Eric Bischoff Says WWE’s Cookie Cutter Presentation Is Hurting The Product

Many fans would agree that WWE’s product has fallen a lot when it comes to quality. The current product has a lot of flaws including 50/50 booking, feuds that don’t go anywhere, teams splitting up for no reason and storylines not making sense. The disinterest of the fans is reflected in the dwindling ratings of Monday Night RAW over the past few years.

This is only the start as fans are also tired of how NXT talents being called up to the main roster are treated. The likes of former WWE Superstars Karrion Kross and Keith Lee are one of many blemishes on WWE’s record.

The company is certainly not known for its long-term storytelling as fans are simply tired of being treated like idiots. Despite that, Even former WWE Superstars are tired of how WWE writes their storylines.

While speaking on the 83 Weeks Podcast, Eric Bischoff talked about WWE’s current product and how they refuse to change how they present their product. Bischoff stated that WWE’s formulaic and cookie-cutter presentation of their shows is hurting their product as a whole.

“It is undeniable that the product is formulaic, in fact so formulaic that I think cookie-cutter is another good example. Unfortunately the style and the presentation of WWE, whether it’s RAW or SmackDown, is so formulaic and cookie-cutter that, yes, there are different names that you’re watching on screen, but everything else is exactly the same. I think that’s one of the things that’s hurting WWE in terms of ratings or growing [the audience]. Let’s be honest, in terms of ratings, WWE is doing just fine compared to other television programs, and they’re making money hand over fist in the process. Wonderful for them.

But when you look at audience attrition and the fact that nobody’s really building a new audience, yes they’re satisfying a new audience but how long has it been since anybody’s actually built, and embraced, and attracted people that hadn’t been wrestling fans? It hasn’t happened since Nitro, and nothing is happening today that leaves me to believe it’s going to happen in the future. Everybody will make the existing audience happy but nobody is really growing the audience. In WWE’s case, I think it’s incumbent upon them to change the format and quit being so damn predictable and focus on the episodic nature of the product, and do things that make people remember or realize that, yes, this show is live and by virtue of being live, you can’t afford to miss it cause anything can happen. To me, that is such a fundamental fix and way to approach the business. There’s no reason not to do it, there really isn’t. It drives me crazy.”

We certainly wonder if pro wrestling as a whole will improve their storylines, especially WWE in this case. From the looks of it, the company is unlikely to change anytime soon.

h/t to Wrestling Inc for the quotes

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