Quote:
Originally Posted by Slik
What are you talking about? WWE hasn't tried to generate new fans in a decade.
What stupid shit?
|
You can’t honestly believe that the WWE hasn’t wanted to generate more fans. You can argue about their ability to do that, but they definitely want a healthy enough base to, you know...exist.
They aim for that average yank. They have big international markets too. You can argue that this homogenization of their product is bad, but they have specifically set themselves up in an attempt to be wrestling’s version of Disney. Their success at that is debatable. Their bottom line is fantastic. How relevant they seem to be in culture is not.
But AEW is no more relevant. It has no more fans. It’s fans aren’t more high-brow or desirable from a marketing standpoint. A high percentage of them are obsessive, and they’re probably less likely to come from a regular slice of American life. The WWE product’s engagement might not be the most intelligent and stimulating of conversations, but their overall reach and popularity is just much...better. It feels way more “normal” for wrestling fans to be WWE fans and just like shirtless Roman Reigns beating everyone and shit.
As far as AEW’s stupid shit goes: The Dark Order still exists. How anyone can defend it at this point, when it’s been there and been awful since the beginning, is beyond me. They’ve fucked up Adam Page. They’ve fucked up Cody Rhodes. They’ve fucked up MJF. They’ve fucked up FTR. They’ve fucked up Christian. They’ve fucked up Team Taz. They let Matt Hardy do things. They give Chris Jericho freedom to follow his worst instincts. Orange Cassidy and Joey Janela have jobs. Michael Nakazawa, Brandon Cutler, Festus and Karl Anderson are featured in the top heel faction. “69 me, Don” is an actual line that was uttered on AEW television.
The show is embarrassed to be actual pro-wrestling. They philosophically can’t admit to themselves that’s what they do, so they have this ironic disposition in relation to it. “You can’t say we’re fake if we’re obvious about being fake.” They don’t realize how that makes them
worse. There’s no fidelity to this product. It’s not an honest con. It’s like a preacher telling you that god’s not real, but then still asking for the tithing. It defeats the entire fucking purpose. And that is why you have washed up comedians making Twitter posts about how wrestling is so fucking stupid and if you like it then you’re fucking stupid, and it’s a fair enough gripe even though technically that person is stupid for thinking they even TRY anymore. But it doesn’t matter. It’s not going to absolve them of any stank.
Wrestling without the wrestling part is even worse than wrestling to people, and AEW thinks they can get around that.