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What one thing could WWE do which would most improve ratings?

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What one thing could WWE do which would most improve ratings?

Postby PorkChop » Jun 02, '19, 2:47 am

Ratings are the lowest they've ever been.

Is it the 3 hour Raws? Meaningless matches? PG rating?
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Re: What one thing could WWE do which would most improve ratings?

Postby prophet » Jun 02, '19, 8:09 am

I think all the things you listed are contributing factors as to why the product is so bad but if we’re listing the one major thing that needs improving it’s the writing. The writing is so poor. Moxley’s podcast with Jericho tells you all need to know about it.

It’ll never get better while Vince is alive, morbid as that might be.
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Re: What one thing could WWE do which would most improve ratings?

Postby Messiah » Jun 02, '19, 2:12 pm

I'm not sure there is "one thing" they could do. The product is so fucking boring. Even the things they do from time to time that are objectively good are still boring. "Oh, Rollins and Zayn had a good match? That's cool, but they did that last week too!" You get these 15-20 minute matches every week that are obviously good, but it happens every week on the same show by the same company with mostly the same wrestlers, and often with little to no purpose behind wins or losses or the story involving the two wrestlers, and you just start to not care.

I guess writing would be the first thing they should start on, but in particular I would say writing unique characters/gimmicks. A big problem in why the WWE feels so mundane and repetitive is that almost everyone on the roster is the same depending on their alignment. If you are a heel, you cheat, say some bad things, and that's that. If you are a face, talk about how you do it for the WWE Universe, put on good athletic matches every week, and if you are high up on the card and they wanna make you a big bad-ass you might even say some edgy shit (occasionally breaking the 4th wall).

Just look at the WWE's two World champions in Kofi Kingston and Seth Rollins. They are the same dude. It's like they have stripped Kofi of his New Day personality since Mania and just gave him the "fighting champion" default character. Which goes into another problem with the WWE and something they need to fix, their booking of their World Champions are consistently awful. When is the last time a wrestler had a genuinely enjoyable world title run? If anything could improve ratings, its this. The World Championship is often presented as their top championship, and thus their main storyline. Would you watch a show where the main story sucks? I bet more people would be willing to tolerate a crappy undercard if they were at least getting a great main event level story with the World Title, but we don't even get that.

I mean just look at Raw's run of World Champions since the brand split. I would say this is the #1 reasons why ratings have plummeted.

Finn Balor (1 Day) - This was an excellent pick and swerve for the first Universal Champion. It's too damn bad Balor got hurt and it would have been interesting to see where they went with this.

Kevin Owens (188 Days) - This was a good reign all things considered. Jericho/Owens

Goldberg (28 Days) - Terrible

Brock Lesnar (504 Days) - Terrible

Roman Reigns (64 Days) - Terrible

Brock Lesnar (156 Days) - Terrible

Seth Rollins (55 Days) - So far, terrible
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Re: What one thing could WWE do which would most improve ratings?

Postby Everlong » Jun 02, '19, 8:42 pm

If it's just one thing I can name, it's the creative/writing.

I think the three-hour RAWs are bad, but with good writing that becomes much less of a problem. The fact is that there's nothing interesting at all. There are no interesting characters, no interesting storylines, no tension, no drama. The WWe doesn't even do spectacle well any more. There's nothing about what makes professional wrestling great that you can currently find in the WWE. Calling it stale or watered down doesn't even come close to doing justice to how boring the product is right now.

And then, when I do decide to tune in on a couple of the biggest shows of the year just to check in and see how things are going, there's absolutely nothing interesting happening.

I don't understand how they have been so bad at storytelling for so long when it's really not that difficult to pull off. There are so many harder things to do, like develop or acquire talent, but that's not an issue for them at all.
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Re: What one thing could WWE do which would most improve ratings?

Postby War Daddy » Jun 04, '19, 12:26 pm

Shareholders could tell Vince to fck off, that'd be a start.
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Re: What one thing could WWE do which would most improve ratings?

Postby The Legend » Jun 05, '19, 10:01 am

I'm going to take a bit of a shortcut cop out, but tie it into the same thing, which is simply the WWE needs to change the way in which they tell stories. That starts with all of the weekly shows, they have pretty much followed the same formula for 15-20 years. As someone with a little experience working in TV, I understand the importance of having a basic format when filling out many hours of TV in a weekly format, but you have to be flexible enough to notice when the format has become stale and needs changing.

There should be a common theme and purpose for each episode of RAW or SD. Episodes of every other TV show follow a basic principle of building to something, WWE doesn't build to anything, they have some people show up, talk about some stuff, have a match and then disappear, it's just a collection of randomness.

The two biggest problems I have with WWE TV is the show drags on way too much and is paced completely wrong, and that it takes too long to get to even a second point on the show. Nearly every episode begins the same way it has this millenium with a guy or two in the ring, they talk for a while, then some other people show up and yammer on for a little while longer, all of which typically sets up a Teddy Long-esque tag match either right after the ensuing commercial break or in the main event. When it follows the promo we are easily more than a half hour into the show before a second feud is even mentioned.

If the WWE would break that one long-winded promo of people standing in the middle of the ring broke it up into 3-4 smaller vignettes throughout the show, each of which could set a better tone in a backstage setting, then you could really feel like the show is building to the main event and the biggest reason to turn in to that episode. The same thing could be repeated throughout the show with different feuds on a smaller scale so that there's true progression and purpose.

Which brings up the larger point of everything that happens needs to have a reason, those reasons can be big or small, but every win or loss should affect each character's persona in some way - some times WWE does this, but not frequently enough.

In general, the WWE needs to be more willing to explore different ways to end things, more promos need to end in some sort of physical confrontation or at least lead to it. Matches don't all need to be 12-15 minutes and have a clean finish, explore DQ, no contest and other chaotic options that add drama to the show more frequently.

Finally, when discussing the way WWE tells stories, they need to re-vamp the main storytellers -- the commentators. This is not a criticism on any of the people that sit at the desk and announce for WWE, because whenever WWE changes one out the new person behaves the same way - so I've got to believe it's a company decision more than individual talent. It seems like WWE is so desperate to create the next JR and King, commentators that stand out, that they actually hinder the product. The commentators seem more interested in putting themselves over than the talent, which in turn buries the talent. JR and King would banter and throw quips back and forth, but did so while making sure they made everything happening in the ring feel like the most exciting/important thing in the world at the moment and then would move on to the next thing when it was over and do the same thing. Commentators shit on too many things right now and make fun of the product, which doesn't help anyone.
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