STATE OF THE 'E: Are We The Worst Fans Ever?

Posted By: Robert Woodward Jr.

Yes. That's right. i said it. The "WWEUniverse" is actually the worst thing going in THE 'E right now. I'm seeing more and more of it and I don't think it's going to stop. I will give examples on my thought process here. Have fun reading and can't wait to hear the snarmy comments and comebacks! =P

1.) CREATIVE - They are responsible for providing us fans with entertainment week in and week out. I don't know how you guys THINK the world of pro wrestling works but I challenge you to: write out a short term feud, fully script it, get the performers to remember lines, do production on backstage vignettes, make awesome promos for the said matches and try to do this with close to 90 people on a roster. I want you to fully create 52 episodes of WWE Monday Night Raw or WWE Friday Night Smackdown!... not to mention Superstars and NXT also have running storylines as well. It's hard to do. people get fried, it happens. They are human as well and I guarandamntee that if you tried out for it, you'd fail. Prove me wrong otherwise.

2.) THE TALENT - This current roster is actually VERY deep. You say there's no talent? Screw that noise. THE 'E has provided us with MANY people we've been wanting there. CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Sin Cara, Alberto Del Rio, Evan Bourne, Kharma, Justin Gabriel, and many other talents from the "Indies" not only do they have their homegrown talent as well in Orton, Cena, Christian, Sheamus, etc, etc. They have the talent and the roster to have many great things happen. And to me, CM Punk has been on point ever since joining the roster, and many of the others have been reduced to fodder but, for what reason? Well, the world of wrestling has its own reasoning that we'll never fully understand. Don't automatically assume that just because someone isn't on TV that Haitch and the boys backstage are "holding them back." There's reasoning for it. A lot of it, you're not on the "inside" like you truly want to be and 50% of what you read on these sites are true. Grow up.

3.) VIOLENCE - Umm, excuse me but, what are you watching? Week in and week out you watch people get beaten up. That I'm pretty sure qualifies as "violence" THE 'E have guys that when you really look at it are stunt men. The whole world of professional wrestling is pretty much a live action movie from beginning to end. It's not different than going to see "Pirates Of The Caribbean" at Disney World truthfully. Just because there isn't blood anymore doesn't mean a damn thing. Remember, the "home invasion" of Randy Orton by Triple H happened right at the beginning of the "PG Era" and not to mention the beginning of Nexus also happened here too. Just because there wan't any blood didn't make it any less violent. Blood does not make wrestling. True story.

4.) THE ATTITUDE ERA - For some reasons a lot of fans think that professional wrestling wasn't around before this period. And a lot of people automatically remember the promos, the matches, blah, blah, blah. It was crash TV. They threw things to the wall and saw if it stuck. THE 'E wasn't the only edgy thing on TV at that time. ALL of television was getting raunchier and raunchier. People were losing a lot of common sense through this and realistically this time period is where "reality" television was birthed. People kept wanting stations to push the envelope and they did. We saw bare asses on ABC and not to mention the high level of cursing past 10pm. THE 'E was just following this tradition. They weren't pioneers of great television. Hell, if you go back and actually watch "The Attitude Era" you'll notice that more botches occur in that time period than any other. I'm talking from THE 'E, WCW and ECW. They messed up everything all the time. It was high impact, high reward. ALL of television has shifted into another direction. People want things based more realistically, they want things to feel "organic" in a sense. Pro wrestling had to adapt to that. People forget that pro wrestling has its cycles. This is just one of them.

5.) THE FANS -- We are 100% the worst thing that THE 'E has going for it. Because of that flash in the pan of 6 years, everyone thinks that pro wrestling should be about tits, ass, blood, chairshots, and people getting hurt. That is not what pro wrestling was for over 70 years before that. We became the worst thing in THE 'E. Spoiled little brats that throw tantrums when things don't go our way. We whine and whine to the IWC about how wrestling isn't fun anymore about how horrible it is. Here's a fucking clue, if it's so horrible: STOP WATCHING!! Force the program to change again They're still pulling in a 3.1 to 3.5 cable rating weekly. That averages to about 5 MILLION people watching. Granted, they were pulling 5.8's and 6.2's in the past but, every other show was too. People watched a ton of TV back then, now we Tivo, DVR and download. It's a different era and we need to realize that. THE 'E has gone 80's style again. More focused on family and fun for everyone.

I know that when I sit down with my son every Monday night I'm still having fun. I still let it take me away. We're watching a show that costs $1.5 Million a week to make. Average that with Smackdown! and they're throwing $3 Million a week into television tapings. Not to mention the OnDemand channel and their internet shows. They put a lot of money out weekly and during "The Attitude Era" they lost sponsors as quickly as they gained them.

That is going to conclude my rant on this situation at hand. Give them some credit or don't whatever floats your boat. They do a great job and we all continue watching. It's easy to play Tuesday morning quarterback but, I want you to go get a job for THE 'E (Or any other promotion for that matter.) and then you come back and tell me how easy it is to do all of this.
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I also want to include quickly my "Top 5" ways to "fix" THE 'E. No "real" explainations considering they're right in your face.

1.) Become A Private Company Again -- Their most prosperous times were when they weren't publically traded on Wall Street.

2.) Evaluate Your Fans -- Hold focus groups to see where the National fanbase stands. Hell, you have a lot of our e-mail addy's. Send us surveys. Not that difficult.

3.) Cut Costs -- With all the lighting, pyro, HD everything, THE 'E is spending $5 Million a week (with everything combined.) Pull back on a lot of things. Nip/Tuck.

4.) Hire Story Editors -- Make them the final stages before VKM. Basically right now everyone pow wow's in a room and then you get things worked out later. That's right and wrong. There needs to be a medium.

5.) Ticket Prices -- Yeah, you have tickets that start out at $20.00 a pop. But they're WAY at the top of the stadium. The last time I took my wife and son to see a WWE Monday Night Raw, it cost us $500.00 -- $350.00 for tickets, $20.00 for parking, $100.00 on merchandise (Program, a shirt for my son and a couple odds and ends.) and like $50.00 for food. (It was over $500.00 acually -- DAMN!) Why do you think attendance is down? In a recession (and coming out of one.) You need to help out your fans.


Okay, NOW I'm finally done. Flame me and kill my IWC cred all you want in the comment section below. Have fun.