wrestling / Columns

Big Bang: The WWE Universe Implodes

November 29, 2015 | Posted by Dino Zee

We’ve heard the grumblings for a while now. To be fair, there’s always a subsection of the fanbase that isn’t happy, and that’s to be expected when you can’t please all of the people all of the time. And as it usually does, the grumbling picked up a bit when WWE entered into its post-SummerSlam lazy period, a period where we the fans know that- more often than not- nearly nothing of note is going to take place, because we save all the good stuff for the Royal Rumble, and then for The Road to WrestleMania.

This year, however, a new wrinkle to the yearly Fall Gripefest was added: people began asking why they were even bothering to watch Raw anymore. Further, some fans took it a step further, and went ahead and clipped Raw from their weekly watching. One of my very good friends took this step about 3 months ago. He’ll watch the occasional NXT card, but he basically doesn’t watch Raw anymore. Because it wasn’t entertaining him. This is a guy that’s watched since he was a kid, though he took a little break in the middle school years. Still, this is a guy that has stuck with WWE for so long, that he absolutely knows what to expect. And yet, they lost him. A diehard WWE fan, lost due to nothing more than apathy to the product.

He’s not the only one, and I’m not silly enough to assume that he is. I know that many people took Fall 2015 as their moment to finally get away from programming that they feel not only doesn’t entertain them, but one that seems to almost go against exactly what they want to see. Some fans feel that any wrestler who gets over on his own powers (as opposed to the power of WWE Creative’s collective pen), will instantly be booked in ways that argues “Yes, your guy is good, but look at all the guys who are BETTER!”

This is one of the biggest go-to points for fans that are feeling disenfranchised by the current product: they aren’t listening to what we want.

Contrarians simply argue that WWE does in fact listen, they just don’t listen to what you want, so stop being so selfish.

And, to be fair, the contrarians have something of a point: If you’re a big Roman Reigns fan, or if you love The Authority, then WWE isn’t so bad at all. You’re getting to see your favorites, and you get to see them prominently featured in big matches, and you usually get to see them win (Reigns), or at least come out on top (Authority). So yes, simply saying WWE doesn’t care about what its fans want as a blanket statement probably isn’t totally fair.

It might be more fair to phrase it that WWE doesn’t care about what you want if it doesn’t fit into their plans is probably more true, but that doesn’t make things any less frustrating. This is doubly true for those of us who grew up in the Attitude Era, where we not only saw the power we as fans hold, but we were literally TOLD, over and over, how important our voices were, by the very company that now wants to ignore what we want. We remember when our cheers made The Ringmaster a big star, or when it derailed WWE’s plans for their blue-chipper Rocky Maivia, or when our reactions to two midcarders teaming up ended up with one of the most entertaining TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS OF THE WOOOOOOOOORLD…

This isn’t to argue that we the fans have the right to simply highjack the show whenever we want, or to play against what is obviously the desired reaction, but at the same time… should we really be expected to simply grin and bear it week after week, month after month, simply because that’s what good fans do?

It’s jarring to go from We listen to you! to You’ll like what we give you, and to have it flaunted so brazenly in our faces only adds to the frustration.

Cesaro is simply one example of this fan frustration, but a good one, nonetheless. The man has, by my count, gotten over on his own in the WWE Universe on at least three separate occasions, only to watch his heat dwindle due to horrible booking. Coming out of WrestleMania XXX as the Andre the Giant Battle Royal champion, he was on a huge upswing of popularity. He dropped Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter, and looked to be ready for that main event rocket.

Instead, WWE turned him heel. On top of that, they did it in such a cynical way – putting him with Paul Heyman, a guy “we” like, so there’s no way we can complain now, right? – that instead of even being angry at Cesaro for betraying out trust, we instead had to realize that our guy, now being managed by another one of “our” favorites, was going to lose repeatedly, because that’s what heels do. There was no chance for him to build off of his successes, because no more success would come his way as a heel. And so, our support for him died down a little bit.

Hell, there was that insane ovation he got on Raw shortly before last year’s Survivor Series, when it appeared he’d fill in the empty spot on Team Cena. The place went insane, because he’s a guy we want to cheer, and who we want to see succeed. Instead, we were SWERVED~!, and Cesaro’s goodwill face heat once again disappeared.

This summer, he entered into a feud with Kevin Owens. Here, it appeared we may have a chance for Cesaro to pick up a big win, as Owens hasn’t yet settled into the “Unbeatable Threat” role yet, and could easily lose to Cesaro. Instead, Owens came out on top more often than not, while Cesaro’s “push” boiled down to one thing: “Hey, he’s out there having great matches!”

Forget that Cesaro’s losing these matches – at least they’re good! I mean, we’re the star ratings crowd, right? That’s all we care about? Wins and losses don’t matter, as long as you steal the show!

This is a fallacy that has gone on for years. This idea that having a good match is all you need, because wrestling is fixed and therefore we don’t care about who wins. Shawn Michaels was a big proponent of this line of belief, and anyone who grew up a Shawn Michaels fan now parrots this line all over the place. But Cesaro (among many, many others) has shown that this is not true. We DO care about wins and losses. They DO matter. And this idea of “stealing the show” just isn’t enough to make somone a gigantic star.

And so, we the fans have watched as not only guys that we choose to back are cynically booked in “show stealing” matches that they lose, but we also have had to sit through some horrible storylines, too. Dolph Ziggler and Lana, for one. The storyline that destroyed the remaining heat of Rusev, the heat of Ziggler, AND the nuclear heat of Lana, all in one fell swoop. That takes a lot of talent, and we were all lucky to see it all unravel, all the way to the “Hey TMZ ruined this, so we’re scrapping it!” conclusion.

When you tell your fans that not only do you not care about who they like, but go out of your way to book them in ineffective ways, and then follow that up by giving said fans no other reason to get involved in your show, you risk running them off. And WWE is seeing that happen this year. Like I said, my friend isn’t the only one.

We recently saw the report that Raw hit the lowest rating since 1997. Before I go on here, I should clarify again that a) I think ratings as a measuring stick in today’s wrestling world are archaic and b) I think the way that ratings are garnered in today’s DVR happy world are archaic. So, you could see how I may not put too much stock into that report. It’s rare that we find people wathing things totally live as they air. I watch Raw on Mondays, but I usually start it just as it’s ending live. I also don’t have a Neilsen box, which is another important element to ratings.

Still, we can at least see that a smaller amount than usual were turning in live, and that’s still something. It’s not enough for me to signal that the end of the world is coming, or that WWE is no longer the #1 in America, but it definitely shows me that the fans that have stuck through almost all of the bad these last fifteen years are finally getting tired of it.

Survivor Series this year saw another huge rise in the Fuck it, I’m outta here crowd. I watched Survivor Series, and I thought it was dreadful. I’m not usually one for full negative reviews, but that whole show was horrible at worst, and plain at best. And to top it off, it ended with Sheamus as the WWE World Heavyweight champion, a move that was only being called for by the non-Reigns crew. Presented with an opportunity to take the company in a new direction after its champion was sidelined with injury, WWE chose instead to get back in bed with the mohawked Irishman that has drawn nothing but “boring” and “you look stupid” chants for at least 3 years.

And they wonder why people are leaving.

And here’s the kicker – I’m not going anywhere. I’m the worst, but at least I can admit it. There’s very little I look forward to as Raw is starting. I know that the guys are like are basically on the jerksquad, and that guys I don’t like very much are going to be featured. I know there’s a really good chance that Roman Reigns and Big Show might find themselves competing against one another, in a match as inspired as the Randy Orton / Sheamus best of 3 million series that’s raged on since 2011.

I know that it’s going to be rough, and that, for WWE, my only real chances at something really fun come via NXT or a pay per view event. But still, I can’t go.

I’ve watched Raw since it debuted in 1993. Upon its debut, I used to beg my Mom to let me stay up just a little bit longer, because I wanted to watch wrestling. I remember having friends over each and every week, having huge get togethers, not unlike those Nitro parties. I remember every single episode ending with all of us either shocked to pieces, or chomping at the big for next week’s show.

Sure, those days are long gone, and haven’t been seen in a while, but I remember them. For that little kid that just wanted to stay up and watch, I watch for him. I still have people over every week to watch, only now, we snarkily trash the show for three hours, instead of rehash what we just saw (lucky for us, there’s 5 replays every 7 minutes to remind us).

It might make me a sucker, but really, so be it. I know the product isn’t that good right now. And I know that it’s been this way for a while, and I know that there’s really not much we can do to change it. This is a public company that has more than simply its fans to answer to. This is a company that does not have competition that can easily steal away its stars and/or fans. This is a company that still does insane business worldwide, and has its network demanding three hours when nearly everyone else wishes we could return to 2 hour Raws.

But Raw is like my baby. I’ve cared for it for 22 years, fighting hard in the early stages to be a part of it all. And while there’s many, many things wrong with it, it’s still the only wrestling programming I’m going to find on a Monday night. Monday – a night with nearly nothing else to offer on TV, which is amplified if you find the current NFL product to be dreadful.

And while I could easily drift away into some classic wrestling instead on those nights, the fact is, I choose to watch my favorites fall short in “great matches,” because at least I get to see the guys I like doing what they love, even if it’s just Adam Rose cutting a promo on Cesaro that ends with “Now you’re stuck wrestling ME,” as if that’s just the worst thing in the world. Because hey, it really is the little things nowadays.

If you’ve quit watching WWE these last few months, know that I don’t begrudge you. I know you’re not going to kill WWE with your move, and I know you don’t think you will. I respect you for being able to walk away, for being able to say Enough, jerks.

Me? I’m just not that strong.


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article topics :

RAW, Sheamus, WWE, Dino Zee