How can WWE stop the bleeding? By taking these 10 steps
With WWE's programming as soulless (if not quite as actively terrible) as it's ever been, Raw (and by extension, SmackDown) is facing a mad dash to the exits among its audience. This is particularly true of viewers under 50. Raw's ratings and demographics have tumbled down a cliff over the past year, and especially after WrestleMania 35, when hundreds of thousands of viewers have tuned out in the last few weeks alone.
This avalanche couldn't have come at a worse time for the company, as SmackDown will move to Fox in a few months, and All Elite Wrestling is set to announce a television deal with TNT next week.
With Fox executives expecting ratings and the threat of powerful competition looming, WWE's long-standing problems have now coalesced into a perfect storm that threatens to splinter the ship's timbers on the tumultuous sea, darkened beneath the thunderheads.
Vince McMahon has pushed the panic button, not for the first time in the past few months. Yet, the announcement of his "wild card" rule is an ad-hoc move steeped in obvious desperation, and this week's ratings were barely a bump up from last week's, so it's by no means evident that this "wild card" rule did anything.
Yesterday, we went over how WWE put itself in this position since 2001. Now let's take a look at the ways that the company might get out of it. It's going to take structural changes, rather than merely cosmetic ones. Nonsensical, ad-hoc attempts like the "wild card" rule won't do a thing. The company must instead do a top to bottom restructuring of the way it makes and presents its content. Anything else is doomed to fail.
Unfortunately, moving Raw back to two hours and ditching PG don't seem feasible, but there are other moves WWE can take to improve its programming. Here they are.
#1 Use the recent NXT call-ups well
The fix begins with using the present roster better, in particular, the recent NXT call ups. To give WWE credit, the most notable members of the recent class of NXT alumni - Aleister Black, Ricochet, Lacey Evans, and Lars Sullivan - have generally been used well. This is important, because the present roster has been so damaged by years of horrendous booking that fans have already written many of them off. If fans don't care about the talent (and WWE has given them every reason not to care), fans don't watch the show. It's that simple. The new class of NXT talent is still fresh and hasn't yet been ruined by WWE's tropes and formulas. The company must take advantage.
Ultimately, Lars Sullivan's ceiling is probably low, even without the recent controversies surrounding him. If his push continues, the likeliest outcome is an eventual loss to Roman Reigns and then a move down the card into comedy roles, much like all monsters before him. It's another annoying formula, but Lars was never that good to begin with.
Lacey Evans' push is premature, and for her own sake, she should not beat Becky Lynch next week, but she has potential. With some more experience, she could be a good part of the women's division.
Ricochet can be a mid-card standout for years to come, thrilling audiences in Intercontinental and US title matches to either open the show or add some energy into it after time has passed.
Aleister Black has the highest ceiling. With the right booking, he could and should be a main event mainstay. He's best positioned to take Undertaker's torch as the dark, mysterious anti-hero, and has many potential spectacle-laden rivalries awaiting him.
For its own sake, WWE needs to take heed with the present NXT call ups, and as we'll see later, the ones that will come up after them.