Is McMahon out of touch with what fans want?
Is Vince out of touch?
Last week, we looked at Jon Moxley鈥檚 debut with All Elite Wrestling.
Moxley, known in WWE as Dean Ambrose, appeared on Chris Jericho鈥檚 podcast recently and talked about how handcuffed he was in WWE and how many others are also held back.
What is leading to this?
Is it that Vince McMahon, now north of 70 years old, is out of touch with what fans want?
Recently, there have been several reports from reputable pro wrestling outlets, like the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, that have said there are many unhappy people in WWE right now with Triple H possibly being the most frustrated.
Anyone in Triple H鈥檚 shoes would understand his rumored frustration.
Triple H has done a masterful job with the NXT brand to make stars.
But as soon as most of the wrestlers are called up to the main roster, Vince either buries them or they got lost in what is known as the lower/midcard purgatory.
The wrestlers are brought up, a few have decent runs or storylines early but then most of them fade away.
The perfect example is EC3.
Other stars come up, fans either get behind them or go against them and then Vince pulls the rug out from under their proverbial push to superstardom.
Braun Strowman stands out here.
Triple H, as well as other talents, routinely give Vince ideas.
But part of the problem is that WWE is currently employing around 40 writers for their TV shows.
It has been touched on in this column how bad WWE鈥檚 writing has been as of late, and maybe part of the problem is that there are too many chefs in the kitchen giving McMahon menu ideas.
Yes, WWE鈥檚 new TV deals are secured and very lucrative, but can McMahon really think that the product he is putting out weekly is truly entertaining?
On the April 29 edition of Raw, the show set an all-time low for viewership among non-holiday shows with only 2.158 million viewers while the May 14 Smackdown garnered its lowest audience for a first-run show since it moved to the USA Network with 1.827 million viewers.
Does this all correlate with what Moxley was talking about?
How bad was it for him?
He was offered a multiyear deal worth multi-million dollars per year.
Would it really hurt for Vince to give his performers a little say in their own characters?
All McMahon would have to do is let the performers be extensions of who they are in real life.
It worked when Vince almost went out of business in the mid-1990s and the Attitude Era was born.
But if he keeps pigeon-holing talent with bad storylines and even worse lines to say, WWE鈥檚 product will continue to suffer.
Super Showdown just another show
WWE鈥檚 most recent PPV, Super Showdown, took place Friday afternoon on the WWE Network.
The event started strong with solid matches but went downhill as it neared the end.
Most notably was the main event clunker between The Undertaker and Goldberg.
It was obvious that the men, both north of 50, ran out of gas.
In fairness, it was excruciatingly hot in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and the humidity played a factor.
A friend of mine who works for WWE texted me a picture before the show from Jeddah.
It was 101 degrees and it felt like 106 degrees just prior to the event.
He said the only saving grace was that the sun went down by the time the event started.
On This Day鈥�
In 1994, the WWE inducted its first full class into its Hall of Fame.
While Andre the Giant was the initial and only inductee in 1993, seven people were inducted the next year including 鈥淐lassy鈥� Freddie Blassie, Bobo Brazil, James Dudley, Gorilla Monsoon, Arnold Skaaland, Buddy Rogers and 鈥淐hief鈥� Jay Strongbow.
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