{"id":12253,"date":"2019-04-26T21:46:23","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T20:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=12253"},"modified":"2019-04-26T21:46:33","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T20:46:33","slug":"wwe-the-bigger-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/26\/wwe-the-bigger-picture\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE – The Bigger Picture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Bigger Picture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now\nmore and more people are tuning out of WWE. There are lots of reasons behind\nthis, but I want to focus on a few reasons positive and negative to explain why\nI think you shouldn\u2019t give up on it just yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Elite Wrestling\nseems to be the 3 letter company on everybody’s mind right now. The brain child\nof Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks along with Tony and Shad Khan of the\nJacksonville Jaguars. This was always going to be something to watch from the\nmoment we saw ALL IN. Right now we have a sold out PPV event coming at the end\nof May, further shows announced and on-going talks about TV deals in the works.\nAEW are currently using social media platforms to promote their brand and tell\ntheir story but people are still missing out on things. Once AEW gets\nthemselves a TV deal we can start to see what they will produce on a weekly,\nbi-weekly or monthly basis. We are yet to know what format they will use for\ntheir show or shows so we could all be shocked by the outcome. Meanwhile, WWE\nhas just gone into its yearly reset mode and we are getting some weird and\nwonderful things coming out of it. But more on that later. If you are a lapsed\nfan or looking for something else to watch now would be the time to jump on\nwith the WWE programming. Yes they are close to clocking up 10 hours of\nprogramming a week and sometimes Raw can feel like a chore to sit through, but\nwith AEW hot on the heels to launch (presumably) full time, it feels like WWE\nsimply cannot keep coasting in that same direction they have been over the past\nfew decades! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Needless to\nsay we don\u2019t know what the future holds for any company and we should be\nthankful we have so much content right now. I am very excited to see what AEW\nbring to the table because I didn\u2019t really see much of the whole WCW vs. WWF\nthing growing up as people that got me into wrestling only ever really watched\nWWF. We all know the history so I don\u2019t need to bore you with that. WWE vs. TNA\ndidn\u2019t have what the previous war had and was barely a war, more like a dispute\nwith a former employee (quite literally). In terms of ratings, it was more of a\nmassacre. With younger star names and fresher match-ups, I hope AEW makes us\nexcited to choose between things again. In the day and age of on demand viewing,\nit\u2019s very unlikely we are going to relive the Monday Night Wars but perhaps\nthere could be something else? Something that would be a wakeup call for us\nall! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FOX\ndeal due to begin in October will be a big game changer whether we like it or\nnot. If you are to believe the dirt sheets FOX has already made several demands\nbased on what they want out of the show once it is on their network. This\nincludes having big names to attract casual viewers and also having other\nsuperstars to attract certain demographics. Rumours of them becoming an edgier\nproduct have also been thrown around but we won\u2019t know anything until just\nbefore its debut on FOX. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This deal\nis also set to include additional programming being produced for other FOX\nnetwork channels, which again would clock up the weekly watch time yet again.\nAround this time we would assume AEW would have a TV deal in place and would be\na fully operational promotion. While we don\u2019t know what network AEW will be on,\nrumours say it could be a Turner network. While this would mean their\nviewership would be considerably lower than Smackdown, it does not however mean\nthey won\u2019t be a threat. Raw will remain on USA under the ownership of Comcast,\nbut if Smackdown proves a success on FOX, we could see Raw move to Comcast’s\nown broadcast network, NBC. Making wrestling more accessible for people to\nwatch will help to create new long term fans, which in turn is always good for\nbusiness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously,\nthe Internet has a big part to play with the current state of professional wrestling.\nDirt sheets, forums, Reddit, opinion pieces (like this) and of course being\nable to follow your favourite wrestlers on social media make up this new way we\nview products. Years ago a lot of things would be kept under wraps about what\nwent on backstage and in wrestler\u2019s personal lives. These days we can see it\nall on display. If it\u2019s the truth sometimes is a different matter but we still\nfind these things! A lot of negativity has been put towards WWE at the moment\nand it\u2019s understandable. We see the same old thing year in and year out, and no\nmatter how loud we scream it often (but not always) feels like we just aren\u2019t\nnoticed. People have been told that AEW will always listen to fans and that\nit\u2019s for the fans. Early impressions seem to suggest that this will true, but\nhow long it goes on for will perhaps hang on how well this translates\nfinancially for the company. WWE however will see your negative reactions as a\nreaction and will think no matter what they are doing it\u2019s still getting people\ntalking about them. They have been around for many years and seen many\ncompanies fall in front of their eyes and yet they are still there. They must\nbe doing something right surely? Besides, live crowds have already given them\nmoney for the tickets, and online discussion creates web hits and thus more\nrevenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently we\nhave seen a backlash against a certain tag team being rebranded for their\ncall-up to the main roster, only for their name to be changed a second time\njust a week later. Was this a result of management listening to the negative\nfan reaction online, or perhaps it was correcting their own stupidity who\nknows? What we do know is a negative reaction from yourself might not be what\neveryone else thinks. As many pointed out following the debut, does the name\nreally matter when the talent is there? I’m sure we all remember the uproar\nnearly a decade ago when one Indy darling had his well-known name switched\naround when he came to WWE developmental territories. If you’re wondering if it\nworked out okay for him, then the answer is Yes. Yes. Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent\nweeks, as we have said goodbye to beloved legends and seen chapters close in\npeoples careers, we have also seen rebirths for certain superstars, such as\nRobert Roode and Bray Wyatt. The latter is now the host of everyone\u2019s favourite\nnew show \u201cFirefly Fun House\u201d, while Roode seems to be portraying a mixture of\nRick Rude and his own \u201cOff the chain\u201d era character. Weirdly, one of the big\nnegatives that fans seem to be obsessing over is Roode’s moustache. Why let a\npiece of facial hair be the reason a character fails before it’s even gotten\nstarted, when we know it could be…(excuse the pun) GLORIOUS!! Bray on the\nother hand, there is no secret that in the past he pitched his own \u201cWyatt\nFamily\u201d gimmick to the creative team and whilst we enjoyed the sinister side of\nthis character and wondered why he was never bigger, it did begin to get tired\ntowards the end of its life. The \u201creborn\u201d Bray Wyatt is the host of a\nchildren\u2019s TV show but with a seemingly sinister twist. While Wyatt has always\nbeen portrayed as a demented puppet master, now it seems he’s doing this with\nACTUAL puppets. While this presumably is going to lead to the return of a Wyatt\nfamily style team, it’s important to wait and see what direction it\u2019s going in,\nrather than instantly denouncing it. The vignette that aired on the recent Raw\nwas perhaps one of the greatest and most bizarre things I have seen from that\ncompany in recent years. We are only scratching the surface with this one and\nit has already given us a big swerve on what we believed would be just a normal\nreturn for \u201cThe Eater of Worlds\u201d so let\u2019s not just give up on it like I have\nseen people say they will. Otherwise I have seen some very positive things\nabout it and looks like we could be in for a hell of a ride with him.\nEspecially if we can take him to the top this time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I said,\nWWE’s weekly programming clocks in at nearly 10 hours. Their main shows\naccounting for around half of this, but even that’s a hefty chunk of time to\nput aside if you aren\u2019t watching live. Not everyone can, and the company caters\nfor thus by offering highlights on social media, and compressed replays. Of\ncourse, it’s important to remember that there is more to WWE than just Raw and\nSmackdown. NXT and NXT UK are both great weekly shows on the WWE Network, which\nwill only take an hour of your time. WWE showing that guys can transition\nbetween all of these brands as well means that there is an invested future in\neverything that they are doing. NXT was supposed to kill off indie wrestling\nand it\u2019s stronger than ever. The same was said for NXT UK and the UK indie\nscene, and yet that continues to thrive, while its stars get international\nexposure that they could only have dreamed about 5 years ago. Just because the\nstars and direction of the main shows don’t appeal to you, if wrestling is your\nthing then there are plenty of people that might elsewhere in the company that\nyou can check out. If you really can\u2019t stick the format and don\u2019t want anything\nto do with it then fair enough, but you can’t argue that there isn’t top talent\non all their brands right now. Whether or not they are being used correctly is\na different (and ultimately subjective) matter. Let them do their thing and let\nyourself find what makes you happy because we all know there\u2019s thousands of\nhours of content out there for everyone to enjoy and perhaps one day WWE will\ndo something you enjoy but for now just enjoy the ride with every company. Hell\nwe\u2019ve all seen the highs and lows and several name changes of Impact Wrestling\nbut I\u2019m glad it\u2019s still around! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately\nit\u2019s not a bad thing to voice your opinion – hell, that’s exactly what this\npiece of writing is. Be passionate, please enjoy things, hate things too, but\nwhen you watch WWE just know that there is a bigger picture to what we all know\nand see. What may seem bad, or strange initially could very easily have an\nexciting pay-off. The internet can only tell us so much and normally it ends up\nbeing wrong so let\u2019s get excited and enjoy a rollercoaster ride. Its ups and\ndowns, its sudden stops and hidden surprises. Let\u2019s see if it makes us smile\nbecause wrestling is entertainment and WWE won\u2019t be going anywhere anytime\nsoon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find me on\nTwitter: @ryanarmstorm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bigger Picture Right now more and more people are tuning out of WWE. There are lots of reasons behind this, but I want to focus on a few reasons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":12254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-editorials","category-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-3bD","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/wwe-logo.png?fit=1000%2C563&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12255,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12253\/revisions\/12255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}