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Report: Morale low in the WWE

10K views 82 replies 71 participants last post by  Frantics 
#1 ·
The recent ratings drops for Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown are obvious signs that changes are needed on WWE television. The new sets, announcers and pyro are things they can point at to show investors that there are changes happening but the biggest issue, the overall scripted nature of the show with unsophisticated storylines, is still prevalent.

Eric Bischoff was fired this week but the reality is that the problems plaguing the company will remain until real change happens at the top with Vince McMahon being less hands on with the product.

On a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez noted how the morale in the company has taken a hit.


Alvarez said, “I was told today, there may be more [releases] coming, who knows? Morale has not been good for a long time but apparently the morale has taken an even bigger hit since October 1st.”

He continued, “If you recall, the belief within WWE … their idea was ‘oh my god, we’re going to FOX and a new boom period is going to kick off.”

Alvarez pointed out how SmackDown lost around a million viewers from the debut show to the second show. He also pointed out how the draft was a disaster and things seemed to be thrown together even though people in WWE claimed that the whole draft was figured out in advance.

Alvarez also noted that he received texts from people in WWE who said they couldn’t bring themselves to watching Monday Night Raw.

In addition to all of this, there is still a negative buzz around WWE for the horrible finish to the Hell in a Cell main event.
https://wrestlingnews.co/wwe-news/wwe-morale-has-taken-a-hit-in-the-last-few-weeks/
 
#7 ·
We always hear these type of reports, then you see a load of talent sign new contracts and stuff and you actually wonder if it's a true report. No excuse for talent anymore, if you ain't happy Mox showed that you can get out there and have a great career outside WWE. You got NJPW, AEW, Impact, ROH and a lot of indies paying good money. If you ain't happy get out, and don't be like Mike Bennett and sign a contract and be all cocky about it, then moan about wanting out cause you gotten shit booking.
 
#8 ·
Given the amount of people reported that want to leave the company (Revival, Sasha, Harper, Mike Kanellis), or people publically admitting/implying that they are not happy (Dana, Peyton, Breeze, a bunch of cruserweights) you don't need to be an insider or a reporter to notice that a lot of the roster is not happy with the current state of WWE
 
#12 ·
I think the Sasha thing was to get herself a better deal, I doubt she ever leave WWE. Revival probably the same, also Gallows and Anderson said they were unhappy and then signed big fat contracts when they were handed them. Mike Kanellis happily signed his and was cocky about it, and then once he was in a cuck storyline and knew he wasn't going to get anywhere but be a running joke in WWE, he says he wants out.

Dana is better staying with WWE, I don't think she get a better deal anywhere else. I like Peyton, she's got more potential then Billie imo. Be a good signing for AEW women's division, with her husband there. I just don't get with Peyton and Billie like they would leave WWE, they just seem the types that are happy just to be in WWE. Could be wrong. Tyler Breeze is another who seems like a lifer in WWE who end up a trainer once he retires.

Unless I see talent leaving then I have no respect for those who are moaning and rubbishing on WWE, plenty of places out there now. So no excuse to sit around and just pick up the money in WWE, get out there and do what you love to do elsewhere.
 
#4 ·
Call me when any of these 'yes man'/ just happy to be there person that works for WWE (including wrestlers) gets tired, thinks this is more important than their salary or career, then decides to stand up in front of Vince McMahon and tells him to fuck off. Not like anything good would happen to the person who does that or that anything would change, but it would be a start.
 
#43 ·
“the belief within WWE … their idea was ‘oh my god, we’re going to FOX and a new boom period is going to kick off.”

What jackass was dumb enough to believe something like that?

If anything Smackdown going to Fox has damaged the chances of a new boom period, because WWe is sucking on a larger platform. They’re not only driving away their own fans they’re reminding people why they stopped watching or never watched at all.

As for the low moral... don’t re-sign. Way to often do we hear people bitching only to sign a new contract when the time comes. You, along with everyone else, knows the show and company is shit and there’s money to be made elsewhere so that excuse is gone as well. Unhappy? LEAVE. You’ll actually be doing WWe a favor. They need as much shit in their fan as possible if anything’s going to change.
 
#15 ·
In order for a new boom period to occur, you need a superstar that fits into the present-day zeitgeist and is "can't miss." They don't have that. They think Brock is that, but he can't be on every week.

In order to create a "can't miss" superstar, you need to let personalities do their thing and organically play off each other. They don't allow them to do that.

This isn't just a WWE thing, though. Plenty of popular franchises in entertainment are being corporatized, which is poison for standing out from the pack and being compelling to watch.
 
#25 ·
They need to look at what is big in the world at the moment. They had the right idea with green Daniel Bryan and Ricochet being a superhero, but they need to go all out with the characters. Let them do something to make the crown react. For example, I've imagined this with Killer Kross. But if he were to debut, make a bomb threat (obviously fake) and the fire alarms go off so the crowd has to leave the arena. If the Rock doesn't want to be on the show, have Ciampa cut weird, obsessive promos in front of his house, essentially stalking him. Sign The Mountain from Game of Thrones ASAP. Offer Sane and Asuka to Sendai Girls and share their talent with other companies. There's no surprises left in wrestling. Cut off every media guy and if anyone leaks anything sack them. Remember when "Anything can happen in the WWF"? Get back to those days for fucks sake.

Let the wrestlers sink or swim without scripts! Work with the talent on their own gimmicks and most of all, fuck the Hollywood script writers off, let someone like X-Pac or Sam Roberts write storylines. Also have someone like Rollins turn heel and talk shit about the fans sitting on their phones and not reacting to anything. Show old vision of how they used to act, change the atmosphere completely. Put black lights on them for a few weeks so they're not visible. Tell them they won't be shown on TV until they join in on the show.
 
#51 ·
So morale is low in a company where hard work, talent, busting your ass, doing everything right, winning over the audience all means nothing.

Who would have thought?

Maybe if they stopped punishing people who get over, work hard and are real Pro Wrestlers morale would be higher. Maybe if they stopped only pushing the same few hand picked people endlessly morale would be higher.
 
#21 ·
Alvarez, Meltzer and anybody else at the Observer aren't the type to report based on feelings. If you don't believe Bryan, Jericho has said that so many wrestlers in WWE have contacted him and said "I can't wait until my deal is up so I can come on here and do a tell all".

I suppose that will just be read as "well, he's the competition" even though AEW doesn't care about competing, and Moxley even said he didn't leave WWE to go to AEW, he said he left WWE because he wanted out of WWE and would've rather worked in a grocery store, even if there were no other wrestling promotions on Earth.

WWE fosters a toxic work environment and they screw with everybody. How do you think Asuka felt when she was off tv for months? How do you think Bray Wyatt feels about what they've done to a character he spent a ridiculous amount of time crafting? How do you think Triple H feels about every single NXT call up being ruined? There was a story several months back about how Triple H is the most frustrated person every week at tv, and if you saw him on WWE Backstage this week, he looks it. He's aged 10 years from the last time we saw him.
 
#57 ·
Alvarez said, “I was told today, there may be more [releases] coming, who knows? Morale has not been good for a long time but apparently the morale has taken an even bigger hit since October 1st.”
Alvarez also noted that he received texts from people in WWE who said they couldn’t bring themselves to watching Monday Night Raw.
Nobody from WWE told Alvarez anything. Nobody from WWE texted Alvarez anything. He's lying. It's all made up rumors for clickbait.
 
#37 · (Edited)
If you recall, the belief within WWE … their idea was ‘oh my god, we’re going to FOX and a new boom period is going to kick off.”

If wwe actually believed this would happen with no inner changes to their product then they are bigger idiots than I thought. WWE is the poster boy for people who think things will be different by doing the exact same thing.
 
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#48 ·
Changing sets and bringing back pyro assists with the visual side of things. However I still do not feel even visually that RAW and SMACKDOWN are their own individual shows yet again. They are still red and blue clones of one another. Both shows needed a look and feel that differentiated from each other and the shows themselves offer alternatives to the other.

Of course a big problem is a ridiculously bloated roster so no wonder morale is low. The big problem with WWE is oversaturation and micromanagement, they put themselves into a corner trying to produce way too many hours of TV per week rather than focusing on getting their bread and butter product right.

This company has been lost for a long time now, almost everything they announce they can not execute properly. How can you mess up the draft if it is planned out in advance ? This is the problem the company is so disorganised with the wrong people in creative management. Vince is too stubborn and set in his stale bad entertainment ways, Triple H is too far the other way so who really can pull this company back?
 
#49 ·
They attempted to change and make Raw and Smackdown look different in appearance setting them apart, They gave Smackdown a nice entrance but gave Raw a giant skate ramp instead, It's true presentation and aesthetics could look better with enough effort but what gives? They won't change it back.

Vince will always remain in the same mindset that much is certain and Hunter who I have my doubts for is still likely to improve to some extent just not as much as people would expect personally.
 
#3 ·
Alvarez is not a trustable source. But I believe him getting "texts" from the janitor of local house show. :) Him sh4tting on every WWE show is business as usual btw.
Ofc people there are not happy about, that the ratings are meh and the last PPV ended with much booing. We don`t need Alvarez or Dave, to tell us the obvious.
 
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