Over the past number of weeks, WWE’s flagship show, Monday Night Raw, has seen a significant drop in ratings. The December 7 broadcast averaged just 3.054 million viewers and a shocking 2.15 rating. The lowest rating for Raw since September 1997. Disconnect between fans and the product is at an all time high; the attitude amongst the WWE Universe is one of apathy, and that is certainly not the new “attitude era” that WWE are looking for.

Ratings for television are down across the board, especially for long-running series such as Raw which has now been on the air for almost 23 years. The amount of television that is available and the way it is consumed is drastically different than it was even ten years ago. Things are perpetually changing in this modern television climate and therefore it is understandable why programmes no longer bring in the same kind of mass audiences they did back in the pre-on-demand era.

But when your show is consistently shedding viewers and ratings are hitting record lows and long-time fans are switching off, then there is a problem, and it needs to be addressed internally.

In 2007, WWE became a PG product after spending most of the late 90s as a TV-14 rated programme and then PG-13 in the early 00s. There are many reasons you could point to for the PG rating decision: the company’s media perception after the Chris Benoit tragedy, Linda McMahon’s Senate campaign, and the opportunity to attract bigger and therefore more lucrative advertisers and sponsors.



This is not a post about how the “PG Era” ruined everything and how WWE should return to a TV-14 or PG-13 rating. I understand full-well why WWE is a PG company. In 2015, WWE secured 37 new advertisers and have grown their TV rights agreements substantially. There has been a conscious effort from WWE and NBC Universal to alter the company’s image from a crude and violent circus to something far more tame and family-friendly. WWE is a global brand and a PG product allows them to reach the mass market.



I don’t believe that PG is the problem with WWE. You know what is a great PG movie? Star Wars. It is a movie franchise that is enjoyed by children and adults alike and has accumulated ridiculous amounts of money from merchandising and advertising. You know what isn’t a great PG movie? Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Nobody was lining up around the block to see Paul Blart, dressed in their mall cop costumes with their Kevin James action figures. The problem is not with PG itself but with the style of PG content the creator is providing. WWE is severely out of touch with what their audience wants. Yes, their image is now a lot more appealing to advertisers and sponsors, but the content is not appealing to the actual fans.

Lets just take a brief look at some of the content WWE Raw is putting out right now. The closing promo of the December 7 episode of Raw contained excessive use of the term “tater tot”. There is a man that believes he is from the Cosmos. A segment called the Rose Bush which is pure 80s sketch-show cheese is an actual weekly feature. Grown men and women dance around with unicorn horns attached to their heads. There is a lunatic whose main source of unstable behaviour involves eating popcorn and throwing soft-drinks at people. And an old man on a mobility scooter talking about founding a new nation called Mex-america.

Now, I’m not saying there isn’t room for any of this stuff. Wrestling has always been a diverse form of entertainment that can feature everything from gravity-defying acrobatic skill to a man summoning lightning from the sky. It’s the variety that makes it so compelling. Also, The New Day have been one of the few bright spots in an otherwise mundane product the past few months. But the amount of puerile, nonsensical content and poorly written story-lines is overwhelming and borderline insulting. But it’s PG content for the kids right? This is where the problem lies and where I strongly disagree with that mindset.

First of all, while a publicly funded company that is aimed at the mass market should attempt to appeal to children and families, it should not forget about the rest of its core audience. According to WWE’s own statistics, in the past 12 months, up until September 2015, only 18% of their audience were between the ages 2-17. In comparison, there was 23% between the ages 18-34, 21% between 35-49 and 38% over 50. That is 82% of the WWE audience that is over the age of 18. It begs the question, why is WWE appealing to the smallest subset of its audience? If the vast majority of your viewing audience are adults then shouldn’t that be reflected in the content of your product?

Secondly, kids aren’t stupid and shouldn’t be talked down to. Children, especially between the ages of 12 to 17, want to feel cool. I became a wrestling fan in 1999, at the height of the Attitude Era; I was 11 years old. I was drawn in because of edgy, badass characters like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and The Undertaker. There was still a hell of a lot of goofiness. Let’s not kid ourselves that everything from the Attitude Era was perfect because it definitely wasn’t. But the product had an edge to it; an unpredictability and rawness that appealed to children and adults alike. Raw no longer has rawness.

Some would argue that it is impossible to make a cool and edgy product in a PG environment. Some might say that children would be put off by that style of product and that WWE would lose a large percentage of their live show ticket and merchandise sales. Those arguments can be quickly countered. What WWE is really scared about is losing their flashy advertisers. They don’t want to take a risk because of fear of losing their lucrative sponsorship deals. They would rather stagnate in mediocrity instead of implementing change. But here’s the thing, if WWE continues to cater to advertisers rather than their actual fans then people will continue to switch off and ratings will drop even further. Then it won’t matter about “image”. If your programme isn’t delivering strong enough ratings, then those big companies won’t pay to advertise in those slots or on that show. But do things really have to get THAT bad before WWE starts to change?

The thing is, WWE are more than capable of creating a cool and edgy PG product that appeals to children and adults alike without ruining their image. Do you know how I know this? Because WWE already has a PG product that is cool and edgy and appeals to children and adults alike, and has also proven it can sell out 13,000+ seater arenas. That product is called NXT.

Recently, WWE sent out a survey to fans asking them to compare the main WWE product to that of NXT. The survey asked the person to choose their preference in various categories, with the choices being “WWE”, “NXT” and “Both deliver equally”. Some of the categories included “Getting the right mix of unique characters”, “Seeing good rivalries/match-ups”, “Seeing a wide variety of Superstars/Divas”, and “Having a great show to watch with family/friends”.

What this demonstrates is that someone within WWE recognises that NXT has a buzz about it that is lacking in the main roster product. There is a formula that works in NXT that makes it connect with fans. I think the fear amongst Vince McMahon and many of the higher-ups in WWE is that NXT is a niche product that only appeals to the hardcore fans and that that style of entertainment wouldn’t appeal to the mass market. But is that true?

Take a look at the live crowd from NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn; which took place at the Barclays Center in New York back in August. WWE held three events in the same arena on three consecutive nights: NXT TakeOver, Summerslam, and Monday Night Raw. When you compare the three shows, NXT had by far the loudest and most engaged crowd and the widest critical acclaim. And if you look into that crowd, it wasn’t just a sea of adult males, there were women and children also actively engaged in the product.

You could argue that NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn was held in New York which is one of the hottest wrestling cities in the world and therefore not a wholly accurate representation of NXT’s wide appeal. But lets look at other NXT attendance figures: San Jose (4,700 for a houseshow with no advertised matches), Nashville (1,250 for a houseshow), and next Wednesday, NXT TakeOver: London live at Wembley Arena is expected to draw over 10,000 punters. The NXT live events predominantly visit smaller venues but they consistently sell-out.

I understand why WWE doesn’t cater their main product specifically at the hardcore fanbase. They are trying to market to, and hold on to, new audiences; that 2-17 year old demographic being a desired target. But again, there is a way that you can create compelling content that would appeal to that market. NXT has characters and stories that appeal to both young and old.

One of NXT’s most beloved characters is Bayley and she is about as kid-friendly as you can get. The music, the outfit, the mannerisms. She is far more catered to children than John Cena is. But she is loved by men, women and children equally because her character is relatable. She is involved in logical story-lines and is given time to put on incredible matches with actual stakes. That is true of nearly all the performers on NXT; they have interesting characters that actually develop over time. Take Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady from this week’s episode of NXT, who dropped their usual energetic goofiness to sell the seriousness of their current feud. Character development that told a story, connected with the crowd and promoted a match.



There is nothing ground-breaking here. NXT isn’t re-inventing the wheel. It is simply creating compelling characters and allowing them the freedom and flexibility to try new things. While putting them in logical story-lines that are easily digestible for the viewer. It’s something that WWE has been doing for years but have somehow forgotten how to do on their main roster product. The characters and stories on Raw are confused, narrative threads are picked up and dropped without warning, character motivations are often unexplained, there is no forward momentum or development, and everything is the same week after week. Just look at the cringe-inducing Lana/Rusev/Ziggler story from a couple of months back. Was that a family-friendly story that appealed to the mass market?



I must make it clear that this isn’t a fault of the performers. The WWE talent pool is stronger than it has ever been. The quality of wrestling is of a higher standard than it has ever been. The fault lies with those in management and creative that are unable or unwilling to change. They have so much talent at their finger tips but they don’t know how to utilise them. For example, Dean Ambrose and Kevin Owens are currently involved in a feud; they have an Intercontinental Championship match this Sunday at the TLC event. Two of the best talkers in the company and prior to this week’s Smackdown had they had a face-to-face promo during the entire build up? Had they talked about the importance of the Intercontinental Championship and what it would mean to win it? No. Instead, some genius thought the best way to sell this feud on their flagship show was to have Ambrose chewing popcorn and throwing soda at Owens.



I’ve never written for a wrestling promotion. I don’t claim to have all the answers. And I understand that producing a 3 hour television show every week, plus the 2 hours of Smackdown and then the countless other WWE Network content, is very difficult. But surely it shouldn’t be this difficult? The product shouldn’t be consistently this embarrassing and uninspiring. Not when they have the talent and capability to produce a top quality family-friendly show that appeals to adults, children and advertisers. There is no reason why the main roster can’t apply the successful formula of NXT into their product.

Things WWE RAW Could Learn From NXT:

-An importance on the championship titles and the desire to win.

-Clear character motivations and natural development.

-Long-term story planning.

-Commentary that focuses on the action and builds the story.

-Allowing performers the freedom to take risks.

-An equal share of promo time for lower card and main event talent.

-Logical stories with a clear end goal.

-Listening to the audience reaction to gauge what is or isn’t popular.



There is nothing there that WWE isn’t capable of adapting into their main product; hell, they’ve done it before. Nobody is asking for crazy, indie-spot fests or anything like that. As I said, the quality of wrestling in the WWE is already fantastic. It is everything around the wrestling that needs to change: the characters, the story-telling, the creative. And this isn’t just the opinion of one disgruntled fan, the downward spiral in ratings is a clear sign that this is a common feeling across the board. Wrestling fans are passionate and loyal and they love and respect the WWE but eventually that love begins to wane when the fans aren’t shown that same love and respect back.

WWE need to stop appealing to their advertisers based on a misguided idea of what those advertisers desire from the product. The stubborn unwillingness to change will only hurt more in the long-run. Fans will continue to walk away and ratings will continue to fall and then you will be left with no fans and no advertisers; who won’t pay to promote their products on a show that nobody is watching. WWE need to start appealing to their actual fans - to the 50 year old dad that has been watching since the 80s, to the 20-something guy that fell in love with WWE during the Attitude Era, the 10 year old girl in her Bayley t-shirt that sits in the front row at NXT, and the family that attend Wrestlemania together every year. Remind us why we fell in love with the WWE.

