[Municipal Waste]

Yes. It’s not going to be very good, but there’s no mindblowing Roman match we’re missing out on otherwise, and this will be an annoying “what if”/“why didn’t” for decades. Just get it done.

 

[Municipal Waste]

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks this is a possibility. The upcoming sale will officially close the doors on WWE as we know it. Will there be an immediate change in the product? Likely not, but that doesn't mean it wont morph into something completely different over the next 5+ years.

Not to mention the fact that technology and the way people consume media makes it nearly impossible for wrestling to be anything more than a niche product. Creating "new stars" is a thing of the past. Logan Paul and Pat McAfee are more likely to bring in casual viewers than any homegrown talent. I don't believe there's a real solution to this problem. The WWE content library is the real long term value in owning the company.

All of this is why I wont write off a scenario with Austin winning.

Hadn’t thought of this but it’s a real possibility given the business context. I agree with everything you’re saying about the digital landscape. Wrestling is going the same way the comic book readership has slowly over time, dwindling down to an aging group of hardcores with expendable income.

The business realities are that it peaked a long time ago. In the brief period between the rise of South Park/Family Guy and edgy content, but before the rise of on-demand boutique viewing habits, the Attitude Era was able to crash TV their way into a captive audience with a low attention span, becoming a Springer/Cheaters/Cops type TV experience that isn’t in demand any more.

 

[Municipal Waste]

At least HHH is not booking himself in there in the main event against Roman again lol.

As somebody who attended the 2016 Rumble that set this up, and was supremely annoyed by the “Roman starts at #1 and defends the title in the Rumble match” stip that hijacked the traditional experience… I’m not even mad at HHH for that. He wasn’t Jericho-ing himself into an angle to piggyback it, he was getting his hands dirty trying to get a guy over that nobody was successfully getting over. It didn’t work, but that’s a different issue.