RCBH928 wrote:"we don’t believe that type of dangerous and brutal display is appealing to network partners, sponsors, venues, children, or the general public as a whole."
WWE is a business, all they care about is money. Wrestling is just an excuse to them. They know money is where the kids at. Now its much worse since they are a public company and they have to keep a positive PR and keep those stocks rising and revenue increasing.
In the Attitude era when they noticed their larger than life , monster of the week, gimmicks were beaten by more realistic and adult oriented WCW Nitro they switched gears and were stepping on a near p0rnography level.
Money wise they are making the correct decision. If I had a kid I rather him watching WWE than come into the room with him piledriving his brother into the kitchen table. That being said, wrestling historically was not a kids only show. Adults who watch WWE today are closer to adults waiting to see what happens next week on TeleTubbies. The adults market has been picked up by AEW.
I just hate that WWE paints itself as the main wrestling company of the world. They should paint themselves closer to Sesame Street.
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I am surprised WWE mentioned AEW. WWE never ever mentions a competition. They act as if they do not exist. I bet they are scared deep inside, really scared. And Hunter is scared AEW pulls a WCW on them, indeed Mr. Khan is richer than Vince. I think he is richer than the whole valuation of WWE not sure. Hunter will not know how to face this competition. Maybe Shane can save the company if they ever drop the ball.
WWE fans have tried denying it for a while now, but there is ample evidence at this point that WWE is very concerned with AEW. It's not because AEW is at WWE's level, but because the amount of success AEW has had in just over two years is nearly unprecedented. They are gaining ground fast and I don't think that sits well with people in WWE. It should be noted that the first time NXT and AEW went head to head and AEW won, WWE issued a public statement telling AEW that "this is a race, not a marathon". So yes, AEW is very much in competition with WWE. Even Tony Khan has acknowledged this
I don't think AEW poses the same kind of threat that WCW did...at least not yet, but WWE clearly is not happy about the company's success. I think it's a pride thing too. AEW regularly puts on better shows than WWE and many people, including WWE alums like Mic Foley acknowledge this publicly. To put it bluntly, AEW makes WWE look bad and has been doing it for over two years now. That little rant in that article I think is WWE reacting to that. I think it legitimately pisses off certain people within the company and probably Vince McMahon himself. WWE is the biggest pro wrestling company in the world, but if you ask a lot of wrestling fans who is the BEST pro wrestling company in the world right now, they'll say AEW. There's quite a few other pro wrestling companies many fans consider better than WWE as well, that's how much of an embarrassment WWE is today, but AEW is clearly the largest and most successful of them.
With so many options for wrestling fans today, and with a major company like AEW having such a good product, it's never been more obvious how much WWE sucks. Also, running shows in Saudi Arabia and firing over 80 people in 2021 (and more people in 2022) has really put the company in a negative light. Also, the company that made such a huge deal about a "women's revolution" a few years ago has been treating their female talent like crap lately. They had a women's Queen of the Ring Tournament that had like 19 total minutes of actual wrestling. They buried one of their most promising stars, Bianca Belair in a squash match where she lost her title in like a 10 second match on one of the biggest pay per views of the year. It doesn't help matters that this was like the second time in the past few years that a black champion lost a title match to a white competitor in matches that didn't even last one minute. Both times on major events (Kofi Kingston lost his title on WWE's premiere on the Fox network after taking only one move from his white opponent). That's just not a good look for your company
I don't understand what goes on in the minds of the people running WWE. Also, Hunter seems to be in the dog house. They fired several people who worked with him, as well as several wrestlers that he had helped within the company. It's like if you were associated with Hunter in any way, you are probably looking for employment right now