The fate of pro wrestling

[thebowtiekiller]

ok so this is about pro wrestling in general but mostly focusing on the wwe as there the most popular so i put it in the wwe section im asking in this thread where wwe and wrestling as a whole is heading i dont ever see it dying out completly as it has always had a loyal fanbase but as a globally popular moneymaker has it had its day?


the wwe seems to go in eras and we have seen it go into the so called pg era there has been a lot of reasons for this put forward such as lindas senate race ect but i think the main reason is simply vince saw the need for new young fans to ensure the wwe survives in the future. The attitude era was awesome but it was simply a last ditch attempt to beat wcw it payed off the downside was that wwe was left with a bad reputation making it harder to convince parents to let there kids watch. All the wrestlers deaths wont have helped aswell but this is one of the main reasons the overly squeaky clean pg era came about.


its a smart move by vince in my opinion but i think he may suspect that although wwes doing good now pro wrestling at somepoint in the future is not going to be as globally profitable as it is today. What makes me think this is vinces attempt to distance the company from been known as a wrestling one even going as far as banning the word wrestling at one point.They also seem to be focusing a lot more on other projects such as there movies.


wwe has been sucsessful at reeling in a lot of new younger fans some will be lifelong fans now but some will grow out of it. mma is very popular now and i think many will move on to that as they get older wwe has no real competion now so has no need to take unessacery risks to entertain us tna has failed to grow to there level even with big names and an attempt to start a new monday night war.


I think wwe is slowly going to distance itself from being primarily a wrestling company and into a general entertainment company. With the wrestling getting less and less important to them as i said It seems to have begun already and i dont see tna getting much larger then it is now. as much As i love wrestling i dont think the future is too rosey for it sadly. It will always be around but i dont see it remaining at the level of popularity it enjoys today. So what do you think the future holds do ya see anything like this happening or do ya think im totally wrong

 

[D-Man]

First of all, try using punctuation. It works wonders for people trying to read your posts.

The WWE and Vince have always gone in the direction of making money. The second Golden Age of wrestling (80's) was based around superhero-type characters. Cartoons and comic books were popular amongst the youth at the time so Vince wrote the product based on that. The 90's were about creating characters that adapted to edgier television... hence, the Attitude Era. The new millennium was a rebuilding stage during a time when being PC (politically correct) was the current direction for all of television.

Regardless of how you slice it, you're correct by saying that the WWE is becoming a general entertainment company. Aside from the direction of its product, they've jumped onto the market of social media, films, television programs, and other facets of mainstream media and popularity. They've become and continue to become a well-rounded entertainment machine and will continue to go in that direction, as long as it makes them more money, year over year.

 

[braveh]

I can't remember where I got this info but I remember reading that WWE ordered a big survey and the research concluded that the 18-34 audience don't order PPV and buy merch while obviously the kids do. That was the beginning of the PG-era. They never wanted to alienate the 18+ audience but they made the under 18-audience their first priority.

 

[JaylisJayP]

I can't remember where I got this info but I remember reading that WWE ordered a big survey and the research concluded that the 18-34 audience don't order PPV and buy merch while obviously the kids do. That was the beginning of the PG-era. They never wanted to alienate the 18+ audience but they made the under 18-audience their first priority.

I enjoy watching the current product with my young son, and I'll happily buy him a t-shirt or 2, but there's just no way I'd spend any amount of money on the current PPVs. They are sometimes worse than Raw. And other times only just as good, with very little happening in the way of interesting storylines, which is really all I'd want to pay to see live.

So that's a roundabout way of getting to my point.

And my apologies to The Rock, but it DOESN'T MATTER what "era" we're in. It doesn't matter how mainstream they want to go, it doesn't matter how much social media is integrated into the product.

The fate of the WWE has to hinge on their ability to give us good, interesting, entertaining storylines and characters. In fact, it's MORE important that they refocuse on this if they want to go more mainstream.

 

[thebowtiekiller]

I can't remember where I got this info but I remember reading that WWE ordered a big survey and the research concluded that the 18-34 audience don't order PPV and buy merch while obviously the kids do. That was the beginning of the PG-era. They never wanted to alienate the 18+ audience but they made the under 18-audience their first priority.

as i said there are many reasons put forward why the wwe went pg but one thing very noticable to me was that up until last year wwe was over the top squeaky clean even for a pg rating. Nothing even slightly edgy was tolerated thats clearly because it was nothing to do with the rating wwe was restricting itself and in my opinion one of the main reasons was wwe wanted to clean up the smutty image it had earned over the years and make it more accsessable to a new generation of fans. wwe has been pg in the past before the so called pg era but as far as i know theyve never felt the need to announce it they did this time which kinda says it all in my opinion.

 

[Sexcellence of Sexecution]

I don't really buy into the idea that the WWE is shying away from wrestling as people have often said. Yes, they are undoubtedly shying away from the word "wrestling", but in the modern era there has been a greatly renewed focus on the actual in-ring competition. Look at the Attitude Era in comparison. Matches on RAW were often very short, only a few minutes long, and often ended with some kind of interference or shenanigans. Nowadays when you watch RAW you are going to get 2-3 quality matches, that last a good 15 minutes and have great back and forth action with multiple near falls and false finishes. The WWE is much more willing to give guys the time to go out there and put on a great match on their weekly TV. I think this shows that they do, in fact, value in ring competition, more so now then in they Attitude Era, which was the time of their greatest success in the ratings. Yes, they are pursing other things like WWE Films, but that hasn't really had an effect on their main product and caused "less and less focus" to be put on the actual wrestling like you said.

In summary, the WWE is, whether they call themselves one or not, a wrestling company. Wrestling is what they do, and it's what they will continue to do. It will always be their number one priority. WWE Films and the XFL were a joke, wrestling is really all they've got.

 

[thebowtiekiller]

I don't really buy into the idea that the WWE is shying away from wrestling as people have often said. Yes, they are undoubtedly shying away from the word "wrestling", but in the modern era there has been a greatly renewed focus on the actual in-ring competition. Look at the Attitude Era in comparison. Matches on RAW were often very short, only a few minutes long, and often ended with some kind of interference or shenanigans. Nowadays when you watch RAW you are going to get 2-3 quality matches, that last a good 15 minutes and have great back and forth action with multiple near falls and false finishes. The WWE is much more willing to give guys the time to go out there and put on a great match on their weekly TV. I think this shows that they do, in fact, value in ring competition, more so now then in they Attitude Era, which was the time of their greatest success in the ratings. Yes, they are pursing other things like WWE Films, but that hasn't really had an effect on their main product and caused "less and less focus" to be put on the actual wrestling like you said.

In summary, the WWE is, whether they call themselves one or not, a wrestling company. Wrestling is what they do, and it's what they will continue to do. It will always be their number one priority. WWE Films and the XFL were a joke, wrestling is really all they've got.

yeah fair enough apart from the odd dull one its hard to find fault with the actual matches but i wasnt really talking about just what goes on in the ring i meant wrestling as in the idea of it the whole show.I think wwe are in a fairly subtle way seeing how there fanbase reacts to them distancing themselves from the pro wrestling image. I think in ten years time they want to be known to the general public as a full on entertainment company not just those guys that do that wrasslin show.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

yeah fair enough apart from the odd dull one its hard to find fault with the actual matches but i wasnt really talking about just what goes on in the ring i meant wrestling as in the idea of it the whole show.I think wwe are in a fairly subtle way seeing how there fanbase reacts to them distancing themselves from the pro wrestling image. I think in ten years time they want to be known to the general public as a full on entertainment company not just those guys that do that wrasslin show.

It's not subtle at all. They are trying new things and grow their company. They are a public company with stockholders. They need to show an ability to grow in order to get investors to buy their stock. Investors apparently don't have enough faith in wrestling alone to continue, therefore WWE needs to find other avenues.

It would be smart for them to separate themselves from the "wrestling" label outside of their own programming all together. People who don't appreciate wrestling generally have a negative opinion of it. They should really consider removing their name from their films. Split the division and give it a different name (like Pixer or 20th Century Fax ). They may even want to remove their wrestlers from prominent roles in their films. It's hard to accept wrestlers as lead actors. Hogan had Rocky 3, and The Rock had multiple supporting roles before they became leading men.

Forget it, I'm rambling.

 

[thebowtiekiller]

It's not subtle at all. They are trying new things and grow their company. They are a public company with stockholders. They need to show an ability to grow in order to get investors to buy their stock. Investors apparently don't have enough faith in wrestling alone to continue, therefore WWE needs to find other avenues.

It would be smart for them to separate themselves from the "wrestling" label outside of their own programming all together. People who don't appreciate wrestling generally have a negative opinion of it. They should really consider removing their name from their films. Split the division and give it a different name (like Pixer or 20th Century Fax ). They may even want to remove their wrestlers from prominent roles in their films. It's hard to accept wrestlers as lead actors. Hogan had Rocky 3, and The Rock had multiple supporting roles before they became leading men.

Forget it, I'm rambling.

yeah i agree they should keep the films and other projects separate from the wrestling completly. To someone whos not a fan wrestling isnt exactly considered cool now either which doesnt help but as a fan i dont particulary like the idea of wwe moving away from the wrestling side of things if they can. Seems they are testing the water at the moment but im not really knocking them for it either i think they realise its slowly declining in popularity and they need to think about other things aswell too keep them in the position they are now

 

[scomvp316]

I have always thought VKM wanted to get away from the wrestling business. Despite what he or the WWE Loyalists want to say they are in the wrestling business more than the entertainment business. We can all agree I hope that wrestling is a form of entertainment but will never ever reach the level of "Hollywood" style entertainment. Even during the MNW neither WCW or WWE came close to actually overthrowing the entertainment industry. As a fan of wrestling and not just one promotion I think the newer WWE fans buy into what VKM tells them and they believe it. When you buy up over 90% of the market share it will be difficult for competitors to cut into that dominance. Back in the 90's WWE had slight over 50% of the share so it was easier for competition to compete in certain markets. Thats not giving an excuse for ROH or TNA just the facts. I think WWE will slowly be less dominant when VKM isn't involved in the product. Don't get me wrong WWE will always make at least $300 mill regardless of the shape of their company compared to the industry. Both ROH and TNA have had good opportunities to bring in extra fans but have let top storylines carry on too long with no direction of that storyline. ROH with Steen/Cornette story and TNA with A&8 story. Those stories have not progressed since the inception of the idea. WWE tries to branch away from wrestling but most of their non-wrestling projects have failed. The whole social media thing is a joke because when EB was trying to use twitter as possible new storylines VKM had told the talent they were prohibited to using any social media site. Then when TNA couldn't draw any extra fans from social media like always VKM took someone else's idea and use that to his mass market success. For WWE to be successful in the movie business no mention of WWE should come up. Some have stated they are trying to clean up their image but isn't that VKM's fault? He was way too over the top of going against WCW. If fans were to take a look at WCW's product it wasn't overly agressive. WWE's product looked more like a slightly softer version of ECW. Wrestling can survive only if there is drastic competition to WWE. In the 80's it was JCP and in the mid to late 90's it was WCW. The only way the other promotions can compete is if WWE really screws up. Many believe that can happen when Steph/HHH will be in total control!

 

[spaldoni]

I started watching wrestling in 1981 then stopped watching around 2000. I kept tabs but didn't watch the product. CM Punk has brought me back. One man can make a difference. His promos are great and his matches are exciting. Also with the PG rating, it's nice to be able to watch a match with my son. I like the PG era and the WWE is doing a good job focusing on the wrestling. I haven't ordered a pay per view in 14 years and I don't know if this will happen, but if Punk wrestles Steve Austin at WrestleMania then I will order it. In closing, if I am watching after a 12 year absence and thinking about ordering a pay per view, then they must be doing something right.