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Does the success of NXT make Vince want to provide a superior product on RAW/Smackdown? There have been far too many meaningless matches, rivalries, and angles over these past few months.
I don’t see it since he hasn’t come close to starting to make the product more interesting. In fact, I think during the recent viewer downturn, he has actually gone in the other direction and made his TV worse and more missable.
What steps can the WWE take to gain more viewers prior to the 2016 Royal Rumble?
As I wrote in a column last week, they need to start building a foundation. They need to think longer term and protect guys with how they are booking. They also need to close the gap between where Brock Lesnar and John Cena are, and everyone else way down below them.
Do you believe it's a problem that the WWE relies too much on Brock Lesnar even though he's a part time performer?
I believe the problem is that Vince McMahon relies too much on him and John Cena and does so at the expense of building younger guys up to the point where they could one day be on that top level. There are very clear lines of who top guys are and who they aren’t. When that happens, people don’t believe “anything can happen in WWEâ€.
Stay with me for a sec LOL... this weekend, I randomly remembered that a while ago Keenan Ivory Wayans said he was bringing back In Living Color. Did I miss it? Turns out, there’s an interview where he said he shot a few episodes and then decided to pull the plug because “the level of talent required to pull it off doesn’t exist in todays generationâ€. Time to stop blaming everything on Vince and put the blame where it belongs: on the talent. Just like Wayans said in his situation, the level of talent in todays wrestlers just isn’t really there.  I started itemizing the issues with all the wrestlers you guys and the fans complain about, but the email started getting super long, so I gave up on that... but a quick summary is that the wrestlers that are good in the ring either have bland personalities or can’t cut a promo or both. Seth Rollins calling the fans idiots or insulting the town or the sports franchise just doesn’t cut it. He has been booked as weak, I’ll agree and he’s probably the best WWE has to work with right now, but that’s not good mic work.  If you look back in history, all the greatest wrestlers were all well rounded, had a larger then life personality, could cut promos without going to the cheap tactics, etc. Talent pool simply isn’t there right now. Rock, Austin, Shawn Michaels, HHH, Mick Foley, Edge/Christian, etc. don’t exist today. It’s those type of guys that Vince is looking for.  Booking wasn’t perfect during the attitude era, these guys just had the skill to turn crap to gold.
It wasn’t just skill, it was the latitude to be able to do so. They were allowed to improvise. Now, everything is overly scripted. They can’t go with things they way that they used to. Now they have to read their lines and stay with them.
First off thanks for all you guys do with the site. Even as bad as the product in WWE has been lately I can still enjoy the business from listening to you guys. My question is simple. Does anyone in WWE with any influence listen to any of your audios or read any of the q & a? Surely they can't be this clueless as to how so many of us feel about the current product can they?
Well, a lot of people in the company do. But the question is who has “influenceâ€. That list is very small and the one guy that matters most, Vince McMahon, couldn’t care less what we have to say.
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