1) TWITTER. TWITTER. TWITTER. TWITTER. TWITTER. Plugging it at the beginning of the show and showing a superstars' twitter name during their entrance... fine. But the constant usage of twitter references during a match and how they claim everything that is happening in the ring is now trending has gone way passed the point of over-killing it. They're stuffing a dead horse, inside of a dead horse and beating that dead horse with another dead horse. Enough already. Which leads me to...
2) Commentary. WWE have always had a colorful commentator. Jerry Lawler used to portray this while JR stuck to the role of being a play-by-play announcer calling the match. You need a commentary with one guy rooting for the bad guy and one guy remaining neutral. Bobby the brain Heenan used to do this as well. Michael Cole is NOT, I repeat, not bad on the mic. Stop blaming him. Start blaming his pairing with Jerry Lawler. They just flat out don't work well together. You have two guys who have been reduced to being over-the-top color commentators and no one there to balance them out to do the actual play-by-play announcing. One guy is way beyond over-the-top (Cole) and you have the other who just doesn't give a shit about the product anymore (Lawler). On SmackDown, aside from the twitter usage, Michael Cole is enjoyable to listen to because he's balanced out with the amazingly insane Booker T commentary and the spot on play-by-play (neutral) commentary from Josh Mathews.
I'm also biased for Scott Stanford and Josh Mathews. They're commentary is always great to listen to on Superstars. They both joke around with each other and they both can call a pretty damn neutral match, sticking to play-by-play announcing and who is in the ring, rather than going completely off-topic with what Michael Cole and Lawler do on RAW.
3) No Drama. All the faces we want to see are now champions. This falls back to when Eddie was WWE Champion and the ratings dropped, to which WWE removed the belt off of him. Was it Eddie's fault? No way, but it's far more interesting watching the face struggle to earn the championship than it is watching them retain it, week after week. It's always more entertaining rooting for the underdog and when the heel is the underdog in the match, there goes your viewership.
4) Where's the Feuds? Right now, there are no feuds, thus we have nothing to look forward to. We have a bit with ADR and Punk, a bit with John L and CM Punk, but it's not a long standing history blood feud, nor is John L going over as a dick as much as he should. We also have The Miz thrown into the mix. Now add in Dolph Ziggler who just left the US Title scene, thus ending his feud with Zack Ryder. Who is Daniel Bryan feuding with, since Big Show and Mark Henry were the two feuding over the World Title? Him just winning out of the blue took the wind out of that sail and killed the momentum those two worked hard throughout the months to build. See where I'm going with this? Right now, the title situations are a mess. I can see why people tuned out of that 6-man tag match. There was no investment for it. If it was before a PPV, yes, but all of them had just been crowned (Ryder & Bryan) or retained their belts (Punk). Of course nothing was going to happen at the end of that match. There was no investment for people to be forced to tune in other than to see who won the match, which even then didn't matter because there was no stipulation on the other guys getting anything out of it.
5) WWE's Long History of Pulling The Trigger Too Soon. Nexus being disbanded. Too soon. New-Nexus, a chance to do something with the group once again. Big time flop. Cena being fired. Practically didn't happen. CM Punk quitting. Practically didn't happen. Putting the title on Christian only to remove it 3 days later and turn him heel. Stupid.
WWE are afraid to take long, calculated risks for short-term effects. Cena could have been away from TV for two months from when he was "fired" at Survivor Series 2010 and could have returned at the Royal Rumble 2011, but instead, he returned 1 week later. CM Punk should have stayed away for longer than he did, at least another few weeks, gain some more controversy having Cena as champion with Punk going around talking shit about the product, only to miraculously return. Instead of what happened... he returned the night Cena won the title. What.The.*bleep*...
6) CM Punk + Shoot Promos. Before you read this and start to type up a whining rebuttal, I said this soon as Punk returned and starting doing "shoot" style promos left and right this past Summer... too much of a good thing is a bad thing. I was right. It's been diluted. All of his promos sound the same now. Add in the fact when he does cut a promo he is no longer angry and serious and has become what I hated John Cena for... being a jokester. Stop laughing at your own jokes, because it sounds and makes you look corny. Which leads me to...
7) The John Cena Effect There is a reason guys like Stone Cold, The Rock and HHH (in his good days) were amazing on the mic, because when they grabbed ahold of that microphone, they told a story. You felt the emotions. They didn't make "poopy" jokes and elementary school yard insults. When Stone Cold lost at the PPV the night before, you damn well tuned into RAW because you knew, YOU KNEW he was going to raise some mother*bleep*ing hell, and he would always deliver on that. Always. What happens when John Cena loses, and not only loses but gets royally screwed out of the title? He makes a joke about it. He now claims he's "Rising Above The Hate" which is bullshit. Have some self-respect and show it. Give us some emotion. Instead of appearing on RAW the night after WrestleMania where The Rock screwed him out of the title, and making corny ass jokes and shaking The Rock's hand, Cena should have raised hell. Instead of showing up the night after Survivor Series after receiving a Rock Bottom and making jokes about it, he should have raised hell. This is the John Cena effect. He shows emotion, just not the one the audience wants to see. And before you start crying about the ratings holding them back about what they are allowed to say, see the next and final point below....
8) Stop Blaming TVPG, Start Blaming Booking You think the Attitude Era was amazing because wrestlers could swear and there was more T&A style segments? That shit was lame back then too, and embarrassing when I had my parents walk in and some dumbass Diva in the umpteenth bikini-style contest for the month was stripping half naked and you had Jerry Lawler practically having an orgasm on commentary screaming "PUPPIES! PUPPIES! PUPPIES!" at the top of his lungs. I'm glad Bra & Panty matches are a thing of the past. They were dumb then in 1998 and they'd be dumb now in 2011. TNA embraced the TV14 rating when WWE went TVPG and look where that got them.... absolutely no where. Swearing doesn't improve ratings. Blood doesn't improve ratings. T&A doesn't improve ratings. Stop blaming the PG rating for the low ratings, the omission of these three factors have absolutely no effect on it. Start blaming for the shoddy booking of their shows. They have high quality PPV's which blow TNA's out of the water, but yet you tune into RAW and it's one stupid segment after the next. We just had that live SmackDown show a few weeks ago and instead of showcasing some amazing matches, we had one stupid segment after the next. Booking is at fault.
Add all these points together, that's why ratings are lower than ever.
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