WWE: Current creative shackles could cost them a generation of fans

The fanbase WWE currently has is largely made up of parents passing their fandom to their children. If the recent trend of creative stagnancy continues, Vince McMahon runs the risk of losing a generation of fans due to parents no longer willing to be a gateway to the next generation of fans.

As I get older, the list of institutions I deem sacred has dwindled to two: my growing family and WWE. Many of my life’s other institutions have left me in a fog of disillusionment as if having to be constantly reminded that Santa Claus isn’t real (which is just part of growing up, I guess). Despite the career changes, break-ups, injuries, goals-turned-fantasies, deaths, and other catalysts of truth that have spawned said disillusionment, WWE has remained a constant.

On Monday and….whatever night SmackDown was going to be on that week, I was going to be satisfied by Vince McMahon’s never-ending circus of drama. Shawn Michaels was going to avenge Jericho for inadvertently hitting his wife. Mick Foley was going to show that any one of us could be the next unexpected hero. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin was going to tell his boss to “take this job and shove it” and do what so many of us wish we could.

And Val Venis was…well…going to live all of our dreams.

Life’s journey has led me to being a husband, steadily-employed but looking for my ultimate purpose, and a father of a two-and-a-half-year-old boy who loves watching wrestling with his daddy. He knows who Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker are (not Val Venis…yet).

My son spreads his arms like Finn Balor while staring in amazement at his entrance on TV. His smile is wider than Mark Henry’s pink suit when Becky Lynch appears on the screen. He now says “Adam Cole BAY BAY” at random points during the day.

I want to keep this little man a fan as devoted as his daddy. Please, @WWE, step up your game. @FanSidedDDT pic.twitter.com/WlLfXBFuTi
— John Brown Jr. (@TheJohnBrownJr) June 12, 2019

And to any of our readers who are raising or has raised a child during the dreaded “terrible twos,” you know my child can excellently execute a heel turn.

Like most children his age, however, my son has the attention span of a flashbulb. His interests are fleeting. This means that the gateway to his cemented WWE fandom lies through me. With the recent product being produced by the McMahon-run company, my son’s attention span is not the only one that is dwindling.

WrestleMania season was rather sexy this year. Kofi Kingston as WWE Champion, the official anointment of “The Man,” and a belt-less Brock Lesnar provided enough depth to allow John Cena and The Undertaker to rationally have the night off. WWE left enough meat on the bone to satiate any level of fan. Since then, however, WWE seems to be on cruise control.

The opening of the May 27 episode of Monday Night Raw was a microcosm of said cruise control. The night’s opening match did not take place until over fifty minutes into the show. In addition to this shocking detail, that match’s segment opened with a promo from Shane McMahon with Drew McIntyre present to do his bidding. Drew McIntyre, who has his own bidding to do as he should be rising to the WWE main event scene, is the henchman for Shane McMahon in 2019.

This disturbing scene can be combined with any of the other currently-preposterous situations: The Usos ditching the grittiness that had them seen as cool again only to be playing practical jokes on The Revival (who are equally mistreated creatively), habitually absent (Raw, SmackDown, and Women’s) Tag Team Champions, both main event champions practically begging Brock Lesnar, arguably the most legitimate champion on the history of professional wrestling, to cash in on them, and an apparently-necessary “Wild Card Rule” that overuses a handful of stars and dilutes a SmackDown Live show by sitting undeniable assets such as Shinsuke Nakamura, Buddy Murphy, and Rusev while Raw superstars get double the air time.

The time since WrestleMania is not the only evidence showing WWE’s creative molasses. Keep in mind that we are not that far removed from a WrestleMania 30 that almost had a main event of Batista vs. Randy Orton and would have ignored the white-hot rise of Daniel Bryan. Not long before that, an equally-hot CM Punk was fed to Triple H, Brock Lesnar, and The Rock, none of which were full-time performers.

Do I even need to mention Bobby Lashley’s “sisters” and the complete avoidance of the galactic badass he is? The disastrously-timed Royal Rumble wins of Batista and Roman Reigns?

Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens having the second match on a WrestleMania card after the best feud WWE had since Jericho and Shawn Michaels?

The current treatment of EC3,

War

Viking Raiders, and Ricochet (complete with speeding bullet sound effect)?

The horrendous, obviously-scripted promos given to Natalya, Naomi, and Dana Brooke on “A Moment of Bliss” when all are trying to compete with Becky Lynch and Charlotte?

Jon Moxley’s interviews with both Chris Jericho and Wade Keller seem to echo an unfortunate reality we became intimate with during the CM Punk podcast with Colt Cabana. Rather than an organic following within the fanbase being formed like we have seen with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and The Rock, there seems to only be an audience of one man in which those within the WWE are hoping to satisfy.

Focusing on entertaining one man as opposed to millions has produced a vanilla product almost entirely absent of personal issues, innovative storylines, or organic development of new stars attempting to grab the brass ring.

Successful CEOs tend to rely on those around them to carry the name of the brand they created, those who are more in tune with the public that they want to keep in their pocket. As CM Punk and Jon Moxley have indicated, Vince McMahon has been long-since out of touch and refuses to relinquish the iron-clad fist he has on his empire. Unless your name is Betty White, hipness has an expiration date.

The saddest part of all of this is that the current WWE roster is absolutely marinating in talent both home- and independently-grown. In recent weeks, there have been multiple stories regarding performers wishing to leave WWE, and the combination of Moxley’s interview, the current WWE product, and an independent wrestling scene that is showing that one can afford to do what they love and simultaneously have creative license outside of the WWE walls, gives warrant to these stories regardless of probable stretching of truth.

A company kept afloat by renegades without need of creative direction like Austin, Michaels, and The Rock seems to have forgotten what cemented their top spot in professional wrestling. And if the company has not forgotten, one man certainly has.

What does all of this have to do with my son and I? I am someone who has made consumption of the WWE product a high priority through both the struggle and prominence of their product, as well as my own life. Significant amounts of my life has been spent observing and researching a company to the point of a website like Daily DDT deeming me worthy to represent them.