Has WWE Forgotten What Wrestling Stands For?

From being one of the biggest influences in Pop Culture to being one giant corporate machine, here's what went wrong.

Has the WWE forgotten it's true roots?

Gone were the days when you were considered to be 'living under a rock' if you didn't watch Wrestling in High School. Nowadays, many fans who still watch Wrestling are met by one general criticism: "Who watches Wrestling Anymore?"

As it turns out, many people still do. While Pro-Wrestling or more specifically WWE popularity has fallen over the years, it is financially getting bigger & bigger as each year passes us by. Revenues have increased for the company, & one can only predict that it will keep getting bigger in 2019. This will be thanks to agreements with USA Network and Fox Sports, effective October 1, 2019, which increase the average annual value (AAV) of WWE’s U.S. distribution to 3.6 times that of the prior deal with NBCU.

With all the finances aside, we need to ask ourselves one question that matters the most- "Has WWE Forgotten What Wrestling Truly Stands For?"

With their weekly RAW's & general booking decisions becoming more unfavorable in the eyes of many fans- Let's look at 5 arguments which strongly suggest that WWE has largely deviated from what made it famous in the first place.

#1: Storylines Don't Mean Anything Anymore

The Good Old Days Are Gone...

Storylines or storytelling- Call it what you want, WWE is responsible for creating some of the best stories in the history of Professional Wrestling. Storytelling is the key to everything in fiction. Movies, TV Shows, novels etc. These mediums work around storytelling too.

Sure, when some stranger to Professional Wrestling is asked to think about the subject, he or she will always lean towards big sweaty men fighting in the ring. But the main reason why people get addicted to this bizarre form of entertainment is primarily due to the amazing storytelling behind it.

Stone Cold Steve Austin & Vince McMahon, Daniel Bryan's phenomenal rise to the top are just some of the best examples this company has to offer.

But ask yourselves this - name one current WWE Storyline that people will remember (in awe) 15-20 years from now. Sure, every now & then some interesting feud comes along. But as of now, is there any WWE Storyline that can justify itself as "Iconic"?

What led to this gradual decrease in the WWE machine to churn out memorable storylines? Well, many fans unsubtly state that it is because WWE is now 'PG'. PG can be great too. Just look at Marvel's appeal as a global franchise. People also blame the writing or the 'booking' in general.

But there has to be more than one factor coming into play here. The fans are not interested in seeing another body replace a storyline that has been repeated over & over again. That is called repetitiveness, which we'll talk more about later.

Wrestling fans are not stupid. They can be immature, but WWE cannot assume its fans to fall for the same trick over & over again.

There are times where WWE accidentally stumbles into something that makes them profitable. These unintentional moments are very much responsible for 'The Attitude Era', but nowadays these 'fortunate accidents' occur very rarely. The next argument explains that...