10 Ways WWE Disrespects Its Fans

3. Endless Rematches

This one’s not complicated. This has nothing to do with business psychology, the complexities of roster hierarchy, or the demands of casual fans. It’s as simple as stop wasting my f**king time.

Not enough happened to justify Big E and Apollo Crews wrestling each other 15 times in 2021. Or Randy Orton’s endless feud with Drew, or Andrade and Angel Garza’s endless series with the Street Profits.

You can absolutely have people wrestle each other over and over, if there’s story progression each time, Christian and Randy Orton in 2011 is proof of that.

Same with Jeff Hardy and CM Punk in 2009, or HBK and Jericho in 2008, but so often WWE just trots out the same matchups week after week after week, with the bare minimum of booking, grinding feuds into the dirt rather than developing them and just diminishing the audience’s desire to see these talented wrestlers through the sheer power of f**king tedium.

Wrestling should be the draw, but the same wrestling every week on free TV just flattens out the entire roster and, crucially, shows zero respect for the audience or why they should tune in next week.

Which brings me, Julie Andrews-styles, to one of my least favorite things

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2. Non Finishes on Pay-Per-Views 

Stop doing this you bastards. I am having a full moan this week, so let’s get it all out there. This is possibly my least favourite habit WWE has. The pay-per-view is a sacred place.

It is what we, as consumers, are spending our money to see. Non-finishes on TV, it’s not ideal all the time but I get it, protect the match, give us a reason to open our moth-infested wallets and shell out for SummerSlam, to see these two SETTLE THEIR DIFFERENCES, emphasis on SETTLE.

What WWE repeatedly does is cram their cards with cheap finishes, double count-outs, DQs, Hell in a Cell no contests, all to promote Raw, SmackDown and inevitably the next pay-per-view, not understanding the parable of the boy who cried wolf.

If you string out your fans, your PAYING fans, crucially, and expect the same level of emotional investment and anticipation after, I dunno, counting out your WWE Championship match because Randy couldn’t stop looking at Kofi’s kids, then you’re living in a f**king delusion. Especially when…

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1. THE RULES DON’T MATTER

Rule consistency is crucial for WWE and they do not care about it and I DON’T KNOW WHY.

A consistent framework of rules creates a set of storytelling rules for you to play with, as well as shortening the gap of understanding between the presentation and the audience, so everyone’s on the same page, and everyone understands why the breaking of certain rules should make us angry, happy or whatever.

You know, not getting in the way of the audience and their emotions, stories, basically.

Instead we live in a world where people eliminated from the Rumble can’t eliminate current competitors, except when they do, refs are willing to let main events brawl on the outside, except when they don’t, tag matches are allowed to break down into skirmishes, except when they aren’t, hitting your opponent with a tiny bit of the announce table doesn’t draw a DQ, except when it does, and Hell in a Cell matches can’t end in no-contests, except when satan pisses directly in our brains.

Every single time WWE pulls this, it makes match engagement harder and honestly just comes across like “ah f**k em, they’re too dumb to remember the rules anyway” and hey I may be dumb, but I run a goddamn board game channel I can REMEMBER RULES.

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