Even with a slight increase in Raw ratings this week — thanks to the return of Mr. McMahon and Roman Reigns reclaiming the title he held for three minutes — the WWE product is still on the downslide. It’s reached a point where even Triple H isn’t sure how to fix the glitches.
The WWE product is hotbed of debate among former stars and anyone with a wrestling radio show or podcast. On a visit to Maria Menounos SiriusXM show, former WWE champion and occasional secret PPV partner Chris Jericho touched on the current WWE issues. Jericho feels the problem started long ago, during his initial run with the company, and points to one specific move that changed the course for Vince and Co.
“When I started it was the wild west, like, just gypsies, tramps, and thieves, like, lunatics. It was worse than rock and roll. Yeah, it was. And then, when you start moving into the late 1990s and early 2000s, it started to have a little bit of a cultural shift where more writers were coming in and the product was kind of cleaned up to be more of a corporate type of thing when Vince [McMahon] went public, right? And then he was trying to get Coca Cola as a sponsor, like the big time family friendly [companies], which is cool. But what happened was you did lose a little bit of that maverick spirit, of that, not so much rebellion, but just, ‘I’m going to take a chance and if it sucks, okay, and if it works, suddenly, you’ve done something different.
You don’t have that freedom to try as much anymore because it [has] really gotten into, ‘here’s your script’ like a TV show, but it’s not a TV show.” Jericho continued, “no other entertainment entity is like it, so you have to have that element of giving girls and guys a chance to fail. If it doesn’t work, at least you tried. At least you went outside the box. And I think there is a little bit of that missing where it can still come back, but the opportunities to try stuff [are] becoming less and less. It’s more of, ‘this has been approved. Read this. Memorize these lines and say it.’ I can memorize a Shakespearean play, [but] it doesn’t mean I can say it with any conviction whatsoever. You have to believe in it and you have to commit.
Any time a company or entity goes public, the day-to-day operation changes, but it was more than just Coca-Cola money making the WWE a little more PG. Not long after going public, WWE knocked off its closest competitor in WCW, and its easy to stick to cruise control when there’s no longer anyone racing up your ass to take the checkered flag.
[via SEScoops]