I've been a wrestling fan for about 20 years, and up until maybe 6 months ago, spent nearly every Monday since 1995 watching wrestling. However, I've gone about 3 months without watching RAW (I never watch Smackdown, but I follow it). My reasons are as follows:
1) Predictability: I started watching wrestling in an era where champions held on to the their titles for a significant amount of time, so I don't have a beef with a consistent champion or presence. However, the actual wrestling is predictable. I'm not talking about the move set (though there's a lot more kicking, punching, and repeated moves than there ought to be), I'm talking about pacing and structure. Begins with a flurry of activity, then rest hold or escape to the outside. All the match comprises of are headlocks and submissions (rest holds) that you know the wrestler will escape from, and brief flurries of activity. This continues till the end, when a finishing maneuver is applied and there're either a pin, reversal, or kick out. But even in that case, these days, it's predictable for someone to kick out of a finishing move, where back in the day it was extremely rare. Also, years ago, occasionally matches ended without a finisher, giving you the possibility that any move could end a match.
2) Lack of Superstars: While people may say guys like HHH, Cena, Shawn Michaels, and Rey Mysterio are superstars, outside of the core wrestling fan base, they're barely known. When wrestling has excelled in the past, their top characters were also mainstream icons (Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, The Rock). I don't see anybody on the WWE roster with that kind of talent or charisma to attain such a role. Till they do, the WWE's audience will have difficulty spreading among those who don't normally watch wrestling.
3) The Product: In the past few years, RAW has become a soap opera within the setting of a wrestling company. Wrestling has taken a back seat to cheap storylines and it's made the product a joke. The WWE hires TV writers to script the show and it shows. Most of these guys come from reality television and failed sitcoms, so it's easy to see how the quality would suffer. There aren't storylines that have been grabbging the audience and holding their attention or creating anticipation. in the late 1990's, one of the reasons people watched wrestling was because you never knew what was coming week to week. Between angles and new superstars, it kept the audience on its toes. These days, suprise appearances are rare, and they stories no longer shock us, surprise us, or hold our attention.
4) Randy Orton: I know there a lot of Randy Orton marks out there, but I think the guy is a mid carder at best right now. I will ignore his attitude issues because they aren't necessarily present on television. He comes across as a high school kid in a drama club with his acting skills. When he tries to convey emotion in his interviews, I can't help but wonder why the WWE doesn't set him up with an acting coach. He also needs to learn to project his voice more if he wants his promos to grab anyone's attention. He has a monotone speaking expression that he has to overcome if he ever wants me to care about his promos. Also, while I will say he has one of the best drop kicks in the business, I can't stand to watch his matches. He is completely guilty of match predictability. While some praise his RKO, it's a move that has been used for years and in a better capacity (see Austin or DDP matches to see where I'm coming from). He's got to learn some new submission hold because headlocks are almost a joke now in today's wrestling. If he gets in better shape (he is a smoker), he can provide a much more exciting pace. With some coaching from some veteran talent, he can interject new moves into his matches. And if he does to continue to develop his RKO, he could certainly be watchable. However, I don't see him developing to that point till a good two years from now, yet the WWE push him like he's their next big superstar. If this is all they have to offer, I'm not wasting my time watching.
Just one lost viewer's perspective. Feel to disagree with me, but I'm also one of the reasons (albeit a small one) that the WWE's rating have taken a dive.
, but never do, simply cus the company won't do anything unless it starts loosing money (which i remember someone saying on here once).