Before I start, no, I don’t think for even a second WWE will die. But it’s already stagnating, and the impending death of TNA will only make it worse.
We all pretty much general agree here on IP that Vince and the ‘E are at their best when someone is nipping at their heels. Wrestling’s last big boom was when WCW was barking at the door. Vince was constantly having to fight to be the top dog in the yard, and it made him hungrier, sharper. While the Attitude Era certainly had more than a few hit or miss moments, overall it was one of the ‘E’s strongest periods. But after WCW died and Vince picked the carcass clean, things began slipping. The most obvious example being his refusal to shake up the stale character he’s kept Cena stuck in for a decade. That refusal to turn him heel would NEVER fly in the Attitude Era. In the attitude Era Vince was more than happy to keep throwing shit against the wall til something stuck.
Without competition, he’s content to just use whatever lands on the floor.
Now don’t get me wrong here. No one in their right mind would argue TNA was ever WCW level competition. They were NEVER a direct serious “wolves at the door” threat to Vince like WCW was. But for a good while they were JUST enough. While Vince doesn’t take risks like he used to, and has pretty much neutered his product via TV-PG, he’s taken JUST ENOUGH risks because of TNA being out there trying to compete he otherwise might not have, such as pushing Punk and Danielson.
But as TNA has slowly rotted away into the barely viable husk it is now, WWE’s ratings have slipped too. Danielson, Punk and the Wyatts are the only things on Raw consistently getting top tier reactions these days, and the Wyatts haven’t been around long enough to hold onto that kind of audience excitement if they keep just being put out there without direction. There isn’t much else going on, on either main WWE show, that’s being well written or is really in any way engaging.
And let’s face it; TNA WILL die after it’s sold. It’s in a coma. It’ll take a miracle to salvage TNA after the damage Hogan and Bischoff did when Dixie stupidly trusted them to push her pet project to new heights. She gave them the keys to the kingdom because they did wonders for WCW in 97. But she forgot that Bischoff and Hogan also both played a major role in WCW’s ultimate failure. Dixie screwed up and put janitors in charge of the war room.
And as so many of us predicted, over the past nearly four years now since Hogan and Bischoff took over the booking, TNA has consistently dropped in quality and squandered fan interest. It’s such a mess now that they’ve resorted to blatantly ripping off angles the WWE did barely 2 bloody years ago.Before Hogan TNA had settled into the niche ECW left behind, and fans flocked to it over WWECW in droves. Now it’s even WORSE than last days WCW, and that’s sad.
When whoever buys TNA buys it, it’ll take a miracle to save it. And since the most like buyers are two men notorious for one good decision amidst hundreds of awful ones, Jarrett and Bischoff, there’s effectively NO hope TNA will survive.
And when TNA dies, Ring Of Honor will be the last closest thing to any kind of competition Vince has left. And Vince, already fucking his own product up the ass with bad ideas and storylines that make no sense or don’t go anywhere, wasted talent, no real direction, and the continued spotlight hogging of past their prime guys over pushing younger talent, will get even lazier. He will stop caring about pleasing the fans much at all, or making compelling TV. He’ll blame the ratings decline on wrestlers HE dislikes regardless of fan input. He’ll insist that UNCreative cater to all his bad pet ideas that no one will have the spine to say no to.
When TNA dies, so will the last shred of Vince’s drive to put out the best product he can.
And those are going to be some dark boring days indeed.
