IS THIS THE REASON FOR WWE's SUCCESS?

[The Saviour]

We all know that for most part of the last 30 years WWF/E has been the top dog.Wrestling companies have come and gone but WWE has always stood firm.In '80's there were many territories who competed with them,most notably I think AWA.During the '90's wCw started off well and reached a point where they could've have overthrown them.There are others like Ecw,TNA,ROH but the name WWE is synonymus with wrestling.Various factors have been instrumental in their success and no doubt luck has played its part,notably during the drug scandal of the early 90's,which shook not only WWE but also pro-wrestling.
But I think,there is one factor in particular,that has kept them at the top for so long.That is there has always been a face of the company,there has always been a guy who represents the company,a guy who carries the company.And I think the other companies have lacked it.I know you'll Sting was that guy for wCw,but the truth is he wasn't that big as he was in the old NWA and in wCw he was overshadowed by Hogan.He was never quite the "face" of wCw,while in WWE there was always the guy who headlined ppv's,got major storylines,on top of merchandising sale and so on.First there was Hogan during the Golden Age,then there was the leader of the new Generation in Bret Hart,we had the rebel in Austin,who led the company during the Attitude Era.In the brand extension era we had Triple H.And in today's PG era we have John Cena.So there is always a guy who is the leader of
the generation.I guess its a huge part of their success while the other companies have failed to do it.Needless to say that,WWE have had a different character based on every era,which have allowed things to be fresh.So what do you people think about it.Am I right or am I just over shooting its significance.Go ahead,lets rumble

 

[ABMorales787]

SPACEBAR IS YOUR FRIEND!

No that is not why WWE is most successful. WWE was in the shitters when Bret was top dog. It's not about the face of the company, it's what you do with him and the rest of the locker room. If this were the reason for WWE's success, WCW and ECW would've been dead a lot sooner. WWE is very fond of merchandise so having one particular go-to guy is a very smart more for merch sales. Pushing this particular superstar will boost his merchandise through the roof. Hulkamania, Austin 3:16, Hustle Loyalty Respect, it's more of a sales gimmick than a key to success. In the end what really matters is the quality of the programming. Mankind vs Triple H was a huge story and it never involved Steve Austin and barely featured The Rock yet that doesn't mean it's an inferior story to one featuring Rock or Austin.

 

[Xemmy]

We all know that for most part of the last 30 years WWF/E has been the top dog.Wrestling companies have come and gone but WWE has always stood firm.In '80's there were many territories who competed with them,most notably I think AWA.During the '90's wCw started off well and reached a point where they could've have overthrown them.There are others like Ecw,TNA,ROH but the name WWE is synonymus with wrestling.Various factors have been instrumental in their success and no doubt luck has played its part,notably during the drug scandal of the early 90's,which shook not only WWE but also pro-wrestling.
But I think,there is one factor in particular,that has kept them at the top for so long.That is there has always been a face of the company,there has always been a guy who represents the company,a guy who carries the company.And I think the other companies have lacked it.I know you'll Sting was that guy for wCw,but the truth is he wasn't that big as he was in the old NWA and in wCw he was overshadowed by Hogan.He was never quite the "face" of wCw,while in WWE there was always the guy who headlined ppv's,got major storylines,on top of merchandising sale and so on.First there was Hogan during the Golden Age,then there was the leader of the new Generation in Bret Hart,we had the rebel in Austin,who led the company during the Attitude Era.In the brand extension era we had Triple H.And in today's PG era we have John Cena.So there is always a guy who is the leader of
the generation.I guess its a huge part of their success while the other companies have failed to do it.Needless to say that,WWE have had a different character based on every era,which have allowed things to be fresh.So what do you people think about it.Am I right or am I just over shooting its significance.Go ahead,lets rumble

Killjoy had it perfectly, so I'm not going to bother with a repeat.

1. Sting was not the face of WCW. If you want to point to a face of that company that was homemade, it'd be Goldberg.

2. It's never JUST one guy that leads you to the promised land.
For example, while Austin was an enormous chunk to the attitude era, Mankind, Rock, and The Undertaker were very instrumental to it as well.
So yes, you are over shooting its significance.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I've got to agree with Killjoy. It's not necessarily about having a face, although that certainly does help, it has mostly to do with the decisions made as to how to use the talent on the roster. Having a single go to guy, especially now, isn't as important as it was 20-25 years go when Hulk Hogan was ruling the roost. This past week at the first house show that John Cena missed due to his hip injury, fans were offered a refund if they wanted as Cena wasn't going to be on the card. According to the report I read at pwtorch.com, nobody took it and just simply enjoyed the show with or without Cena. Why? Because Cena isn't the end all and be all of the WWE, not by a long shot. No single talent has ever proven to be bigger than the company, not ever. Not Hogan, not Austin, not The Rock, & Not Cena.

The secret to the WWE's success is that they've been able to keep people interested and watching their programs over the decades. Vince McMahon gets tons of grief on these boards, some of it justified and some of it unjustified, but the man knows what he's doing most of the time. It might not seem like it to us sometimes but, then again, what do any of us actually and legitimately know about running a wrestling company?

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

I think that the secret to WWE's success is their fearlessness when it comes to pushing new talent. And that is not just limited to the face of the company. They really try their hardest to have some storyline for all the wrestlers in their roster and are really a lot more open to inputs from wrestlers than we think. They are also very open to trying out new things as we have seen in the case of the Attitude Era, an era where over the top violence, crude sex jokes and women showing off tits were the norm, which had never been attempted on a global scale prior to then and more recently the Nexus which was a stable consisting of seven rookies whom very few people had seen on television prior to the start of that angle.

Another quality that WWE possess is their ability to think ahead. I believe that it is something that they do not get enough credit for, though. Look at the Attitude Era. Just as the Austin-Mcmahon storyline ended they began pushing Triple H as the next top heel of the company and gave us our next great storyline in the Mcmahon-Helmsley era. In a lesser company you might not have seen that. A lesser company might have dragged out the Austin-Mcmahon storyline for a longer time than was neccesary or might have gone with some generic storyline. But that was not the case with WWF. They started a great storyline on the heels of another great storyline and that requires great planning.

 

[The Saviour]

GUYS you're probably right,but it is a part of their stability and success.But also the fact,that right now even every non wrestling fan knows who is John Cena.It gives them instant recognition.Lets talk about TNA(I am a fan BTW) who's their face?In majority of the companies I mentioned,there wasn't an established central "star".Goldberg you say,he was the wasn't the top dog for long,there was always Hogan.

 

[ABMorales787]

GUYS you're probably right,but it is a part of their stability and success.But also the fact,that right now even every non wrestling fan knows who is John Cena.It gives them instant recognition.Lets talk about TNA(I am a fan BTW) who's their face?In majority of the companies I mentioned,there wasn't an established central "star".Goldberg you say,he was the wasn't the top dog for long,there was always Hogan.

Here's the thing. Remember back in WCW's heyday? You had Diamond Dallas Page teaming up with Karl Malone. You had Sting and Robocop (as crappy as that was). You had Jarrett/DDP/Arquette. And of course you can't ignore other stand outs like Randy Savage and Ric Flair. The point is WWE just focuses on one guy while other places don't. But that doesn't mean that's the key to success. Vince McMahon has been dying for years for media attention, and in his eyes "the guy" is his strategy to get that media attention. But when you look at WCW in it's day, it wasn't about just one guy. It was continuously shifting. And it got more media attention that WWE did.

The only time "the guy" worked was with Hulk Hogan. WWE got pretty lucky with that deal as an injury during that 1985-1988 period would've probably been it's undoing. But when you look ahead to the Attitiude Era, that indeed happened with Austin. The neck injury kept him out most of 2000. But that didn't matter because WWE had already built Triple H, The Rock and Mankind to cover that ground. Just like not too long ago, John Cena was injured, they had Triple H, Batista and Randy Orton to fall back on. And when Batista was injured in 2006 following Eddie's death they had Kurt Angle and Rey Mysterio to fall back on. One man can't do it alone but WWE likes to have one man stand out for commercial purposes. But like I said already, it's not the guy, it's what supports the guy.

 

[CuddleBuns84]

So many reasons why the WWE is sucessful... Some of them have been listed in previous posts here. But let's look at one of the things that the WWE goes by.

They have Standardized pro wrestling!

Just like Wal-mart did in the 90's with retail, and McDonald's did in the 50's with fast food, the WWE has standardized pro wrestling.

>They have a developmental promotion in which they break in new talent, and see who is ready for the television spots.

>They don't hire people just on what they have done, but what they can do. Do they let go of good talent, Yes! Do they know how to market someone that follows the WWE business model, YES!

>They are huge on brand management. Always looking for sponsors to help give them more capital. Always having their top guys promoting the company.

>They branch out! We may hate it when celebrities jump in the ring, but WWE knows how to get extra eyes on the product. Whether it's PG or Attitude, the company finds decent ways to get people involved.

>They are organized! So many wrestlers in the past loved the fact they came to the WWE because of the organization.

>Last but not least, they know what they are doing. Vince has been doing this since the 70's, his father has been doing it since the 50's. They are strict on what they want, and they get what they want. They don't put up with other crap.

 

[Calderownz]

Not really, to be honest with you. However, the climate of the era does define who will likely be the companies star.

When the company had it's attitude campaign running, Austin was the perfect fit. With this WWE Universe, Cena makes sense because both he and the WWE Universe are billed as larger than life.

However, they are a product of the era, not the other way around. They might help shape the direction, but that takes a number of individuals to fully pull that off.

 

[ilapierre]

All of you minus Cuddlebuns are out to lunch.

Let's make some corrections to the OP's reasoning:

1 WCW did overthrow WWE as top dog for almost two years. WWE has been overthrown.
2 Sting was the face of the company, he was an unbelievable face when he had real competition finally in the NWO and Hogan.
3 Hogan was and always be bigger than anybody WWE will or has ever created since. Although Sting was the face of WCW, Hogan was the man WCW was built around in the NWO years. Sting opposed Hogan, WCW had two faces. Both much more established than Steve Austin (always a midcarder before 1997) and The Rock (just a random guy in the Nation of Domination).
4 For the guy who thought Goldberg was the face of WCW, ha, Goldberg was only for a few months the go to guy. That's not really a face of the company. The face of the company is the guy who the company is built around. That would be Hogan and Sting. Not Goldberg. Only an 18 year old who wasn't there and who didn't watch WCW would think such nonsense.

WWE standardized wrestling. WWE is Walmart and McDonalds. You elitists support WWE, you also support rich billionaires only concerned with making money. Walmart and McDonalds both don't make the best products, but actually mass produce crap. They sell for cheap, hire for cheap and have the most money for advertising. WWE is the same. WWE survives because it's a family run business, and the family will spend whatever money needed to keep the business alive and family legacy in tact. No other company has had the resources WWE had except WCW and Ted Turner decided he'd had enough of one of his least profitable ventures. WWE survives because it is McMahon's world, it's his legacy, and without it he's a nothing. Anybody with the same resources has those resources based on something much more important than wrestling and they will not be willing to lose those resources to compete in a realm that isn't all that profitable unless you already have a monopoly. TNA is not Jarrett's world or Dixie's world. It's one of many options for rich people trying to get richer. Turner had many other options than WCW although he had the resources to put Vince out of business. It just didn't mean as much to him as it did Vince to put WCW out of business. All the organizations of the 70s and 80s that were phased out didn't have the resources to compete. WWE survives only because it's like Walmart in a world of Kmarts and Zellers. It has the most money, it best exploits its employees and its endless advertising reaches dull unimaginative people with no lives called WWE Cenation.