Over the past year or so, WWE has let a lot of talent go both in front of and behind the camera in an effort to shore up corporate profits and to usher in new blood from its developmental program. Personnel-wise, TNA has done the same but instead of bringing in a lot of new talent, they’ve gone to the well by bringing back veterans like Devon and Low Ki to shore up their ranks and provide arguably a better product than what WWE is producing right now.
TNA’s biggest challenge is that their contract negotiations with Spike TV and other cable channels have been shaky for a while now. They want to give the fans what they want but aren’t sure they’ll have the outlet to do so for much longer. Despite this, week in week out, TNA’s talent puts their best show on.
The matches are better because the talent level is so high and the shift away from silly backstage story lines has served TNA well of late. Veterans Booby Roode, Eric Young, Samoa Joe and Bully Ray have been performing at a very high level lately and the fans are the benefactors. Relative newcomers Bram and EC3, who some fans doubted could hang with the legends around them, proved continually they could both dish AND take it with the best of them.
Compare that to WWE’s current Champion, Brock Lesnar who shows up when his paycheck does or Bo Dallas' diaper and thumb sucking routine. You start to see the key difference right now between the two promotions.
When WWE brings in old school talent nowadays (with the exception of future hall of famer Chris Jericho who can make a bowl of skim milk into something worth watching), they don’t give them anything to do! Poor Dave Bautista was shoehorned into the Authority. Lesnar was given a corner to sulk in and after his release from UFC. All Hulk Hogan has done at WWE since his re-signing is flub lines, mess up names and remind everyone how cool things used to be. Settling for the cheap pop of bringing a fan favorite back isn’t helping - having a battle plan to utilize veteran talents in a way that’s going to help the product shine will.
The other part of the problem is the WWE network. On paper the network seems like a can’t miss - hours and hours of archived classic matches, unique first-run programs, talent showcases to peruse and free PPVs. But ever since the numbers have plateaued for them, WWE has started do show signs of desperate flop sweat in the face of corporate quarterly meetings that are showing losses across the board. By banking solely on the network, WWE has forgotten to give the fans what they want, more cool free stuff, not to chant 9.99 every week.
The fix for WWE is a lot simpler than it seems - put more of the focus back on your flagships, Raw and Smackdown. This preoccupation with hyping the PPV-of-the-month is hurting the product, especially when the PPVs are of lesser significance. Move Night of Champions and Payback back to USA and SyFy and that will build the important events like Summer Slam and Survivor series up better.
With big events, big talent and memorable matches usually follow. THAT’S the surefire way to put things back on track for WWE, that is unless they want TNA to keep showing them up. Then by all means, they should keep doing what they’re doing.
DAVE PARRISH
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Ensuring a better future, for ALL
http://www.operationsavetheearth.com
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