I am divesting from WWE.
What does that mean exactly? It means I refuse to buy merch or tickets to shows. I don't watch RAW, NXT, nor SmackDown, and I do not subscribe to ESPN Unlimited. I don't even "put RAW on in the background" because I don't want to give them my view. More than these practical choices, I'm electing to stop caring about WWE. I'm disentangling my concearns as a wrestling fan from the very idea of WWE. They are not the only game in town. There's plenty of wrestling elsewhere. Wrestling that's better and more accessible, if I want to get my fix. Why am I doing this? Simple. I find their content dull, uninventive, and frustrating. I do not appreciate being priced out of my fandom, forced to buy an over-priced streaming service I'll rarely ever use. Rather than just going along with what they're giving me, I'm taking my agency back and saying, "No". Put simply, they've lost a paying customer due to the low-quality of their product and the rising price tag for it.
I've gone on breaks from WWE in the past, mostly because their quality is so erratic. But something is different about this break. Unlike in the past where I just assumed I'd get reeled back in, I'm taking a more purposeful stand. I want them to lose viewers. I want their deal with ESPN to fail. I want these things not because I want the company to hurt (as if they could). I want these things to happen because for WWE to get better they need more than angry posts and hashtags. They need hard, irrefutable evidence that what they're doing, creatively and financially, is not in alignment with the desires of the average wrestling fan.
This break isn't fueled by my disdain for twenty minute opening promos, backstage segments, one-dimensional characters, a lack of real stars, and poorly developed stories. It's fueled by a recognition that this company does not care about my particular sort of fandom. Why, then, should I care about them? They don't want a thinking, feeling, passionate fan base. They want a consumer who mindlessly gobbles up whatever they're fed. Due in no small part to the existence of AEW, I no longer need to just accept that fact. I can turn to a form of weekly wrestling that's more satisfying, more character-based, more action-centric, and more thoughtfully booked. AEW isn't perfect. It still shares a lot of the late '90s wrestling DNA with WWE, an era the wrestling business can't seem to outgrow. Backstage segments still look and sound terrible. Promo trains are the norm. But for all of AEW's aeshetic flaws, their form of wrestling is charged by the passion of the fan. There's an overriding sense that the fan is the priority, that the fan will be "taken care of", and that it's okay to place one's faith in a longform story. Put another way, AEW respects my intelligence. WWE does not.
For WWE, my intelligence is a nagging irregularity to be squashed by pyrotechnics and canvas adverts.
And that's what I want you, WWE-fan, to consider.
Does the company have your priorities at heart, or are they paving over everything that makes you unique in the interest of making billions?
We witnessed the creative process firsthand in WWE: Unreal on Netflix (or at least we saw what they wanted us to see). One need only observe John Cena's fairwell tour, his lackluster turn as a heel, to see that the company's creative mechanism is flawed seemingly beyond repair. There are two distinct levels to WWE-content.
Level one are your top tier stories reserved for champions, programs that pitt "the big" superstars against each other. Your CM Punks, your Seth Rollins, your Cody Rhodes, your John Cenas, and so on. These stories appear to be planned a few months in advance, allowing room to pivot as needed. The manifestation of these stories is nothing unique, though. Promo-trains, tag matches between heel/babyface factions, backstage brawls, and, occasionally, actual wrestling matches. The narrative structure is akin to a snake eating its own tail - it recycles endlessly, a great, reptative wheel of skits, monologues, and conflicts. It isn't all terrible all the time, of course. Occasionally, CM Punk, Paul Heyman, or John Cena will say something interesting or have a good match at a premium live event. And some characters, like Rhea Ripley, seem to have struck a genuine, emotional chord in the WWE fanbase.
Level two represents "everything else". This would typically be referred to as "the midcard", but WWE does not have a midcard. A midcard is the most important thing for a professional wrestling promotion to have. It should represent a deep well of creativity to draw from whenever the top of the card needs an injection of life. The midcard should be a lovable cast of fully formed characters, putting on show-stealing matches and cutting fun promos. In modern WWE, the non-existent midcard is a cast of unrecognizable characters who lack agency and intrigue.
These wrestlers take up most of the weekly broadcasts within the same narrative structures as the top (promos, backstage segments, interviews, matches), only their matches are entirely disposable. These matches do not contribute to any semblance of momentum. At any point, these depthless characters can disappear from television, thereby negating any percieved progress. They're filler, requiring less creative energy and, therefore, less thought. Your Rusevs, your Sheamuses, your entire women's division, your El Grande Americanos, and so on.
For all the talent at its disposal, WWE still fails to figure out a way to create a vibrant midcard that can support an equally vibrant Championship narrative structure.
All of this, for me, has made WWE unwatchable (even when some of my favorite wrestlers are presently working there). I'm not saying I'll never watch the company again, but I am taking a healthy hiatus and I'm going to see what effect that has on my fandom. So far, it's been nothing but good. No more hate-watching twenty minute monologues or meaningless matches. No more trying to figure out the cheapest way to have access to premium live events. I encourage you, the discerning wrestling fan, to join me in this experiment. Let's see what happens when the message becomes clear that wrestling fans don't enjoy (or can't afford) what WWE is selling.
I don't expect the company to change on a dime just because one beleaguered fan has given up on them. But if enough of us band together and proudly say, "No", then perhaps things will change.
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