Ever since I can remember, it has always been this time of year that we read the WWE are struggling for ratings, with Raw ratings being the most eye opening. Now the reasons for this may just be seasonal, or short term booking, or one of a hundred different things that theorists come up with. While there may be a truth to all of these, we cannot say for certain what the cause actually is. From my perspective, the short term booking is the easiest aspect that can be changed and a big problem that has been around for a long while.
We have seen the use of part time superstars and legends in recent years, and while this is a short term solution and cry for ratings, this has always happened around WrestleMania. The problem with that is, WrestleMania, and the road to it, is the draw itself. There is no evidence that suggests using The Rock at WrestleMania has made its ratings superb. In the same way that there is no correlation with John Cena being the WWE World Heavyweight Champion and ratings/merchandise sales.
I understand the logic of making the road to WrestleMania special and different, but there are more ways of doing that other than the use of part time legends. In my mind, it would make more sense to use these types of superstars at other times of year, to keep the intrigue year round. Some of you might now be thinking, well Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker are being used at Hell In A Cell and technically they are part time legends/superstars. This is true, but this does nothing to help Raw ratings, if they only appear on the go home Raw and PPV itself.
The effective and smart use of part time superstars is not the only issue in terms of short term bookings. This also applies to wrestlers that are there every single week. People like Dolph Ziggler, Randy Orton, Dean Ambrose and even Kevin Owens are not being used to their full potential.
Now I do understand the creativity is not always easy and eventually, similar ideas are going to come up again and again. This may be particularly difficult with someone like Randy Orton, who is still great in the ring, but has worked with almost everybody and covered most storylines. But when you have someone of Orton’s calibre and popularity, he has to be used more effectively. Which brings me on to Kevin Owens, who in my opinion should have went on to face Randy Orton after his angles win Cena. It was the logical next step, and definitely interesting TV. Not only is it a great angle now, but it builds up Kevin Owens for the future.
The Authority is another part I do not really understand. We have been trained over the last year to only really take angles seriously when John Cena or The Authority are involved. So the response to these low ratings is to take The Authority off of TV? If anything, now is the time for Triple H to be more involved with programming. Why isn’t he the part time legend coming back to help ratings and in the process, build a new generation of stars.
Ultimately, I feel there is not enough emphasis on building new legends. Yes, the superstar has to building his or herself into a legend, but until the machine and the storylines get behind them, it won’t work. The last three guys who were actually given a great platform where all three members of The Shield. And right now, only Rollins is being used for long term thinking.
Anyway, that was pretty ranty. See you next time and feel free to comment.
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