It's deeper then that

 

Cena doesnt write the shows. Blame the creative team. Cena must be pissed as well about how they booked his retirement run.

 

Ten years from now you will be calling this a great time in pro wrestling history

 

Just like they all wanted him to retire then when we left snd come back people realised how good he was and was missed

 

What a ridiculous opinion.

 

The Rock did.

 

Not even remotely the case/reason/issue.

Its HHH. And TKO's corporate greed. But HHH is the head of creative. HHH is behind everything we see happen on TV. HHH is the lazy booker that just books the same show on repeat week after week and only pushes the same tiny group of people year after year after year.

HHH is the problem.

 

BOOM PERIOD

 

I hate John Cena but I’m not going to place any blame on him for this year’s shitshow.

 

Yup, that's probably about as fair as it gets. There is a great.. GREAT many things to blame the corporate robot for, but yeah, this probably isn't one of them.

 

John Cena isn't writing the show.

 

WWE's decline in recent momentum isn't because of John Cena, there is other things such as TKO and old washed up has beens in creative positions.

 

WWEs last boom period ended in 2001.

 

They had a mini boom in 2005-2006

 

Well he did tell you earlier this year. John keeping kayfabe alive lol.

https://www.wrestlingforum.com/threads/cena-says-he-will-ruin-wrestling-the-tko-reset.2477266/#replies

 

There was never a boom period. The "boom" we were seeing was just basic inflation. And serious question, is this a troll topic? I mean, what's changed? The WWE continues to do the record profits that made people call the Roman era a "boom".

 

Attendance surged in 2023 and 2024 to near Attitude Era levels. The company is still riding the backside of the wave of that.

 

WWE charges ridiculous prices and are still sold out almost every week. That’s the only thing that matters to TKO.

 

I will say this 1995 WWF would take this boom period end that's for sure over what they were going through fiscally then and in 96 and most of 97.

Then again, they didn't have all their top stars from the previous boom with their competition.

Imagine Rock, Austin, Cena, and Brock all being in AEW, while they had only Roman, Seth, and Cody 3-4 years ago?

That's how 96-97 WWF and WCW felt to viewers.

 

Amazes me how some people pretend as if WWEs whole audience is a handful of people who sit on the internet all the time discussing how much they don't enjoy the product. If the criticism of the product is at an all time high then they wouldn't still be doing well as a business. Believe it or not, you're in the minority.

 

It goes like that sometimes though. I remember people saying Nitro sucked when they were killing RAW in the ratings. Eventually that bottom fell out.

I remember in 1999 and 2000 people complaining the Mcmahons were hogging up the spotlight. It took a year or two after that to where the Mcmahons couldn't draw the same.

I don't think in general everything is a collective until it is. The main guys are still over like Roman, Cody, Brock, and Cena is on his last run. It is what they do after those glue pieces go is going to be the real test.

 

I think blaming it entirely on Cena is unfair, but yeah, he's been a big part of the problem, he isn't very good, and never has been, I was hoping to be proved wrong with this heel run, but unsurprisingly wasn't.

At the very least, he destroyed Cody's momentum as FOTC.

 

As long as I get to YEET I'm happy

 

I'm ready for Cena to go on somewhere too but blaming him for any kind of downfall is stupid lol.

 

Aren't Cody and Seth the champions right now?

 

How is Cena still the last real world champion?

 

WWE is once again on the downturn and the criticism of the product are at an all time high.

All this can be pointed to one man - John Cena.

He returned, had that awful "heel run", randomly turned face and nothing makes sense anymore.

He needs to go away already.

he did not book himself fam

 

I disagree. Mainly because his heel turn got such a huge buzz. People were interested it went mainstream.

The issue was there wasn't a satisfying payoff to The Rock's involment. And it's not the first time Rock has teased something with no follow through

 

Nah this is all on HHH. He can't book. He got incredibly lucky inheriting the Bloodline storyline and the rise of Rhodes and Rock involvement. But since then, things have gone downhill.

 

Amazes me how some people pretend as if WWEs whole audience is a handful of people who sit on the internet all the time discussing how much they don't enjoy the product. If the criticism of the product is at an all time high then they wouldn't still be doing well as a business. Believe it or not, you're in the minority.

This. I came to terms along time ago that the WWE’s main target demographic is kids. 8-14 at that, the WWE isn’t something that me as an adult man should 100% gravitate towards. It’s mostly our love for wrestling when we were kids and continuing to want to fill that void or get that fix that keeps us engaged with wrestling. Most of the people at WWE shows are families bringing their kids to see a live stunt show, it isn’t about critically acclaimed writing or detailed storytelling and nuances, it’s just to make sure the casuals enjoy what they see on a surface level.

That’s why around 2006/7 when I felt myself getting more alienated from the WWE as they got more PG and oversterilized I started following promotions like ROH and TNA. 2010s was NJPW until AEW showed up. That’s why it’s important to have a balance of alternatives because it serves all markets. A person like me and 600k + people want an edgier alternative to WWE and that’s why we watch AEW. WWE still throws the older fan a bone or two here and there (Punk/McIntyre, WM40 etc.) but it’s catered to people who don’t think about wrestling deeper than a surface level.

It goes like that sometimes though. I remember people saying Nitro sucked when they were killing RAW in the ratings. Eventually that bottom fell out.

I remember in 1999 and 2000 people complaining the Mcmahons were hogging up the spotlight. It took a year or two after that to where the Mcmahons couldn't draw the same.

I don't think in general everything is a collective until it is. The main guys are still over like Roman, Cody, Brock, and Cena is on his last run. It is what they do after those glue pieces go is going to be the real test.

That is the intriguing part. We seen it in 92/93 with all the big names leaving the WWF and how the WWF struggled during their rebuild process between 1994-1997. The finally rebuild in 1998 and 5 years later all of their top draws (Austin, Mankind, Rock) were no longer available and all of the “what if” WCW guys either left or didn’t draw like they were supposed to (Hogan, Hall, Nash, Goldberg, Steiner, DDP, Booker, Rey). To make matters worse their new FOTC (Brock Lesnar) would leave 2 years after being called up and getting pushed to the moon. This would leave WWE in a dire period until Cena, Batista, Orton, & Edge were established as the new main eventers. 2011 comes around and you got the same situation again with familiar faces gone (HBK, Batista, Edge, Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, Bobby Lashley, RVD, Jeff Hardy, Chris Benoit, Umaga etc.) and them having to rebuild which wouldn’t completely pay off until 2014/2015. So it’s interesting to see where WWE will be in the next 6 years with guys like Cena, Styles, Lesnar, Rock, Roman, Punk all either retiring or close to retirement at that point.

 

This. I came to terms along time ago that the WWE’s main target demographic is kids. 8-14 at that, the WWE isn’t something that me as an adult man should 100% gravitate towards. It’s mostly our love for wrestling when we were kids and continuing to want to fill that void or get that fix that keeps us engaged with wrestling. Most of the people at WWE shows are families bringing their kids to see a live stunt show, it isn’t about critically acclaimed writing or detailed storytelling and nuances, it’s just to make sure the casuals enjoy what they see on a surface level.

That’s why around 2006/7 when I felt myself getting more alienated from the WWE as they got more PG and oversterilized I started following promotions like ROH and TNA. 2010s was NJPW until AEW showed up. That’s why it’s important to have a balance of alternatives because it serves all markets. A person like me and 600k + people want an edgier alternative to WWE and that’s why we watch AEW. WWE still throws the older fan a bone or two here and there (Punk/McIntyre, WM40 etc.) but it’s catered to people who don’t think about wrestling deeper than a surface level.



That is the intriguing part. We seen it in 92/93 with all the big names leaving the WWF and how the WWF struggled during their rebuild process between 1994-1997. The finally rebuild in 1998 and 5 years later all of their top draws (Austin, Mankind, Rock) were no longer available and all of the “what if” WCW guys either left or didn’t draw like they were supposed to (Hogan, Hall, Nash, Goldberg, Steiner, DDP, Booker, Rey). To make matters worse their new FOTC (Brock Lesnar) would leave 2 years after being called up and getting pushed to the moon. This would leave WWE in a dire period until Cena, Batista, Orton, & Edge were established as the new main eventers. 2011 comes around and you got the same situation again with familiar faces gone (HBK, Batista, Edge, Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, Bobby Lashley, RVD, Jeff Hardy, Chris Benoit, Umaga etc.) and them having to rebuild which wouldn’t completely pay off until 2014/2015. So it’s interesting to see where WWE will be in the next 6 years with guys like Cena, Styles, Lesnar, Rock, Roman, Punk all either retiring or close to retirement at that point.

The crazy thing is the rebuilding and return to mass appeal may not happened if it wasn’t due to the 80s stars catching fire again in WCW such as Hogan and Sting and even Flair.