We’ve seen a change of pace in the action on Raw in recent weeks, including the brawl that opened the show on last night’s episode where Seth Rollins and Riddle fought through the crowd. It seems like there’s a specific effort among the current regime to break the patterns that were the subject of criticism in the past. Ultimately, much of the WWE landscape hasn’t rebounded from the slump of the pandemic era. Viewership under two million watching at home, unthinkable in a previous generation, became the standard number that is expected from the Monday night show. To put it in perspective, during the dying days of WCW, albeit during the latter stages of a boom period in the business, Turner broadcasts often generated a 2.6 number, significantly ahead of Raw’s 1.9 in recent weeks.
Obviously, context matters as it’s a different time and place in both the sport and the distribution of media. Still, it makes you wonder, is this the new ceiling for sports entertainment? Say what you want about the money generated through rights fees, and at the end of the day, some of the criticism is moot since profitability is what matters, but the bottom line is, less people are watching wrestling now than any time before in history.
In many ways, it’s an odd dichotomy because the WWE is publicly-traded on the stock market and will tout record-setting profits because of the massive TV deals, but less fans are watching the product at the same time. It’s important to note that the climate of the television business, not the popularity of WWE programming is what allowed the company to cash-in on such major TV contracts. Networks were, and still on in some cases, willing to shell out big cash to get live sports programming to attempt to create a DVR-proof scenario to be able to maximize ad revenue.
Within the next few years, WWE management will have to attempt to negotiate new deals for the future, and the further the promotion gets away from the pandemic era, the more difficult it will be to land contracts on the level of those signed in 2019. Sure, it’s understandable why some viewers initially tuned out when the show was filmed in an empty building since the organization was in uncharted waters with the lack of a live crowd. It’s reasonable that it took some time for the concept of the thunder dome to be used to add some atmosphere to the show. That said, while the pandemic technically continues, there are full crowds for the majority of WWE TV broadcasts, including a sell out at last night’s Toronto event.
But, the ratings continue to be sluggish, so what’s missing from the WWE product?
As far as breaking the previous patterns, the ability to bring something organic, similar to the impromptu brawl that started the show, to the product might be the biggest challenge for the new regime. For several years, the program was predictable and often lacked progress. You could skip a month of Raw and not actually miss any of the key points of an angle. You knew if an angle didn’t involve Brock Lesnar when he showed up once every few months, a struggling baby face Roman Reigns, or Ronda Rousey, it didn’t truly make a difference to the product. Furthermore, guys like Bray Wyatt, Samoa Joe, and even Braun Strowman didn’t get a chance to get to the next level when they were the most over with the audience at different times. Roman doing the best work of his career as a dominate heel is part of the foundation of the product, but we’re talking about the future, and more specifically, what the Triple H regime can book to attempt to rejuvenate the product.
As we saw, Johnny Gargano, former NXT standout, made his return to the company after he opted not to re-sign with the company when his contract expired several months ago. Since that time, there was speculation that he might follow some of the other former NXT stars and ink a contract with AEW. However, we’ve seen many of the new recruits get lost in the shuffle so it was probably wise for him to wait to see where everything settled. Anybody know where Bobby Fish or Kyle O’Reilly have been in recent weeks?
That being said, I’m not sure that Gargano’s return to the company is a major deal in the grand scheme of things. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a solid technical wrestler, but I don’t see the hype about him or what he brings to the table that others on the roster don’t already for the company. In many ways, he’s a generic independent wrestler that looks like the friendly cashier at a local comic book shop than a major star. Sure, the return pop is easy, which is what the majority of the Triple H tenure has been so far, and that’s fine to a certain extent, but the follow-up is what makes the difference. If these returns are used for meaningful angles are what can bring progress to the show that can give viewers a reason to tune in on a weekly basis.
The promo that Gargano did was very well done, and if that is the basis for a narrative that will see him climb the ranks in WWE to obtain the championships mentioned and a bigger spot then it might give the audience something to be invested in toward the culmination of an angle. But, for so long, the WWE playbooks was so strictly formatted that it often lacked any genuine moments or emotion. Someone reciting lines that someone else wrote for them doesn’t allow for an organic delivery. As much criticism is All Elite rightfully gets for some of its scattered booking, there’s definitely a level of authenticity to it’s performers. Does anyone on the WWE roster have the authenticity of Eddie Kingston? Does anyone have the baby face fire of Jungle Boy? The talent is there, but too often the WWE presentation had the shows overproduced to the point that you rarely saw that level of believablility because Kevin Dunn was too busy with camera cuts to let the moment develop during the program. Cody Rhodes return promo early this year is a great example of how a genuine delivery can connect with the audience. Bianca Belair’s emotional post-match promo at the Royal Rumble a few years ago is another great example.
So, the returns offer an artificial boost, but as mentioned if that can be developed into meaningful angles will be the determining factor of if the Triple H regime can rejuvenate the product. It’s not about attempting to make Raw or Smackdown into an NXT show with more spots, the difference will be if there can be a shift toward a more organic presentation for the company.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Twitter @jimlamotta
