Levin: Ranting About WWE Doesn't Solve Its Problem

I have gotten to a point where the rants by former WWE Superstars have fallen on deaf ears. Everyone seems to have an opinion about the state of the promotion, but they do not offer a solution to the stale and sometimes unwatchable content on Raw and SmackDown. I tend to agree with a column I read that essentially asked the question, “How long will Raw and SmackDown be on regular cable television.”

The article makes the case for WWE programming to become exclusive to the WWE Network and that the change in times and culture of fans limits the viewership. Fans who want to watch three to four wrestling shows a week will plunk down $9.99 a month for this right? In theory, it centralizes the viewership and maximizes ratings.

It’s a move that would keep WWE afloat in its current condition.

I liken it to college football, where there is a channel for the SEC and the Pac-12. The NFL has its own network and if fans want to watch a Thursday night game, they must pay for the site. But that isn’t the crux of this column. The basis is that former wrestlers like to tell everyone how they feel about the state of the business they made popular. Recently, Mick Foley jumped on the “look at me” bandwagon with an epic rant about how he is on the brink of becoming one of the millions to jump off the WWE boat. Foley, who would not have been a mega star in this business if not for Vince McMahon’s circus, is quick to point at the problems he sees week after week.

To paraphrase Albert Einstein, who said “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results,” the results aren’t in favor of the company. Wrestling historians can argue about when the Attitude Era in wrestling officially began. But for me, it will always be at a meeting called by Mr. McMahon in 1997, where he admitted that model that had worked for them for so long in the past (I interpreted that to mean one-dimensional characters that tended to be job-related) was no longer working, and that if they were going to survive, the wrestlers themselves were going to have to step up and help create those dimensions that would establish the emotional bond between the wrestlers and the fans—part of the lifeblood of professional wrestling.

I get where Foley is coming from as a fan. For years, I went to shows, watching my heroes like Ric Flair and Barry Windham sell the fans on the match and the drama leading up to the confrontation. Today’s wrestling is a shadow of its former self and a sham for everything Lou Thesz and Orville Brown created in decades past.

But for all Foley’s complaints, which are valid, why not offer a solution to the disconnection between company and fan? Why not offer to help write better storylines, come up with solid scripts, and become the solution instead of fostering the problem?

Wrestling used to rely on wrestlers to create scripts and book matches. That’s why a guy like Jim Cornette or Dusty Rhodes were critical to the success of the NWA and World Class Championship Wrestling. That’s why a guy like Eric Embry, a marginal performer and a regional star, had a successful career.

If wrestlers like Foley, Paige, and even Bret Hart—who have been critical of the parent company in recent months—want to see change, they must jump in and offer to help, rather than stand on the sidelines of social media.

Maybe getting back to the roots of the problem will create a kinder, gentler program to watch, and in turn, will help bring the masses back to the shows they used to watch regularly, but cannot stand because of its staleness in the current state.

Follow Wrestledelphia.com contributor David M. Levin on Twitter at .