WWE Stuck at Three: Do Drastic Times Call for Drastic Measures?

June 27, 2011. 

That was the day that CM Punk shot on the WWE. 

The day that pro wrestling was turned on its ear.

That episode of Raw did a 3.1 in the ratings.

The following week did a 2.7, but that was the 4th of July, so people were out enjoying fireworks.

The week after that? 2.9

The next week? 3.2. That was after the fantastic Money In The Bank pay-per-view.

The week after that? 3.2

Then, 3.3, 3.09, 3.2. 

Now, this past week of Raw has done a 2.97

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a full nine weeks of the era of CM Punk, and unfortunately, it has done nothing to ameliorate Raw's ratings.  

The episodes before June 27 also came in at around the same clip; the June 21st episode did a 3.1, as did the week before it.  

This is potentially unfortunate news for fans of CM Punk.

Had Punk's angle raised the average number of the ratings even a little, we could be sure that the WWE would run with it.

But, it doesn't seem to be working to draw in viewers whatsoever.  

The WWE did something that they rarely, if ever, have done before in an attempt to boost interest in the product.  They actually gave a loquacious and piquant entertainer a microphone and allowed him to say whatever he chose in order to bury the company on camera. 

That, and the repercussions of it, hasn't had even an infinitesimal effect on the ratings.

So, does the WWE get desperate from here? 

What options do they have if they decide that the CM Punk "Reality Era" isn't enough to turn the company around? 

What other last-ditch efforts can they take?

We're going to take a look at the most desperate maneuvers the WWE can possibly conceive, in the face of honestly, the best angle in years, not working to produce new viewership.

*Disclaimer: This article is not endorsing these ideas in any way.  It is merely presenting last ditch efforts the WWE could possibly consider in the event that the ratings keep sliding. 

Move from TV-PG to TV-MA

The format change of the WWE from TV-14 to TV-PG facilitated a mass exodus of the viewership from Raw and Smackdown.

A generation that was raised on Stone Cold flipping the bird and guzzling beer, The Rock threatening to sodomize opponents with sideways objects, Candice Michelle stripping in a bathtub of chocolate syrup and Degeneration-X flashing their "sausages" to a live crowd, could in no way tolerate something like Hornswoggle winning a championship.  

The casual fan that tuned in to follow entertainment personally geared for them, grew irritated with seeing John Cena screaming for no apparent reason about how he'll never give up. 

"What happened to John Cena, the rapper?"  Was probably a question posed a million times. 

And for every one of those million questions, two households turned to something else. 

It is possible that the WWE could reverse this trend and decide to embrace a TV-M rating.  

The profanity, the blood letting, the nudity and the adult themes.  They could let it all out.

And possibly, they should let it all out.

The current WWE not only doesn't appeal to the 17-49 male demographic; it probably doesn't even appeal to the 14-16 demographic either. 

This is a generation that is growing up with television like the Jersey Shore.  Their music idols are Lady Gaga and Eminem.  While the previous generation grew up with the campy Batman, this generation grows up with the Dark Knight. Many teenagers pass the time arranging "flash mobs" and robbing stores en masse. They are sexting.

And now the WWE is trying to get them to enjoy leprechauns, jocular uni-browed Italians and a giant screaming fruity pebble? 

It's clearly not happening. 

An alteration in format to make the product more risque and edgy like other programs that are fashionable now could inject new life into the business.

However, all the naked skin, bloody faces and execration in the world, doesn't replace a gratifying story. 

It will just become raunchy trash if the WWE doesn't write compelling stories for people to sink their teeth into. 

But, making the rating change is definitely something that the WWE could look to as a last resort. 

Turn John Cena Heel

And at the heart of the PG Era, is this man: John Felix Cena. 

For almost every adult male that still endures the PG era, he is the cynosure of their asperity and revulsion.

You would never conceive it by looking at him now, but once upon a time, in a land far, far away, John Cena was actually a highly popular performer. 

The Chain Gang leader was a impertinent, trash talking, lyricist with a penchant for telling people to put his testicles in their mouths. Even his finishers were known as the "FU" and the "STFU."  (If you don't know what those phrases stand for, you're probably too young for me to explain it to you.)  

But with the demise of the Attitude Era and the rise of the PG Era, the WWE did away with the cutting edge performer.  

Instead of the "FU," now it's the "Attitude Adjuster."  Instead of slick and humorous freestyle rhymes, it's overacted promo after promo with John Cena pretending to be the marine he portrayed in the movie.  No one ever stopped to think: "Hey! That movie bombed! We probably shouldn't model our biggest star after a box office stinker!"

But they did.  

And now, John Cena represents everything that any male, and some women, over the age of 12 abominates about the WWE.

He can actually talk on the microphone when he tries.  But we don't care, we hate him.

He actually has "increased his work rate and added to the five moves of doom."  But we don't care; we hate him.  

The WWE used to be able to determinate that when they pushed a face too hard and he got booed, that it was an indication that he wasn't being received by the audience and they would repackage the character until it worked.

It's what they did when they metamorphosed "Rocky Maivia" into "The Rock" and actualized one of the biggest wrestling stars in history.

It's what WCW did when they realized Hogan had become hackneyed and turned him into "Hollywood Hulk Hogan." It revolutionized the entire industry. The maneuver took WCW from the doldrums to almost putting the WWE out of business.

But for some reason, the WWE has decided to write the disgust of the crowd off as "He's controversial."  

No, he's not. There is absolutely nothing controversial about John Cena. He's as tame as a milk-fed rabbit.  

The boos are those of genuine animus and disgust for the character. And more than CM Punk's angle not working, it's the fact that John Cena in "Trix are for kids" mode makes people turn the channel.

The WWE has been in denial because they are petrified at the thought of losing his merchandise numbers as "Lil' Jimmy" keeps snapping up his t-shirts by the bundle.  

And like the cries of an abandoned babe screaming for sustenance, hardcore wrestling fans cry out regularly: "Turn Cena heel."  And like the thoughtless mother who leaves her child in the car on a blistering summer day, the WWE just disregards their cries.  

(Am I being too dramatic?)

But, now the WWE may have no choice.  With Punk getting attention, but not procuring higher ratings, the WWE is running out of stratagems.  

Turning John Cena heel, will probably not be the same world-changing event as Hulk Hogan turning heel, because he is nowhere near as massive a star as he was.  

However, John Cena turning heel, with an overall format shift from PG to Mature, may get people talking again, and may get some of the fans who abdicated back.  

Perhaps even grown men may start to like John Cena again...anything is possible.   

If things don't turn around in the ratings, this is a move the WWE will probably make, even though they are loathe to do so. 

Fire the Entire Creative Team

Brian Gewirtz, David Kapoor, Ed Koskey, Kevin Eck, Pierre Clemont and Tom Cassielo.

These are the "creative" writers for Raw and Smackdown who work under the watchful eyes of Stephanie McMahon-Levesque and Vincent K. McMahon.

And they should all be future endeavored. 

I put a disclaimer at the front of this article. But, I am endorsing their termination. I would call for the termination of Stephanie as well, but that's akin to drinking the entire Pacific Ocean. It will never happen.

But one drastic move the WWE could make, and should definitely, absolutely make, is releasing the entire creative team from their positions.

This is the team that thought it was a great idea to have the Nexus lose at Summerslam last year.

This is the team that had Wade Barrett talk about a "bigger picture" and then materialized nothing.

This is the team that conceptualized the Raw Anonymous General Manager and then just forgot about it.

This is the team that allows Hornswoggle to still be on television ranting in gibberish.

This is the team that thought a face Ezekiel Jackson was a good idea.

If 90 percent of the wrestlers on the roster come out and wrestle every match without any kind of story or angle, exactly what are you creating? 

Why are you being paid? 

For all of the hatred John Cena receives for his antics on TV, he's only doing what he's told.  If they tell him to rap, he'll rap. If they tell him to behave like a less talented doppelganger of the Rock? He'll do it. If they tell him to go out in blue spandex with a red cape, so he can look more like Superman than the booking already makes him appear, he will.

For every boring, uninspiring, insipid Raw and Smackdown you complain about, it's the creative team's fault. And it's Vince and Stephanie's negligence that allows it happen. 

It would be a severe step for the WWE to release the entire creative team and employ a new one. 

But, maybe getting some fresh eyes and young wrestling minds on the situation is exactly what's in order. 

Personally, I think encouraging fans to submit to the feedback option on WWE.com for their shows, and actually listening to the better ideas they gleam from it, would be better than paying people to formulate puerile drivel.

Give Creative Control to Paul Heyman

If there is one thing the post-Attitude Era has taught us, it's this:

Vince McMahon, Vince Russo, Ed Ferrara, Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman are not as good as we thought they were at continuously creating ideas for great T.V.

Every last one of them have dropped seriously horrendous ideas on television.  Whether it's the Gobbledy Gooker, The New Breed, The New Blood, or "Joker" Sting, they have all dropped bombs.

However, when it comes to selecting one of them to pilot the direction of a company creatively, I would have to pick Paul Heyman. 

McMahon and Russo didn't create the attitude era of the WWE, as much as they pilfered it from Paul Heyman's ECW.  Stone Cold Steve Austin was really just a remodeled version of Tazz, and if you ever watched the original version of ECW, you would know it. 

Paul Heyman is the creative source that gave us Tazz, The Dudleys, RVD, Sabu, Sandman and Raven. 

Paul Heyman was the one who opened the door for guys like Mick Foley and Chris Benoit to Brian Pillman and Chris Jericho to a larger audience.

Paul Heyman was the man who introduced the Luchadores and Japanese-style wrestling to the American market.  He popularized the Hardcore style as well.  All of the things you saw WCW and the WWF doing, ECW was executing it first. 

Paul Heyman also has an eye for talent, as he was the one who endorsed men like Brock Lesnar and CM Punk, as Punk famously mentioned in his work-shoot promo.

Paul has worked for the WWE in the past. But, he never was given predominance in getting his ideas on television. He had to work within the WWE's system and had to pass the McMahon smell test before it hit television. And even then, it was Heyman who handled the booking and careers of guys like Kurt Angle, Edge, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit.

Ultimately, Heyman couldn't handle the mockery that Vince McMahon made of the ECW name, amongst other slights, and decided to quit after a falling out with Vince. 

But, with ratings stagnating in the threes, perhaps the WWE might take a look at giving Heyman the control he never had before. 

It is highly unlikely, given Vince McMahon's ego, that this would occur. But, if ratings deteriorate from this position, perhaps Vince might consider it. 

Paul Heyman is in no way the perfect booker, but he has proven time and again that he understands how to get wrestlers and ideas over with the wrestling public. 

He may be just the man that the WWE would need if they decided to go more edgy and hardcore in an attempt to raise the ratings. 

But again, this would happen at nearly impossible odds. 

Rush to the Climax of the CM Punk Angle

In a previous article I wrote, I praised the WWE for taking things slow on the CM Punk angle and giving fans something to hypothesize and opine about for the following week's Raw. 

With the ratings remaining sluggish, however, the WWE may choose to jump the gun and go directly to the climax they were preparing for this angle, whatever that may be.

If this angle is going to lead to the creation of a new "Corporation" with Triple H, Stephanie, Alberto Del Rio, Kevin Nash, X-Pac, HBK and John Cena against the "Straight Edge Revolution" with CM Punk, Colt Cabana, The Kings of Wrestling, Chris Jericho and Chris Masters, then the WWE might just jump directly to that. 

And while I personally think that it would be an erroneous decision for the angle, the WWE may decide they need to put something exhilarating and far reaching on television to see if this will advance the ratings to a higher level.

They also may prematurely launch the climax of the angle just to hurry and get past it to attempt something new with the principal characters in the story. 

Although, judging by the reaction to their move to bring CM Punk back after only two weeks of absence, hotshotting the angle might have an adverse reaction and turn people off of the only truly interesting story the WWE has going today.

Either way, look for the WWE to do something drastic in this angle if the ratings don't improve. 

Throw Money at Old Faces

The WWE has already hinted at doing this. Kevin Nash is the attestation of those reports.

But, it is going to take more than Nash to turn the ratings around. 

The WWE may, in an effort to boost the ratings, decide to call up everyone from Chris Jericho, MVP and Batista to Bobby Lashley, Stacy Kiebler and Mick Foley and make them an offer beyond repudiation. 

They may have to pay The Rock a prodigious amount of money to do more than just Wrestlemania 28 and ask Stone Cold to come out of retirement if he really is confident he can wrestle for two more years. They may have to ask the same of HBK and X-Pac, as well. 

The irony is that they don't really have a lot of options on big names that are no longer with the company because TNA has snapped a myriad number of them up. 

Not to mention that TNA is a great example that hiring back old stars might not be a successful strategy. 

TNA employs Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle, Mr. Kennedy, RVD, Jeff Hardy, Ric Flair and The Dudley Boyz and still can't find their way out of the quagmire that is the 1.0 rating.

Why? Atrocious booking. 

The same thing will apply with the WWE. They can bring back all the stars from Ken Shamrock to The New Age Outlaws.

But, if they don't know what to do with them, it will be wasted money. 

Throw Money at New Faces

Another road the WWE can take is in bringing in all the new faces to the WWE that they can get their hands on. 

They can obtain the Young Bucks, The KOW, The Briscoes, Samoa Joe, Kota Ibushi, Davie Richards, Eddie Edwards and Beer Money; they can even call up Obariyon and Kodama.  

The WWE can even bring up their FCW talents (Whatever happened to Percy Watson?): Naomi Knight, Tyler Black and Husky Harris; they are all down there.

But the problem with that is, nobody knows who they are. 

And even if you bring them up and let them completely annihilate your current roster, it's still meaningless, because they'll just be extirpating stars who could only deliver a three in the ratings, anyway. 

However, bringing in a bevy of new faces may have an "everything but the kitchen sink" effect, in that if they introduce enough new characters, someone may have the necessary "It" factor that causes fans to want to tune in to see them.

It's not an exact science, being able to ascertain if someone is a superstar or not.  If it were so easy to perceive an icon in a young wrestler, then the WCW may never have let Triple H, The Undertaker, Mick Foley, Chris Jericho and Stone Cold Steve Austin slip through their fingers and land in the lap of the WWE.

Right now, no one can know for certain if a Jay Briscoe, Robert Roode or Kota Ibushi would be a megastar until the WWE plucks them from ROH, TNA or NJPW and puts them on the main stage.  

The WWE may have this same mentality and make an aggressive push to bring in fresh faces and see what sticks if they can't turn the ratings around.   

End the Branch Extension

There have been many calls for this to happen from the fans, me being one of them, although there are also fans who want the brands to be separated in order to give more time to various stars, and not have a product that is dominated by John Cena, Randy Orton and Triple H.

But the reality is that the athletes in the mid-card who benefit from a brand extension just don't draw. Ratings quarterlies show time and again that people turn the channel when men like John Morrison or Alex Riley appear on TV. 

And let's not even mention Smackdown's lugubrious ratings. They even descend below the 2.0 threshold on many occasions. 

Gone are the days when there were enough solid main-event draws that warranted a branch division. 

There is no Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Bobby Lashley, Shawn Michaels, Batista, Ric Flair, Edge or Umaga. The Undertaker is rarely seen, and Rey Mysterio is rarely healthy. 

With horrendous ratings for Smackdown and brackish ratings for Raw, the WWE may finally decide to declare the Branch Extension a failure and amalgamate the two rosters. 

And while this would undoubtedly cause some mid-carders to get unsubstantial amounts of time on television, the WWE may deem it a necessary evil in order to get all of their major players on one show.  The reasoning being that each segment would be filled with more wrestlers that the fans care about and would keep them watching through the telecast.

If ratings remain static, the WWE may pull the trigger on this before they consider anything else. 

Partner with TNA

While it may seem impossible to most that the WWE would work with a competitor in TNA, older wrestling fans may remember that that is exactly what Vince McMahon did in 1995 before the Monday Night Wars.

Vince allied himself briefly with Paul Heyman and ECW to perform a cross promotional angle on Raw and a handful of WWF pay per views. ECW got to perform a few matches in front of the WWF crowds, and the WWF got to present something new and fresh to its fanbase.

While the "invasion" didn't do much for the WWF at the time,working with ECW and ascertaining how something with more edge and attitude sparked the crowd, it became the idea that Vince fell back on to combat WCW after the inception of the New World Order. 

The point here is that Vince McMahon has demonstrated that he's not above doing something like a cross promotional angle if the business calls for it.

In the same way that ECW was no match for the much larger WWE, TNA is no serious threat to them, either. If Paul Heyman had the finances to keep his talent under contract, then we might be seeing ECW as the last promotion standing in the Monday Night Wars.  TNA has funding, and they still can't put up a decent fight, so there is no real danger to the WWE by exposing the masses to TNA to speak of.

The WWE may reach out to TNA for a brief partnership to pique the interest of wrestling fans and get them to tune in.  Another "invasion" angle might be run.  The boon to TNA would be enormous, as it would get them more exposure and it could possibly benefit the WWE in the ratings department.

It might even give them the next idea for a new era, in the same way ECW gave the WWF the idea for the attitude era.

This is unlikely to happen, however, and bringing in a promotion that only has one-third of the ratings you bring in, probably won't do much to energize the ratings.

But should Raw decline below the 3.0 mark on a regular basis, this may be a rabbit that the WWE is willing to pull out of the hat.  

Embrace Celebrity-Mania

When it comes to the biggest spectacle on Earth in professional wrestling, Wrestlemania, Vince and the WWE spare no expense to bring the celebrities out, whether it's Donald Trump and Floyd Mayweather or Snoop Dogg and Kid Rock. 

They want the fans that follow those celebrities to purchase Wrestlemania to see them. It's the only reason why they bother, because wrestling fans are going to watch Wrestlemania regardless of who is performing.

But what if the WWE utilized this gambit for Raw and Smackdown? 

Not penny-ante celebrities like Mark Cuban or Steve-O, and not just Raw guest hosts, but megastars that would cost a substantial amount of money to appear and angles with these stars that continue through seven or eight appearances over a two month stretch?

Personally, I find the thought revolting.  Celebrities have about as much business being in a wrestling ring as a pedophile has hosting a sweet 16 birthday party. 

But, having ample celebrity interaction with stars like Megan Fox, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, hold on—my finger is rebelling against me for this blasphemy. OK, I'm good—Justin Beiber, Beyonce and Will Smith, will definitely attract the attention of the mainstream media and lure inquisitive viewers.

Continuously doing it may allow viewers who only came to see Rihanna to discover they like Randy Orton and keep watching it for him. 

Having a weekly performer sing a hit song or two, like the format that Saturday Night Live employs, may up the ratings. 

It's not an idea that I like, and I doubt many true wrestling fans would embrace it, but it may just be the thing to attract the casual fan. 

But, if this last-ditch effort were to work, the WWE would have to produce television that is engrossing in and of itself. 

Otherwise, they'd just be wasting gargantuan amounts of capital on A-list celebs, but never retaining the fans that followed to see them once they are gone. 

Create Controversy

Probably the most desperate thing the WWE could do if the ratings continue to descend in to the two's is create controversy. 

The WWF understood that the more controversial they were, the more talked about they became. It was the "Any attention is good attention" strategy. 

Some examples are when the WWE enacted the terrorist angle with Muhammad Hassan, DX raided WCW's Monday Night Nitro or The Kat exposed her breasts to the world.

Yes, the PTC was furious, and the media was dismissing the WWF as vulgar and oafish entertainment for jocks, sexists and degenerates. 

But the ratings were never higher. 

Although society masquerades as too sophisticated for low brow entertainment, Howard Stern is one of America's highest paid radio personalities, The Jersey Shore is still one of the most popular shows on television (God only knows why...), and Rihanna prancing around half-naked on stage is still one of the world's most popular acts.

The world still loves car wrecks.

So, even beyond the rated-M aspects of the show, the WWE might create additional controversy if that is not enough..

They may do outrageous things like showing up to a televised Republican town hall meeting and creating a scene, going to the Oscars or Grammy's and creating a stir or popping up en masse at Good Morning America and doing something outlandish, things that will get the public talking about them again. 

They would also be carrying out angles and stories in the ring again that will kick up dust with the PTC, FCC and sponsors.

This is the lowest of the low when it comes to the approach the WWE might take. I wouldn't expect them to pull stunts like these unless the company was in a terminal tailspin and in danger of going out of business. 

But, if the situation ever does deteriorate to that point, the WWF has done it before, so I wouldn't put it past the WWE to do it again.  

Conclusion

At the end of the day, all of these last ditch efforts the WWE can try will be nothing but gimmicks.

Nudity, controversy, new faces and partnerships will never be a suitable replacement for the simplicity of remembering how to create interesting stars and engaging storylines.

The WWE can execute all of the antics this article presents, but it will be a waste of time and money if the core values of creating truly entertaining wrestling shows are abandoned.

The last thing the WWE should do is panic and start blowing things up in a frenzy.  An intelligent and methodical approach to rebuilding the brand is the best course of action to take.

Getting people interested in the characters you already have is more important than hiring more characters and still not understanding how to get people interested in them.

Shock value has its place, and it would even behoove the WWE to integrate lilliputian amounts of that in the process to make things exciting again.

But what is paramount is that the WWE goes back to the basics of the 1980s and 1990s and remember how to gauge what the fans want and what will get mainstream society to get engaged with the product again.

Nine weeks is a inconsequential amount of time for the average person, but it's an eternity to an entertainment industry that lives and dies by the numbers. Nevertheless, an intelligent, tactical approach to the CM Punk angle and the product as a whole will be what benefits the company, the superstars and the fans best in the long run.