WWE Analysis: Has Pro Wrestling Lost the Ability to Shock Us?

Hulk Hogan turning on WCW to join the NWO. Shawn Michaels throwing Marty Jannetty through the Barber Shop window. Stone Cold stunning Mr. McMahon. Kurt Angle and that hilarious milk truck. Even Triple H pretending to drug Stephanie so he could marry her.

These were all events in the history of wrestling that shocked the audience and created a buzz that helped push WWE and WCW to bigger and better revenues.

These days, seeing a moment like those is not only rare, it is downright non-existent.

The business has changed drastically in the last 15 years and it will continue to change because, like a shark, if WWE stops moving, it dies.

WWE's more kid-friendly environment is not helping matters any, as the most shocking content is also usually more mature than what WWE is marketing these days.

Take the final Raw of August, for example. CM Punk bleeding sent waves through the WWE Universe and IWC. Why?

Blood is nothing new in the business, and when it comes down to it, it is inevitable that occasionally someone taking hits to the head will be busted open.

Was it because we have not seen that much blood in a WWE match for so long that we were not used to it?

It might have been the rumor of it being a blade job and not the blood itself that caused a frenzy, but really, who cares?

It was entertaining, sure, but did it really matter in the grand scheme of things? Probably not.

This brings me to the important question posed in the headline. Has WWE lost the ability to shock its audience?

When I was growing up in the '80s, it was harder to learn about the history of the business and what came before your generation because there was no Internet.

Nowadays, all one needs is Wikipedia, YouTube and WWE.com to know the entire history of the company and the performers they employ both now and in the past.

When I first started watching wrestling, I did not know who Lou Thesz or Verne Gagne were. How could I? There was barely any mention of them in any publications I bought and read with eager enthusiasm.

Now, if someone just googles "pro wrestling," they will probably come across something involving those names.

Much of today's audience knows what happened in the past, which means WWE has to be more careful than ever not to repeat themselves in storylines, which, in the end, is going to happen anyways.

When a company like WWE is in this position, it becomes imperative to be more current and cutting-edge than ever. But are they current and cutting-edge?

I still enjoy watching and writing about it very much, but I cannot say I have been shocked out of my socks by anything that has happened in WWE in the last seven to eight years.

Edge's retirement was the most shocking thing we have seen in a long time, and it was not even part of a storyline, but rather a real-life, heartbreaking story of a man who gave everything to the business only to find out he was not able to go out on his own terms.

The Rock returning was heavily rumored before it happened, and Brock Lesnar was rumored to return since the minute he announced his retirement from UFC.

Neither of those things were really that surprising when they finally happened. Entertaining, sure, but not surprising.

The great thing about wrestling in the '90s and early 2000s was that we were seeing many new and innovative things in wrestling. It helped make what used to be a guilty pleasure for many into a legitimate part of pop culture.

The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin certainly helped push wrestling into the mainstream, but now it seems as if wrestling is taking two steps back for each step forward.

Marketing to kids is smart because anyone who studies economics knows that children are a major driving force in the economy due to how they get their parents to spend their money.

The thing that upsets most of the fans over the age of 15 is that things seem much more "cookie-cutter" than they have in the past.

Actually, things are just like how they were in the '80s, except they don't have as much room to grow. The '80s was a very clean period in WWE in terms of programming, but they still had blood in their matches.

It is always hard for a company like WWE to repeat success without repeating actual events, so it is easy to criticize them for not coming up with anything groundbreaking without realizing how hard it is to break new ground in a 100-plus-year-old industry.

When you look back throughout the company's history, you will see many instances where they took a turn and went in a totally different direction. Whether that worked out for them is a case-by-case basis.

The fact remains that WWE needs to be surprising, but coming up with ways to do that is the really hard part nobody wants to admit exists.

It is easy to throw out some controversial ideas and say, "WWE should do this; that would be shocking," but there are so many factors that go into it that simply pitching an idea is not enough.

Execution can make a remarkable idea appear as terrible as the Finger-Poke of Doom, but there is hope.

CM Punk and Paul Heyman appearing together was not only a surprise to many, but it was also a magnet for attention, which should be WWE's goal every week.

If WWE remains PG, which it seems like they plan on doing for a very long time, then the last really shocking thing we might witness is someone breaking Undertaker's WrestleMania streak, and that will probably never happen anyways.

So, what do you think? Has WWE lost the ability to shock us?