World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), previously known as World Wrestling Federation (WWF), is one of the most popular sports-entertainment franchises in the world. WWE’s shows Monday Night Raw and Friday Night Smackdown are watching by millions of people across the world.
WWE was widely popular due to its story lines and in-ring action till late 2000 but the company’s management made drastic changes which sowed the seeds of its own downfall.
We can say that the Attitude Era (1996-2002) laid the foundation stone which helped WWE beating World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the ratings war. The company brought promoted greats like The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Kane and many great talents. Sadly, the company has now people kept the main-event spot for specific people like John Cena and Randy Orton whereas ignoring many great talents who are giving their best to get them noticed by the company’s creative department.
WWE’s creative team also created more mature story lines and the in-ring action was much more exciting than what we see today. Who can forget the rivalry between Stone Cold and Vince McMahon, Kane and Undertaker feuds, The Rock and Triple H.
The match used to be fast and in the legendary feuds we also got to the chance to see rare and unique matches like the Inferno match, Armageddon six man Hell in a Cell match. These matches are not promoted today due to the PG content, which is mostly designed for children. They brought drastic changes to the violence level within their programming by not letting the entertainers bleed whereas such level of violence in the sports-entertainment company was highly promoted back in the days.
Speaking of PG quality, I can guarantee that the PG content itself is a reason that why so many people have stopped watching WWE. The audience that was targeted by the organization during the company’s rise to stardom has been lost due to the content and kiddy story lines WWE comes up with.
Many of the greats like The Rock and Stone Cold have also left the company to act in movies or achieve different goals in life. This is also one of the main factors which is causing a decline in the company’s popularity and viewership.
WWE itself is the reason for its own quality downfall. The deteriorating quality of in-ring action, lack of interesting story lines and the absence of many WWE greats have destroyed the company’s image and viewership.
