World Wrestling Entertainment continued their dominance over the wrestling world in 2016. While Ring of Honor grew this year and TNA struggled, the WWE continued to be the only game in town in pro wrestling (or sports entertainment). While reports of low ratings and revenues were prevalent throughout 2016, the company remained strong adding numerous new shows on the WWE Network and increasing the amount of “pay-per-views” to two a month.
The biggest issue that the WWE faced in 2016 was the general direction of the product going forward. With Triple H (Paul Levesque) becoming a major player behind the scenes, you see the type of product he wants to produce on his weekly NXT shows. For the main roster programs like Monday Night Raw and Smackdown Live, Vince McMahon’s fingerprints are all over the formulaic, out of touch shows. At some point the product will change and 2016 was the year where fans made their displeasure at the old way of doing things more vocal than in past years.
While there is a lot to discuss regarding the WWE and the year 2016, there are three specific stories from the year in the WWE that got people talking. We have to start with the influx of new talent that came into the WWE and changed the landscape of the company.
New Stars Inject Excitement Into WWE
Towards the end of 2015, reports had AJ Styles, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows coming to the WWE from New Japan Pro Wrestling. With that announcement, people were excited but expectations were set low for the three stars, including Styles who many believed would have a hard time gaining favor with WWE brass. That thinking was immediately discarded when Styles debuted at the 2016 Royal Rumble to a great reaction. Yes the Rumble was in Orlando which is TNA’s home base but the reaction he received had to at least calm fears that Styles would have a hard time in the WWE.
Moving through 2016 Styles became the best worker in the company, along with the one of the most popular stars, gaining the WWE Championship at the Backlash show in September, a title he holds at press time. Along with Styles, Eric Young, Austin Aries, Ember Moon, Roderick Strong and others have debuted for the company and this new blood has given a freshness to the NXT product that will translate onto the main roster in the near future. The other debut that had people talking was that of Bobby Roode who made his debut in the summer. The man that many believed was the flagship of TNA Wrestling after Styles left, Roode has become one of the mainstays of NXT and his entrance is one of the most “glorious” WWE fans has ever seen.
The highlight of these moves is that besides Roode, the other signees are not the stereotypical size that the WWE usually looks for. This goes back to the philosophical differences that began to show between Triple H and McMahon. Triple H wants wrestlers no matter the size while Vince still wants big guys whose wrestling skills may be as good. If 2016 proved anything, it’s that smaller wrestlers can be successful and get over with fans in the WWE.
The Brand Extension
It was announced in July that the WWE would be embarking on another brand extension, their first in five years. The thought from many fans and pundits was that no matter what, Raw would come out stronger and ultimately be the superior show since Monday Night Raw is the flagship show while Smackdown Live has always been the little brother to Raw. After the draft those thoughts continued as Raw received many of the biggest stars while Smackdown Live received John Cena and not much else. A funny thing happened as the new year dawns upon us Smackdown Live is the better show with the better roster.
As Raw’s three-hour show has seen its ratings drop steadily since the brand extension, Smackdown Live’s ratings has hovered near 2.3- 2.5 million viewers consistently with the Dec. 27 Smackdown beating the Dec. 26 Raw show in the ratings ( 2.885 million to 2.855 million ). While Raw struggles to fill three hours and produce an exciting show, Smackdown Live is focusing on storylines and wrestling … you know, what a wrestling show should be. AJ Styles as WWE Champion and a strong women’s and tag team division is the trademark of Smackdown Live. The Tuesday night afterthought has the best show in the WWE going in to 2017.
The Oversaturation Of The WWE
One of the downfalls of the brand extension was the announcement that each show would have its own pay-per-view eight months out of the year. That meant that for some weeks you could watch up to nine hours of WWE television in four nights, not including Main Event or Superstars if you watch those shows. This has turned some fans off from the WWE product as there is just too much WWE TV on in a given week. While the announcement was taken with excitement, that excitement has turned into dread on a weekly basis as fans with bloodshot eyes are getting ready for another week of WWE television.
With the amount of programming, WWE fatigue is beginning to set in as fans are turning to cutdown Hulu versions of Raw or YouTube for clips of shows. With falling ratings come band-aids for the company such as Bill Goldberg who come in and pop ratings temporarily. That means precious television time going to washed up stars instead of talent who are on the road every single week. The WWE will not change the current formula anytime soon so 2017 will continue to see falling ratings and general disinterest at shows. This is where the writing needs to improve to keep the attention of fans, both at shows and on television.
What are your thoughts about the WWE in 2016? Let us know in our comment section.