they need to add more 'attitude' in general, i'm not being one of those nostalgic fucks who keep begging for Attitude Era, but to make the product better they need more attitude, an edgier product. Thats that and they need more captivating storylines, like Punk MITB, like Nexus, except they need to actually run with these storylines, not 'good guy Cena' pops up and saves the day, make them more realistic and interesting. Also they need to make their product a 'must-watch', stop trying to copy other popular shows, make their own show something that no one can miss.
Yes everyone knowing it's 'fake' is really hurting the product, which is why they need to stop the pretending. Create more 'real' life storylines like Punk with his shoot promo, they know those type of storylines are much more successful these days.
like many people were saying last year, the next Era needs to be the 'Real life Era', where they stop pretending that its all real and actually show the world that what they do might be scripted but it means a lot to them and requires a lot of hard work, and bring some real life storylines into it cause they are really interesting.
For example:
Rumors are everywhere in the dirtsheets that Triple-H and Vince are having some arguments over things, as Triple-H is getting more and more power backstage. They could bring this into the ring and it would make for a damn interesting storyline, it would be realistic and captivating. Conclude it with a huge survivor series match 'Team Triple-H vs Team Vince' for the control of WWE, to make people support Triple-H they could add the twist that he actually wants to give the people a more interesting product where people are allowed to say and do whatever they want, while Vince wants a more organized product where everyone knows their place and stay in their limits. Hell they could bring in Linda McMahon pressuring Vince to keep it clean because she's running for some position.
They could do something else like Paul Heyman against Stephanie and Triple-H, Hell even Daniel Bryan and Cm Punk (indies) vs Vince McMahon and John Cena (typical WWE).
WWE KNOWS that the real-life storylines are what make the product interesting today, because everyone knows it's fake, there is no point in pretending anymore.