WWE’s Struggle with Building New Stars
The WWE star-power struggle is stuck somewhere between tennis and golf
There’s a lot of wrestling fan denial. The first thing wrestling fans whiff on is understanding that the WWE has little to no mainstream appeal.
Mainstream appeal boils down to this:
Walk down Central Avenue of your city/town/community, and say Jay-Z or Leonardo DiCaprio. Those not locked away in a cave in the Rocky Mountains somewhere in Utah likely know who you’re talking about. The more people know who you are, the more “mainstream appeal” you have.
The WWF built three undeniable mainstream stars, the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson whom is a Hollywood megastar nearing the Leo and Jay-Z levels of fame, the Texas rattlesnake Stone Cold Steve Austin, and the marred and mal-contented legacy of Hulk Hogan.
We’re nearing two decades past the infamous runs of Austin and Rock in the proclaimed Attitude Era, and their names still resonate. Hogan was at the height of his popularity in the 80’s, and only really fell off after a remarkable run with the NWO in the late 90’s. Hogan’s recent return to fame has involved him in sextape scandals and racism, which is never fun, but his name remains in the news nonetheless.
Pool up the names of every WWE wrestler, past to present, and poll a random city street corner to see who knows who, here’s a likely top-5 of wrestlers who have the most mainstream appeal today.
- The Rock (known for his wrestling past, but struck fire as an actor)
- Hulk Hogan (more negatively at this point, but still the most famous of all-time)
- Steve Austin (easiest way to remember the 3:16 verse)
- John Cena (more on him in a minute)
- Brock Lesnar (propelled by his brief MMA stint)
Cena and Lesnar are still wrestling in the WWE today, mostly part-time,
After these five, only certain demographics remember their favorite superstars from their era. Andre the Giant and Macho Man have quite iconic careers, but younger audiences may only know of them by reputation. For me growing up, Rey Mysterio and the late Eddie Guerrero were all the rage. But these aren’t names people are going to resonate like the list above. It may take someone a second to remember who exactly Steve Austin is. “OH yeah, the Stone Cold guy!” Just because you’re reading this and you and all of your friends know who Stone Cold is, doesn’t mean he’s universally known across the states. If you’re talking to guys in their 30’s and 40’s, they might be able to rattle off names like HBK, Triple H, Bret Hart, and others from the Attitude Era crop when the WWE was at its mainstream peak.
So now we come to the 2017 WWE roster. Name me the guys or girls who have been presented outside of the product?
John Cena? This reminds me of the biggest problem in tennis.
Sports, while unscripted, are still narrative based. Sportscasts are a production, a show, an entertainment product. You cheer and boo for your team or competitors based upon your perspective. You get invested in your current teams’ players based on their talent or backstories.
The WWE and tennis
The problem tennis ran into was that its three transcendent stars were not bringing in any new fans. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic are going to go down as three of the best tennis players ever, but neither of them have the personality of a McEnroe who stirs the pot and then throws it at the line judge. THAT attracts eyeballs.
John Cena and Roman Reigns are the Federer and Nadal in the WWE’s mind. The fans don’t want the same two guys constantly in their main event, especially when their talent in the ring and on the mic doesn’t compare to half of their roster.
Which brings me back to the golf comparison. Golf also has a star power issue, and has been pushing the narrative of a youth movement in search of the next Tiger Woods. The problem in golf is that there is no one like Tiger Woods and most golf fans want to see a Tiger that looks and plays like Tiger.
By the way, Tiger Woods = mainstream appeal.
In any sport or entertainment realm, the person that catches fire is going to carry the product. Every one else is chasing that person. The WWE had this in the Summer of Punk (CM Punk is the last WWE wrestler to have real mainstream attention). In golf it was Tiger, in the UFC it went from Ronda to McGregor. In boxing it’s Floyd. All of these names become larger than life superstars because they were at one point or still are the best, and a larger than life personality helps.
It works in television as well, I’ve never watched an episode of The Bachelor, but because of the mainstream value the show has, I now know who Corinne is and can reason with why she’ll probably get her own show on the E network.
The WWE and golf
The current state of golf is a plethora of young talent mixed with a few nostalgia acts vying for wins, with the torch constantly shifting to the flavor of the season. There’s some great talents like Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, among others, but you read these names and say, “Who are these guys?” You prove my point. None of them have Tiger in their name.
To the non-WWE fan, there’s A LOT of who are these guys on the roster that ONLY wrestling fans are aware of. AJ Styles, Nakamura, Bobby Roode, Kevin Owens, Cesaro, Sami Zayn, Seth Rollins, and I can go on and on. These talents get haphazardly written and booked up and down the card like golfers on the weekend leaderboard. Nobody gets definitive wins on Cena and Reigns, so there’s no true dominant superstars on the card to be excited about.
Setting a Cena ceiling and its effect on younger talent
Triggered Cena disciples alert. Are you really prepared to know what he’s MOST known for by 15–30 year olds?
The John Cena prank call video, which is hilarious, has 33 million views. The video is hilarious because it pokes fun at the ridiculous nature of the WWE, and how suburban moms hate it with a passion. You know why this also works, because Cena’s theme song is hilariously and obnoxiously annoying. Replace this video with any other wrestler’s theme song and it loses it’s hilarity.
John Cena is best known as an internet meme.
He’s not the electrifying people’s champ, he’s not Stone Cold, the phenom, Macho Man, or the Nature Boy… He’s the guy 12 year old’s joke about on YouTube as the wrestler they can’t see.
The IWC (Internet Wrestling Community) and wrestling writers will have me on their hit list for this, but John Cena being the WWE’s mainstream superstar for the last decade is a big reason that the WWE can’t build new superstars and have to rely on Lesnar and Goldberg at Wrestlemania 33. As a member of the IWC reading this, you can’t be upset about Lesnar and Goldberg possibly headlining Mania because you did this to yourself. No new superstars were allowed to breakthrough and become headline attractions.
CM Punk: Gone.
Daniel Bryan: Mentally gone and not allowed to compete.
And that’s it. The two guys who had a chance to be crossover superstars, they’re out of the picture.
Punk had the more culturally relevant moment with the Pipe Bomb promo in 2011. The pipe bomb received a lot of media attention because Punk was not only visceral in his speech, but raised issues that were bigger than wrestling.
The WWE is a niche entertainment product
Wrestling is a niche product. Like golf and tennis, it’s only going to attract a certain type of fan. For most people, wrestling was a phase when you were 10–12 years old.
The audience engagement is around 3 million, Monday Night Raw is a little north of 3 million viewers each week, and the WWE Network ranges from 1.3–1.5 million subscribers.
The WWE fan base is communal, and one that often gets pegged as nerdy. WWE brands its fans as a “universe”, so that assessment may not be too far off. I look at it more as a guilty pleasure commodity. Much in the same way that more grown men have arguments over who they thought was better between N-SYNC and the Backstreet Boys. The recollection of 90’s WWF and WCW was a little bit more testosterone and angst ridden then today’s WWE. I’ll let my elders debate on the validity of that claim.
It’s important to understand the WWE fan base when regarding the question of why WWE can’t build mainstream stars. Hardcore fans tend to overrate or overvalue what they’re exposed to most often. For example:
In the WWE Universe: Randy Orton is a future hall of famer who hears voices in his head and is known for his nasty cutter finisher the RKO.
In pop culture: Randy Orton is known for the viral “RKO outta nowhere” video.
In the WWE Universe: Dean Ambrose is the lunatic fringe whose jokes land about 33% of the time.
In the real world: Dean is the guy ahead of you at 7/11 buying a 6-pack of Bud Light.
WWE’s inability to build transcendent icons is a step above the real issue that they are too stubborn to address. WWE is lacking main event stardom within its current roster. WWE’s issues with creative and booking has been a longstanding one and can be its own separate piece that requires a lot more detailed attention. The wrestling talent is there, the proper booking and creative is not.
What’s important to understand is that booking two main event faces in Cena and Reigns who are not even halfway over with the fans is not a good start. The booking issue starts there which requires a lot of history and explanation.
So let’s take a gander to the creative side. The writing, the production, and the overall presentation of the product and the effect it has on the wrestlers.
WWE has its moments, and with Wrestlemania season upon us, there were two breakthrough moments that definitely put some eyes on back on the product.
Breaking down the creative/booking of Kevin Owens
Kevin Owens lit up Chris Jericho during a celebration of their long-standing friendship.
Owens is a guy that I, among many wrestling fans, have been excited about since he first entered NXT and had a memorable feud with Sami Zayn. Owens and Zayn had a storied history in Ring of Honor, and it translated well to the NXT product, but sadly never on RAW.
Out of the entire roster, Owens would be the guy I would look to build into the top superstar in the company. His dynamic charisma, powerful yet agile ability in the ring, and sense of the moment make him a marquis main event talent.
The problem. Owens is already damaged goods. Owens won the Universal title because of Triple H, and then held it because of help from Jericho and Strowman. Owens shocked the wrestling world when he beat John Cena clean in his first match, but then proceeded to lose the feud. Since then, Owens can’t find himself in a feud where he gets a definitive clean win. Now that he’s finally on his own, he has no credibility to his name versus Goldberg who’s been squashing Brock Lesnar.
The takeaway: Owens and Jericho had a great run from the standpoint of being entertaining, but the in-ring booking hasn’t legitimized the Kevin Owens character. Owens arrived as the prizefighter, but somewhere that title got lost in continuity. Owens is in a strange position now, but not one to be the next guy, until he’s given better booking and more leash on the mic to deliver more scathing verbiage.
Bray Wyatt echoes Kevin Owens’ sentiments as he’s too been booked to lose A LOT and then the wins don’t come cleanly. This brings me to my next positive segment with its downer caveat.
And for those curious, these are the win-loss records of Wyatt and Owens.
Owens: 107–193
Wyatt: 165–396 (for the love of God!)
Let that sink in while I watch this next segment for the 33rd time.
Breaking down the creative/booking of Bray Wyatt
Randy Orton lit a shack on fire.
The promo Orton cuts is absolutely ridiculous. Orton is B-movie goofy in his delivery, but because it’s Orton you just accept and enjoy it. Orton infiltrated what was left of the Wyatt family and burned down Bray’s sacred home. Much like Owens’ turn on Jericho, we knew Orton’s turn was coming, but it was how the turn was executed was what grabbed the viewers attention.
I wrote an excellent piece about Broken Matt Hardy’s revolution of what a wrestling show could look like going forward. I also highlighted the WWE’s issues with their format.
As noted above, Bray Wyatt’s character is buried in losses, so his only saving grace can be when he’s the center of a seminal moment like he is now with Orton. Bray Wyatt isn’t the type of star that you’d expect to break through the mainstream like Owens could, but booking is the only thing holding Wyatt back from being the top heel in the company.
The WWE isn’t incapable of building stars and promoting them into at least a segment of the mainstream culture. But to really strike a chord, the process takes patience and care.
In the end, the WWE needs to put more stock and value into its writing and production to help budding stars like Owens, Sasha Banks, Finn Balor, and Enzo & Cass, so that they can have an opportunity to break through not only within the company, but also possibly within the mainstream culture.
