WWE, Tommy Dreamer's Return and How They Continue to Live in the Past

It seems that WWE uses legends who stop by for one or two weeks as a way to bring a boost to the ratings, but that’s no way to maintain quality programming.

There’s nothing wrong with a bit of nostalgia – a chance to go back to the good ol’ days.

That’s what WWE continues to do to try to get a ratings boost so that they can try to rebound from several weeks of a faltering viewership. However, this trick is only a temporary fix to what is a bigger problem.

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When you have a pair of glasses with a broken frame that you try to fix with a piece of tape, you are only providing a temporarily fix; you still need to find a permanent solution. Tommy Dreamer’s appearance on Monday’s Raw is that piece of tape.

The entire television product that WWE has had several pieces of tape placed on it for several years now. The company will bring in veterans from the Attitude Era to gain some interest and they hope to see the numbers continue to grow from there.

Unfortunately, that piece of tape only gets people to want to watch that episode of Raw and maybe next week. But the people who tuned in for a chance to see one of the all-time favorites return for a brief period of time will start to tune out with the struggles that all of us fans have known come from the creative team.

Maybe having a legend return to have some power would be a better fit for the company, or having them act as managers – which is a lost art that we don’t see utilized correctly that much in today’s WWE.

The storylines have to be the big reason people want to tune in for more than just one episode, with the old cliché where the announce team states “You never know who is going to show up on Monday Night Raw.” If the matches and the way the current superstars are booked and not giving empty promises that those returning legends will pop up every episode.

Unless the Rock was returning full-time, a single appearance at WrestleMania isn’t going to mean that people will tune into WWE every Monday and Thursday night in hopes that he may or may not make another appearance and will drop the People’s Elbow.

Next: Tommy Dreamer Returns on WWE Raw (Video)

Many of us would rather want to see something new, fresh and dynamic from the current WWE roster and hopefully some new stars in NXT could provide that. The issue goes back to the poor booking and storylines that have made many us decide to watch one of the other network shows that continue to get up to 10 million viewers per episode.

Maybe the addition of Mick Foley’s son, Dewey, can help give a fresh mind to help WWE get rid of having to go back to their bad fashions of having to rely on the past to save their current product. It might require having to hire more than one or two fresh faces to fix the WWE, but it’s important to help bring WWE up to date.

Otherwise, we will continue to see veterans at least once per month and the ratings rise and fall cycle will continue.

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How WWE Continues to Live in the Past

By Dean Siemon | Dec 3, 2015

It seems that WWE uses legends who stop by for one or two weeks as a way to bring a boost to the ratings, but that’s no way to maintain quality programming.