ready to take them on and if need be over power them. And that driving force for change is the ratings.

The first notice of the ratings being a force for change is Smackdown Live’s move to Fox next October. Fox has already announced that they are expecting the WWE to produce a rating of 3.3 million viewers. And that is a big jump the 1.89 (ish) rating they produced last week. Now this week, the McMahon clan came out to promise change. They promised to listen to the fans and give them what they want to see.

New Everything

When the McMahon clan came out this week they also stated we were going to be getting new things. New Faces, new Superstars, and new matchups. The WWE and their product have become very stale. Matchups that were once something special have been witnessed at nauseu. Matches like Dolph Ziggler vs Seth Rollins was once a match that fans were excited to see. But because of the numerous amount of time that we have seen it. Those matches feel stale and played out. But with the promise of new superstars being given opportunities we can see guys once overlooked now given a chance.

This week we saw Tyler Breeze answer the call for Dean Ambrose’s Intercontinental Championship Open Challenge. But the main thing that stuck out to me was actually during the commentary of that match. When Michael Cole made reference to Tyler Breeze’s return to NXT to face Ricochet for the NXT North American Championship. We also saw an eight women gauntlet match to close out Monday night RAW. And on Smackdown, Mustafa Ali has had prominent bouts over the last two weeks. And we saw the re-emergence of Gallows and Anderson, SAnitY, and Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas. We also saw promo packages for some new NXT call-ups.

Refocus the Content

Wrestling fans are always nostalgic about the “Attitude Era” and rightfully so. It was by some respects the best time for the industry. And as I discussed on the December 7th episode of The Laracuente Ledger Podcast, Aspects of that era are needed. Mostly, the renewal of focus on quality content not the quantity of content.

WWE Needs to focus once again on the in-ring competition. They are a pro-wrestling promotion at the core of it all. Yes, the elements of the “Entertainment” aspect of the business must also play a part but the comedic route cannot be the main area of delivering the message. One thing that has separated RAW from Smackdown over the last several months has been the quality of the matches we have seen. So instead of half an hour segments of people and their heavily scripted promos. Focus in on the in-ring content and deliver the story with physicality rather than commentary.

Bright Future

If the WWE truly listens to it’s audience then they will be able to return to a once glorious time. I spoke much more in depth on the previous mentioned episode of The Laracuente Ledger Podcast about why the WWE has made it so hard to be a fan at times this year. But if they are willing to listen, they may be able to once again dominate the business they would like you to believe starts and stops with them.