Elimination Chamber 2021

[CavemanLynn]

Which one is going to whip his trousers off on his entrance?

[Vamp]

I mean, they gave Drew a long run with the title (admittedly probably decided before lockdown), turned Reigns heel, had Bryan win a Chamber match, gave The Miz the title in the first time in forever and Lashley might have a big match at WrestleMania. Plus Belair won the Rumble. And the upcoming Mania will probably only have one "legend" (I guess you could call Edge that) which admittedly is mostly because even Taker can't be arsed anymore but still...

It's a bit harsh to say they haven't tried anything different. Admittedly most of that is with tired acts that have been around forever but then that describes the majority of their roster. That even describes NXT at this point. 

But yeah, ultimately they're not a traditional wrestling promotion anymore. They're content creators where the quality of the content isn't as important as the quantity. What's easy to see as their creative nadir is also their business success. I kinda don't blame them for checking out.

I'm more surprised they haven't recast old creative content to be honest. Definitely thought we'd have a new NWO or DX by this point. 

 

[LaGoosh]

I imagine the writers are glad. No more Vince yelling and screaming at them and changing everything last minute. You can just write the laziest shit now, put your feet up and the millions just rolls in.

[DCW]

So what is the motivator at all now for them? just make sure that the next TV deal is equal to or greater than the current one? surely the ratings have to matter a bit to ensure that at least that happens.

[Carbomb]

The thought occurs that the current situation is great for other companies like AEW, Impact, and NWA if they can get themselves a bit of wider exposure. As long as WWE churns out uncreative crap through sheer complacency based on a brand-guaranteed audience and continual huge money deals, the other promotions can carve out a share of the global fanbase by putting out good, creative programmes, not worrying about the added competition in that department from the biggest in the world.

I don't doubt that WWE will get back to previous creative highs eventually, but until they do so, those competitors should try and make hay while the sun is shining. They'll never match WWE, but they can cut themselves a bigger slice than was previously possible.

[Yakashi]

1 hour ago, DCW said:

So what is the motivator at all now for them? just make sure that the next TV deal is equal to or greater than the current one? surely the ratings have to matter a bit to ensure that at least that happens.

Vinces motivation is to sell the company. It’s been known for a while it’s for sale. So I’d imagine he wants to make it is attractive as possible to potential buyers. Which is sort of the opposite of what he’s doing.

[BomberPat]

11 hours ago, Carbomb said:

The thought occurs that the current situation is great for other companies like AEW, Impact, and NWA if they can get themselves a bit of wider exposure. As long as WWE churns out uncreative crap through sheer complacency based on a brand-guaranteed audience and continual huge money deals, the other promotions can carve out a share of the global fanbase by putting out good, creative programmes, not worrying about the added competition in that department from the biggest in the world.

Eric Bischoff talked about how it didn't matter how much WCW beat WWF by every available metric, "WWF" was still the byword for wrestling. Sting would do public appearances and get introduced as a "WWF wrestler", sports commentators would refer to things getting out of hand as "like something out of the WWF" even while WCW was trouncing them.

At their best, they never got that level of brand awareness and equity, because WWF just rule the roost in that regard. Even with the change to WWE, and AEW having arguably a better relationship with the press than WCW ever did, that's even more the case now, and AEW's a harder name to sell people on than WCW.

So it's going to take a lot for other brands to really capitalise on WWE being in the doldrums. In terms of picking up lapsed or disappointed fans, I can't imagine there are many left who haven't started watching AEW already, unless they've given up on wrestling altogether. Other companies' best bet is to pick up those fans and, more importantly, fans who have never watched wrestling in the first place - and, anecdotally, that seems to be where AEW are outdoing WWE.

What I'm curious about is the effect that AEW's success will have on WWE TV deals. If AEW continues to beat NXT in the ratings, and occasionally even do better than RAW - and it's not unthinkable that the trend continues - then are networks going to start questioning why they're expected to pay so much for WWE's product when another wrestling company are producing it for a fraction of the amount, with greater success, and attracting a more profitable demographic for the marketers and advertisers? It's there that the point around brand equity really becomes all WWE have going for them as a saleable weekly TV product.

[Carbomb]

10 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Eric Bischoff talked about how it didn't matter how much WCW beat WWF by every available metric, "WWF" was still the byword for wrestling. Sting would do public appearances and get introduced as a "WWF wrestler", sports commentators would refer to things getting out of hand as "like something out of the WWF" even while WCW was trouncing them.

At their best, they never got that level of brand awareness and equity, because WWF just rule the roost in that regard. Even with the change to WWE, and AEW having arguably a better relationship with the press than WCW ever did, that's even more the case now, and AEW's a harder name to sell people on than WCW.

So it's going to take a lot for other brands to really capitalise on WWE being in the doldrums. In terms of picking up lapsed or disappointed fans, I can't imagine there are many left who haven't started watching AEW already, unless they've given up on wrestling altogether. Other companies' best bet is to pick up those fans and, more importantly, fans who have never watched wrestling in the first place - and, anecdotally, that seems to be where AEW are outdoing WWE.

All true, but that's why I made sure to specify that these companies could carve out a piece of the market, but that they'd never beat WWE, because of the virtual guarantee that their brand now affords them. 

As to that last paragraph, something did come to mind: although many a wrestling fan has touched nary a boob, I wonder how many with kids left WWE for AEW and have started raising said kids on the same? Probably not that high a number at the moment; it would probably require WWE to be shit for quite a long time, but it seems to me that this is probably the longest sustained period they've been in the doldrums creatively, and, given how they're still making money hand-over-fist and still several times that of their competitors, they probably won't be encouraged to raise their game any time soon. 

In essence, this is a working demonstration of how WWE have been so successful, that the only ones who could beat them are themselves - and, if they're not careful, they could find themselves doing just that in the long term.

10 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

What I'm curious about is the effect that AEW's success will have on WWE TV deals. If AEW continues to beat NXT in the ratings, and occasionally even do better than RAW - and it's not unthinkable that the trend continues - then are networks going to start questioning why they're expected to pay so much for WWE's product when another wrestling company are producing it for a fraction of the amount, with greater success, and attracting a more profitable demographic for the marketers and advertisers? It's there that the point around brand equity really becomes all WWE have going for them as a saleable weekly TV product.

Like with so many of the discussions on here that discuss WWE's industry strategy, I suspect the answer comes down to the same one that it has time and again: things will most likely only change when VKM carks it.