I don’t profess to be any sort of guru when it comes to pro wrestling or specifically, the creative process pertaining to pro wrestling. I’m just a fan; a long-time fan that knows what he likes and what he doesn’t like. And after watching the debacle that was Monday Night Raw this week, I felt the need to write this to Vince McMahon knowing he’ll never read this and doesn’t care but I needed to say it anyway, almost like a little cleansing of my soul.
Dear Mr. McMahon,
I believe that your television ratings specifically for SmackDown have almost bottomed out, meaning they’re almost at the point where you only have your hardcore fanbase left. I say “almost” because the casual viewer still comes and goes, particularly after PPVs or when anything newsworthy happens. But I believe that your typical weekly average (particularly for SmackDown) represents mostly the hardcore fanbase at this point because you had been averaging a shade over 2 million viewers recently on USA Network for a taped show on Thursdays, then went live on Tuesdays expecting a massive bump would occur but aside from the live debut for the draft show, you seem to have settled in so far in the 2.7M range. I think that that 2.7M still includes a percentage of casual fans, and that the previous 2 million (ish) number more closely represents the “bottomed out” number, at least for SmackDown.
Raw which is your flagship show and which will likely always exceed SmackDown’s ratings for that reason, is averaging in the 3 million viewer range lately, a number that would have been considered terrifying years ago, but that still places the show in the top 10 on cable weekly as Internet streaming and cord-cutting continues to erode the cable audience. I think that this number also represents an “almost bottomed out” number, meaning the hardcore fanbase for Monday Night Raw.
What’s my point? My point is that after years and years of mediocre creative, your company has managed to not only chip away at its casual viewership but is also leaving hardcore fans wondering why they still watch the product. If these trends continue you may eventually be looking at numbers that have USA Network reconsidering their rights fees contract, especially when it comes time for renewal. And just as ratings are very much a product of creative, I think that the WWE Network subscriber count is as well. I think that your company will see increases in network subscriptions as more people become educated on Internet streaming, but those increases will be offset by cancelations from disenchanted fans sick of a terrible product.
As a fan, I want to see WWE survive and thrive since they are for all intents and purposes, the only game in town. And so for you Vince, I offer up the following points, if not flat out pleas:
1.) Accept the fact that you are out of touch with your audience and give Triple H more creative leeway. This isn’t your fault; you’ll be 71 the end of this month catering to an audience mostly comprised of males in the 12-17 and 18-49 demographics. A 71-year-old man shouldn’t be expected to know what a young man 5x younger than him likes. Triple H on the other hand is 47 and although he isn’t perfect, he’s a student of the game and has proven with NXT that he’s capable of listening to your audience and giving them what they want. I’m happy to see that you’re showing some flexibility as far as allowing guys that in a previous time you might not have perceived as stars to shine (Daniel Bryan, Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, AJ Styles) but you have to have the confidence to get behind some of these guys full force rather than do the 50/50 “even steven” booking all the time, since that doesn’t get anyone over and you end up with a full roster of mid-carders.
2.) Accept the fact that pro wrestling is not Hollywood. When you produce Raw on Monday nights, you are not “making movies” as you have stated in past interviews. Wrestling is a different animal from your average scripted television show or feature film. There really isn’t a “fourth wall” in wrestling; the talent acknowledges that a camera is present and looks directly into the camera to address the audience, or the live crowd. When the lights go out and the arena empties, the wrestlers don’t really stop portraying their characters. In other words, whereas Robert Downey Jr. can walk down the street and be acknowledged by his fans not as Iron Man or Tony Stark but as Robert Downey Jr., nobody is calling Roman Reigns “Joe” or Seth Rollins “Colby”. Wrestlers are unique individuals that way.
And this leads me to…
3.) You can’t expect Hollywood writers to understand the wrestling business and write a quality wrestling show. During the 1980’s boom period, it was mainly you and Pat Patterson writing the shows. During the even bigger boom period in the 1990’s, it was mainly you, Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara. At both times, the shows were captivating, they were entertaining, and the characters were larger than life. Unfortunately – in my opinion – the financial windfall and meteoric growth that you enjoyed with the “Attitude Era” caused you to believe that WWE is a Hollywood production studio. If “Saturday Night Live” has a large staff of writers then damn it, WWE should have a large staff of writers. And forget about hiring people for creative positions with wrestling backgrounds, let’s hire people that wrote for “The Simpsons”! Let’s write full scripts of dialogue, just like they do on TV, and have the talent recite them word-for-word rather than provide them with bullet points and allow them to showcase their own individual personalities by addressing those bullet points in their own way. No if we want the talent to do things our way and say what we need them to say, we’ll teach them to memorize and recite full scripts. Being able to improvise and play off the live crowd is an overrated skill anyway, right?
And what happens when you’ve grown out of touch with your audience, and you surround yourself with a staff comprised mostly of “Hollywood” people with no wrestling background and who don’t understand the uniqueness of the wrestling product, but with the pressure of delivering 5+ hours of live programming a week? You end up with a product with no fluidity. A product where angles are started one week and forgotten the next. A product with a lineup of performers that look the same, sound the same and work the same style of match. A product that is creatively sloppy, lazy, lacks common sense, and insults the intelligence of your audience – which you might be surprised to know, is far more educated about the wrestling business today than ever before.
In the 80’s and into the 90’s, it was almost unheard of for the same finish to occur twice on the same card. Even more than that, it was almost unheard of for two wrestlers in two separate matches to work over the same body part or use the same finishing move. If a guy in the main event was going to work the neck, then a guy in match #3 better not. If a guy in the main event was going to use a piledriver, then a guy in match #4 better not. Today, you’ll see a roll-up finish three matches in a row, or a distraction finish, or a DQ finish. And superkicks! How would Shawn Michaels have felt if he was around today and saw wrestlers in every freakin’ match up and down the card using a superkick? Why are you sitting back and allowing much of your talent (not to mention the agents) to do these things? And why are you allowing much of your talent to become complacent and change nothing about themselves, their look, their mannerisms, their move set, their gear, nothing week after week, month after month and year after year, because they’re just content in their spot and happy to be on TV? Does it not bother you to see the Usos (for example) in the same gear, same face paint, doing the same entrance, same stupid hops to the ring and same move set today that they did five years ago?
On top of that, in the 80’s and into the 90’s you would never see Wrestler A take on Wrestler B in a free TV match prior to a big scheduled match on PPV. They would always be kept apart to build up the big match. Today, you’ll see Wrestler A take on Wrestler B three weeks in a row on Raw, followed by a “rematch” at the next PPV.
The Vince McMahon of the 80’s would have never allowed any of these things to happen. Why do you turn a blind eye to it now? How is it acceptable today when it wasn’t then? Have you become as complacent as much of your own talent?
Your roster today is arguably the richest it’s been with respect to in-ring talent than at any point over the last 15 years and while some are complacent, many are not. Listen to your live audience – they want to cheer for Cesaro; they want to cheer for Kevin Owens; they want to cheer for Seth Rollins. Your roster has skill and your roster has hunger, but they’re at the mercy of the pencil-pushers in the back and it’s up to them – and ultimately to you – to right the ship.
This isn’t meant to be a roast or another “people on the Internet do nothing but talk shit,” letter. These are just the words of a long-time wrestling fan and paying customer who wants to continue to support your product but who becomes less and less interested week over week by the mediocre creative being delivered by your team. My words have been echoed by many wrestling fans and even by people on your own payroll, but you seem to be oblivious to our concerns, perhaps because of the misleading financials that indicate how profitable your company is even though we both know you rely on rights fees for profitability more now than ever in the history of the company. That means that delivering a strong product to maintain strong ratings should be of the utmost importance to you to ensure your company’s future is sound. You’ve got to shoot for the stars Vince - reach for that brass ring!
Sincerely yours,
JV
