FanPost

WWE has lost control of the narrative

WWE.com

I don't particularly enjoy being overly negative about WWE. Indeed, I hold a lot of respect for the performers who put their bodies on the line to provide entertainment. It's partially why I become so incensed when they're handled poorly; they're literally taking years off their lives for the terrible writing that's being given to them. So let's start this off more positively, shall we?

One of the greatest ideas that WWE had in the modern era was the concept of the "Road to WrestleMania." The idea was fairly straight forward: starting at the Royal Rumble, the journey to WrestleMania began, and at WrestleMania itself, the journeys ended. It was a very simple bit of classic television storytelling; you start with the season premiere and then you end with the season finale. The Road to WrestleMania simply made it easy for WWE to take the audience on a journey and give them that payoff. It instantly justified several months of television and several pay-per-views.

It also meant that much of the storytelling was already done. Everyone wanted to get to WrestleMania, and given that the Royal Rumble set up the challenger to the top title at WrestleMania, it meant that you had an easy, repeatable setup that didn't get stale. Furthermore, based on what happened in that match, you could easily set up lots of mid card and lower card feuds that would fill out the rest of the show. It was, simply put, a great idea.

But unfortunately, WWE have lost control of this narrative. In the past, everyone was spending this time getting hyped for the matches at WrestleMania. Now? We barely know what half of them are, and what's worse, the ones we do know about aren't exactly setting the world on fire. So what happened?

First, there's the fact that because of the WWE Network, PPV's just aren't very important or interesting anymore. Because the company puts less emphasis on them compared to their television product, PPV's now exist to sell people on watching the television product, which itself exists to sell people on the network. If you're watching PPV's on the network, which WWE wants you to do, WWE already has your money, and there's no reason to do extra work once they've got that.

Second, WWE has already shown which shows are more important, and they're the ones that go on in other countries, specifically, Saudi Arabia. Those are the shows that WWE pulls the stops out for, because those shows are bought and paid for, and aside from the bad publicity, carry very little actual monetary risk. They feel big, because the buyers want them to be big. Conversely, when WWE is putting on the show themselves, and relying on tickets to be bought, WWE cuts corners and tries to save money rather than trying to put on a show that will attract people.

Third, the roster is far, far larger in the past. WWE's strategy of simply buying up every talent in the world has resulted in a roster that is so over burdened that there is literally no way for them to fit everyone in. Consider the fact that, when WWE started the Royal Rumble, the people actually in that match were some of the least desirable people WWE had to offer, because WWE was scraping the bottom the barrel to find enough bodies to put in the ring. Now? WWE has so many bodies they might need multiple Royal Rumble-esque battle royales just to fit everyone on the card.

Because they have so many bodies, most of whom WWE has literally no intention of using on their television product, WWE puts all these performers in matches with no stakes. The Andre the Giant Battle Royale is exactly this; a match with no stakes to get bodies on the card. The only reason WWE does this is because WWE are too afraid to strip people of the traditional WrestleMania bonus for working the card, because WWE doesn't want to pay it but also wants people to renew their contracts and not work for other people. So it's the Andre the Giant Memorial Dumping Ground for everyone!

And this lack of care and concern for most of the roster has translated into us, the fans, showing equal amounts of disinterest. Worse, it has many of us showing interest in the wrong things. Due to years of neglect and reliance on part time stars due to WWE refusing to create new ones it can't trust, we now care more about them than about the individuals currently on the card.

Here's a good example. How many articles have been written about the Undertaker or John Cena being or not being at WrestleMania this year? Neither man has been on television all year, for almost a year, and in the case of Undertaker, he can't wrestle anymore. WWE has never had more athletic or talented wrestlers on it's roster, hell it's never had more people on it's roster, and yet all the fan base cares to talk about are whether or not a broken down former wrestler or a current Hollywood actor are going to be on the card.

And it's not just them either. WWE has gone out of its way to suddenly create a match for HHH and Batista, despite HHH not wrestling other than twice a year and Batistia being an actor full time. They've wheeled Kurt Angle out to face Baron Corbin, and regardless of whether you think that's a swerve or not, Kurt Angle is far, far past his prime. There's Brock Lesnar of course, but Brock has been booked in such a way that no one cares about him one way or the other. In fact, people care more about what Brock is doing away from WWE than what he does inside of WWE.

And that's what I'm trying to get at here. It's not the simple 'WWE relies on part timers' argument that has been around for almost two decades now. The problem is WWE has created an environment where we, the audience, do not care and are not interested in the current roster that they have. Rhonda versus Becky Lynch and Charlotte is being overshadowed by whether or not Undertaker is going to show up or not, even if he doesn't wrestle a match. Daniel Bryan versus Kofi is being overshadowed by whether or not Cena is going to make an appearance. Kurt Angle's program is more interesting to viewers than whatever Roman is doing, and Roman just beat cancer to wrestle for a living.

WWE has now made it so we, the audience, care so little about their performers that we are actively more interested in speculating about the fortunes of people who either can't wrestle or won't be wrestling in a few months from now. It's not simply not making new stars. It used to be, the fans cared about the people they had and WWE cared about the people from the past. Now, it's both WWE and the fans caring more about the past than the current people that are wrestling. That's a major change, and a really, really bad one. It sends the message that literally nothing that happens on television matters, because both the hardcore and casual fans are more curious about what guys like Batista are going to be doing rather than the plots of the actual show.

WWE, simply put, have lost control of the ability to control the narrative. They can no longer actually tell the audience what's important and what's unimportant. And that matters, because if nothing matters, then there's no real reason to tune in to WrestleMania over say, Backlash. What's the difference between Fastlane and WrestleMania, if there is no story and the same people are on the card? The answer is that there isn't any, other than branding. And branding is nothing at all, in the grand scheme.

The company is unable to drive the audience in any one way or another. It's entirely lost control of its audience. The audience, lacking any real story or characters or interesting plots to gravitate towards or grab onto, has instead taken to creating its own, speculating on whether or not people who don't work for the company on a regular basis are going to show up at what is supposed to be the company's biggest show of the year. For contrast, imagine if during the season finale of a show like Game of Thrones, the only thing anyone was talking about was if the actor who played Jon Snow was going to be taking after the show was over. Imagine if during the Super Bowl, all anyone was talking about were the trade prospects of the Cleveland Browns.

We, the audience, are entirely indifferent to what is being put on screen, and in fact care only so much as we care for any one participant. We don't care what stories are going on, we're more concerned by what it means for the rest of the year. Whether or not Rousey is starting a family and leaving after WrestleMania is more interesting to the viewers than her actual feud with Charlotte and Lynch. It's like the infamous Lesnar/Steve Austin/Goldberg match became the entire card, where what's happening outside the match is all that matters to anyone. WWE has entirely lost control of its ability to interest anyone, or direct attention to anything it actually wants to direct attention to. Everything on television is essentially white noise, tuned out by everyone as they wonder whether Cena may or may not show up.

Whether or not you like or dislike the part timers, it is an extraordinary development to realize that WWE have entirely lost their ability to tell the audience what matches are important, or to tell anyone what the difference between the headliners and mid-card are. They've lost the ability to say, 'this match is important compared to this match' or to say 'these performers matter' because the audience is instead deciding to focus on people who aren't around. Given an absence of investment in their performers by the company, the audience has instead invested in the same people the company did, to everyone's detriment.

WWE is in very, very bad shape if this continues, because a show that cannot tell a story is not a show. It's just noise. And eventually, people tune out noise and look elsewhere. If you can't direct the audience's attention during what is supposed to be the biggest show of the year, then how do you plan to do it four or six months after it?

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.