WWE: HHH: "Idea on main roster is to serve as many fans as possible w/o alienating anyone

[M.C.G. 31]

Sourcing: PWTorch

During Tuesday's conference call, Triple H stumbled across one of the main concerns with the main roster right now, especially in comparison to the NXT brand.

"The idea on the main roster is to serve as many people as possible, without alienating anybody. You try to do that - it's not always easy - but you try to do that in the best way possible," Hunter said.

The issue many fans have right now is they do feel alienated by WWE trying to reach everyone with the "ultimate variety show," as Vince McMahon views Raw and general WWE programming, and without the star power to make up for perceived Creative flaws.

Hunter also talked about trying to weave "reality" into the fiction of main roster programming with more and more viewers aware of of the inner-workings of the wrestling business. That has also led to mixed results with things such as the "Divas Revolution," where the fiction is the Divas roster bickering and trying to take credit for who started it, instead of centering the division on individual feuds creating an emotional attachment and response from the audience.

There seems to be an identity crisis on the main roster where WWE is (a) trying to serve too many masters and (b) trying to weave in "reality" elements into a fictional TV environment.

Ironically, that bold part is exactly why they have alienated their core audience who "would always end up watching anyways" and drove a lot of them away.

Whereas, as Hunter said, NXT has its own niche, he understands his audience and demographics, and they can serve the audience with solid-to-great shows every time out.

"WWE is more pop music. It's your general population, so you're trying to serve all those masters," Hunter said. "We're trying to serve a niche. I know who my fanbase is with NXT and that's who I'm trying to serve."

Thus, an inverse relationship has helped NXT and hurt the main roster. Fans who are frustrated by main roster programming have become more attached to NXT. Then, the growth of NXT over the past year has created more frustration with the main roster, with questions like "why can't the main roster feel more like NXT?"

As Hunter said, WWE is trying to appeal to the masses with the main roster. However, 2015 TV ratings indicate that audience is not being served, with the rise of NXT further highlighting the issues in-play.

And then the bold here is exactly how wrestling should be nowadays. It's not going to be mainstream and it's not going to be huge in the eyes of the public like Vince McMahon wished it was. Focus on your niche. Unfortunately for WWE, they're too far in that they've failed at becoming so mainstream like Vince wants, but now also have a lot of work (think years of consistently good programming) to win back their core/niche viewership.

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[AlanHUK]

interesting you post this today.

Half the group of people i'm training today are fans of wrestling, but don't give 2 ***** about WWE anymore and won't watch on a weekly basis now.

I think all of them are going to the NXT show here and non are going to the WWE one.

 

[bruins309]

interesting you post this today.

Half the group of people i'm training today are fans of wrestling, but don't give 2 ***** about WWE anymore and won't watch on a weekly basis now.

I think all of them are going to the NXT show here and non are going to the WWE one.

For all my blabber about attending RAW last night I would be much much happier if NXT would come to my area instead. But I guess Triple H has something against New England despite being from New Hampshire and all

 

[Pinkfloyd]

When you try to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Interesting.

Also read a rumor today that Hunter's push into power has been put on the burner and Vince has total control at the moment for every idea. Rumor said Hunter is telling anyone that comes to him "to run it by Vince"

 

[GKJ]

The disparity makes sense, while we'd all like them to just do what they do on NXT, they can't.


At this point, I don't think Vince will ever retire. He probably doesn't know how to stop, or even slow down.


Triple H should probably angle himself to be given complete control and authority of either a half hour or something, or really one whole division. For instance, give him complete autonomy over the Intercontinental division. Doesn't seem Vince cares much about it regardless, so why not? He gets full control over those 9-ish wrestlers (Owens, Cesaro, Miz, Ziggler, etc.) Hire its writer, booker, have meetings, the whole sha-bang. Get the 2-3 segments plus vignettes and leave them alone with it.

 

[Oil Dude]

Amazing enough , the entire attitude era (arguably the most popular era in history) was not aimed towards everybody. It had foul language ,a rough edge , over the top bad ass characters and people loved it.

Oddly enough , I would argue that in the ring the wrestlers now could hang with the attitude guys , on the mic there might even be a few that could as well (Wyatt , Ambrose , Xavier Woods , Owens and even Cena) however these guys don't seem to have any real direction.

 

[quoipourquoi]

What exactly is it about the presentation of NXT that is more alienating than the presentation of RAW? Too much yellow?

We're trying to serve a niche. I know who my fanbase is with NXT and that's who I'm trying to serve.

That's a little disheartening. I was kind of hoping that NXT was the direction that he wanted to take wrestling. It's nice that he's upfront in telling me that my optimism was misplaced and that he was only pandering to a certain "fanbase" because it's a non-televised show.