In a climate with alternatives and WWE isn’t the only horse in the race, WWE should be more careful with how they market to their audience. The reaction to Hell in a Cell 2019’s main event highlighted a lack of booking self awareness.
Let’s wind the clocks back to Oct. 6, 2013, the night of WWE Battleground.
At the time, an inaugural PPV show main evented by Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton for the then-vacant WWE Championship. After 25 minutes of in-ring action, The Big Show infamously entered the match and attacked both competitors to pull a No Contest. Even more infamously, fans were furious.
11,700 New Yorkers in attendance at the First Niagra Center chanted profanities to close the show and demanded refunds. Those sitting at home demanded refunds from their cable providers as well, and they were granted. Mike Johnson of PWInsider might have said it best in saying “WWE failed that night” and how they “owe their fans an apology” after promising a proper, decisive finish only to deliver nothing in return.
It was a misstep, no doubt, but it didn’t effect WWE long term and they hadn’t lost huge chunks of their audience after, essentially, cheating them out their money. Why? Because where else are wrestling fans going to go?
WWE had always been the most accessible wrestling programming in the world. The closest to an alternative in 2013 was Impact Wrestling, and at the time, their reputation still hadn’t recovered from The Hogan Era years prior. Then, of course, the indies weren’t as accessible as they are now with a boat load of streaming services on the horizon. So fans were either going to watch WWE or not watch wrestling.
Now, fast forward to Oct. 6, 2019. The night of Hell in a Cell.
A similar fate befell the main event between Seth Rollins and The Fiend, another main event that ended in a No Contest, frustrating a bevy of fans who paid to see a finish both at home and inside Sacremento’s Golden 1 Center. Suddenly, it was Battleground 2013 all over again. Fans were furious to close the show, booed tremendously, refunds were asked for, etc.
But there was one difference because one chant was present after the main event that did not exist in 2013. The crowd also chanted three letters.
AEW.
And now, suddenly, wrestling fans have options; alternatives.
AEW is just one of many options out there that fans can move on to if they ever decide they don’t want to loan their time to WWE television. AEW Dynamite airs on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. on TNT, coincidentally at the same time as WWE’s NXT on the USA Network.
By the same sword, Impact Wrestling – which has been rebranded as a much more watchable, tolerable, enjoyable, and in some respects, respectable wrestling promotion since 2013 – will be airing on Tuesday nights in its move to AXS TV. Speaking of, AXS TV also houses matches from New Japan Pro Wrestling and WOW – Women of Wrestling. Then, as mentioned earlier, there are a myriad of other, independent wrestling promotions (i.e. Progress, Insane Championship Wrestling, etc, GCW, etc.) housed under their own streaming platforms.
The point that I’m trying to get at is that if fans feel screwed by WWE or as if the company is no longer catering to them in a satisfactory matter, it’s much easier for fans to walk away. Right now, wrestling from non-WWE promotions are more accessible to find than ever before. At the same time, morale between WWE and its fans has reached an all time low.
In the past couple days, between last night and the reaction to Kofi Kingston losing the WWE Championship in 10 seconds, fans have been mighty cross with the company. Judging by some responses, it appears that some fans are considering stopping watching WWE altogether. It’s something the promotion should have expected.
Knowing full well they are aware of the growing wrestling climate and the new alternatives out there, they should have an actual self awareness to not book things that steer their fans away, but apparently, judging by the finish of Hell in a Cell, that self awareness isn’t there.
All things said, I can even understand how a finish like this can come about. They backed themselves into a corner. They may have decided for whatever reason that they didn’t want Rollins to lose his title, but didn’t want to beat The Fiend.
A simpler idea may have been not booking the match to begin with, but above all else, don’t end the show your fans paid to see without a finish they so desperately wanted.
WWE can’t be so careless in their booking to not have expected such a strong, visceral reaction from fans, especially when we saw this exact reaction six years ago. Yet, here we are. If they didn’t see the error of their ways in 2013, how many times are they going to end Pay-Per-Views like this before they get it?
More importantly, will there still be an audience that wants to see them when WWE finally get it?
I write all this to say that fans are losing their patience with WWE and for a lot of people, the main event was the last straw. As a promotion I grew up watching and served as my introduction to wrestling, I want to root for WWE. I want them to succeed just like how I want all of wrestling to succeed. I am rooting for wrestling; all of these new shows included, but if Vince & Co. are going to continue booking shows like they’re the only cowboy in the west like it’s still 2013, they are going to lose a lot more fans than they could gain.
Am I going to keep watching? Of course. It’s my job to cover all wrestling from all platforms. Not like I have a choice in the matter, but most fans do and they may not choose to stick around much longer.