WWE after McMahon retire
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BigBadBruins7708
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Not only will they survive, they'll thrive and finally be respectable again.
This is assuming HHH gets the control. Look at what he did with NXT. A wrestling show that has grounded and believable feuds built around the wrestling and puts the focus back on the ring instead of trying to be a movie studio
ColePens
RIP Fugu Buffaloed & parabola
My question is will they be able to survive the rest of Vince. Vince has really wrecked his own master creation. People claim wrestling is niche, and I believe that. I feel it's similar to the NHL. Semi-main stream with a lot of diehards. And if you look over the last 15 years, it's had a steady decline in ratings/viewers for WWE. So you would think if we are solely following WWE, wrestling interest is lost to the public.
I argue the opposite. Wrestling, especially about 3-5 years ago, was as popular as ever. The popularity was just spread out. NJPW, ROH, TNA, the ride of AEW, the Indys, the European scene, etc. It was widespread and the people who loved it found variations to watch it because WWE wasn't giving them great storylines.
So I honestly wonder if WWE will survive the rest of Vince ruining it. He has refused to let stars get over naturally. So if they allow people to get over naturally, wrestling won't ever boom like 1998-20002, but it will be forever.
I argue the opposite. Wrestling, especially about 3-5 years ago, was as popular as ever. The popularity was just spread out. NJPW, ROH, TNA, the ride of AEW, the Indys, the European scene, etc. It was widespread and the people who loved it found variations to watch it because WWE wasn't giving them great storylines.
So I honestly wonder if WWE will survive the rest of Vince ruining it. He has refused to let stars get over naturally. So if they allow people to get over naturally, wrestling won't ever boom like 1998-20002, but it will be forever.
GKJ
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I don't think Hunter is in as good of a position as he may have been a year ago. I obviously agree that NXT is still WWE's best product, I still watch it over AEW (no slight to them), but from WWE's view, when they moved NXT to USA and made it 2 hours, they did to task Triple H with squishing AEW, and by that account is an abject failure because AEW got a new TV deal after only a few months (and thank goodness they did because COVID may have put them out).
JackSlater
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There are a lot of ways it could go. Creatively it is hard to do worse than Vince, but it is possible. If WWE ever just sells out to a larger company (Disney or whatever) we can look at WCW for all kinds of potential pitfalls that may happen. Stephanie doesn't have a good record in terms of creative. HHH is a bit of a mixed bag who definitely does some things well but who also has some failings that are often glossed over. It also seems that GKJ is correct that Tri's position isn't as secure as it was a year or so ago.
In terms of business it is hard to see WWE going anywhere. It's so huge and established at this point that it will have a cultural cache for the foreseeable future regardless of who is at the helm.
In terms of business it is hard to see WWE going anywhere. It's so huge and established at this point that it will have a cultural cache for the foreseeable future regardless of who is at the helm.
Sheppy
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Vince will live to be 150. I'm convinced of it.
Jacksonbobson
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I don’t think it’s necessarily that Vince won’t let HHH take over, I think HHH wants no part of running a corporation that size for the long haul. He may take over creative or something like that but I don’t see him wanting full ownership and control of the entire company
It’s all a moot point because as Sheppy said Vince probably has another half century in him
It’s all a moot point because as Sheppy said Vince probably has another half century in him
Chris Pronger
Valar morghulis
I don't believe he'll die, he'll upload his conscience to a super computer, and build an android body.
JackSlater
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BruinDust
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It will survive post-Vince. It's too big of an entity to ever disappear. It will be around in one shape or form long after Vince.
But it will never thrive again like it did in the mid-late 80s and late 90s-early 2000s until they find a transcendent mega-star the level of Hogan or Austin.
Rock could of been that guy but he left for Hollywood. If he had stayed in wrestling, we likely hadn't yet seen the best of the The Rock and he could of kept the momentum going from the Attitude/Austin era into the Brand Split era.
Brock Lesnar had a chance, just based on his box-office appeal in UFC, but his best years were spent away from WWE and his first run was jsut two short years.
Might of been CM Punk had they not derailed his momentum in the summer of 2011 and their insistence sticking to the plan to have Del Rio headline a Mexico tour as champion.
Some of it is simply catching lighting in a bottle where all the stars align and the right guy comes along at the right time. You can't plan for it.
You just hope that whoever is in charge of creative at that point is smart enough to just get out of the way and let things develop organically. Because they can't afford to screw up the next potential transcendent megastar.
But it will never thrive again like it did in the mid-late 80s and late 90s-early 2000s until they find a transcendent mega-star the level of Hogan or Austin.
Rock could of been that guy but he left for Hollywood. If he had stayed in wrestling, we likely hadn't yet seen the best of the The Rock and he could of kept the momentum going from the Attitude/Austin era into the Brand Split era.
Brock Lesnar had a chance, just based on his box-office appeal in UFC, but his best years were spent away from WWE and his first run was jsut two short years.
Might of been CM Punk had they not derailed his momentum in the summer of 2011 and their insistence sticking to the plan to have Del Rio headline a Mexico tour as champion.
Some of it is simply catching lighting in a bottle where all the stars align and the right guy comes along at the right time. You can't plan for it.
You just hope that whoever is in charge of creative at that point is smart enough to just get out of the way and let things develop organically. Because they can't afford to screw up the next potential transcendent megastar.
JackSlater
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Yes the problem is that WWE wouldn't be able to capitalize or boost anyone with the potential to get over huge. Hogan was getting over huge regardless of Vince, but Vince struck when Austin got hot and helped him to get more over than he could have on his own. Since then Vince is too stubborn, probably based on his past success, and out of touch to hope for that situation again. I don't think that he would know how to get an Austin over again or that he could even avoid getting in his own way if a Hogan came around again. When it comes time for someone to replace Vince I'd say it's very iffy that they will know what to do when they get something potentially very big on their hands.
I just hope that if Vince someday decides to retire he books his retirement angle and gives himself the Jericho treatment (Jericho loved leaving by getting fired). Stephanie and HHH call him out to the ring, fire him, HMK shows up and super kicks him. And then a posse of Bret Hart, Sting, Cena, Undertaker and Austin drag him out back and throw him in a dumpster never to be seen again as the fans chant Goodbye.
Roo Returns
Skjeikspeare No More
WWE will still be around but they need to entirely revamp the formula and product to make it relevant. The mystique of wrestling is gone. Back in the day no one knew The Undertaker was Mark Callaway or George Steele used to be a teacher etc. It's really hard to do that in the internet day and age. People either have to be fully committed to the character or not. Can't have all these people on social media breaking the fourth wall. You need some monsters and supernatural characters.
I think the style in ring has to change. You look at the 80s-mid 90s WWF and matches were fundamentally better. You can't have three moves, spots, and a bunch of punching. Playing acrobat and having more athleticism doesn't make a match better.
Finally, the characters or situations need to be better and more relatable. Make it personal and slow down the build up. The Mega Powers which was one of the better stories that promotion has ever done, that was all thought out a year and change in advance. Yes the world is faster but they have so many guys on the roster now so they can slow down angles by using the other talent in matches.
Make it more like real life. Have a tag team managed by a beautiful girl who is in a relationship with one of the guys. Turn in into a love trilogy for a year and change, have the other guy have feelings for her rightful or wrongfully, get rejected, turn him heel, etc. That's a payoff. People will want to see that kind of development.
I think the style in ring has to change. You look at the 80s-mid 90s WWF and matches were fundamentally better. You can't have three moves, spots, and a bunch of punching. Playing acrobat and having more athleticism doesn't make a match better.
Finally, the characters or situations need to be better and more relatable. Make it personal and slow down the build up. The Mega Powers which was one of the better stories that promotion has ever done, that was all thought out a year and change in advance. Yes the world is faster but they have so many guys on the roster now so they can slow down angles by using the other talent in matches.
Make it more like real life. Have a tag team managed by a beautiful girl who is in a relationship with one of the guys. Turn in into a love trilogy for a year and change, have the other guy have feelings for her rightful or wrongfully, get rejected, turn him heel, etc. That's a payoff. People will want to see that kind of development.
dahrougem2
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Rock had already done it all. Multiple time world champion, winner of the Royal Rumble, main evented WrestleMania, played the vanilla baby face, played the slimy heel leader of a stable, played the cocky babyface, played the corporate heel, played the super babyface "saving" WWE from WCW, then played the Hollywood Heel.
There was nothing left for him to accomplish in WWE. Fans had already grown tired of him as a babyface by the time Brock Lesnar arrived. Fans were cheering Lesnar as the heel over Rock as the babyface. Now, Rock can turn the fans onto his side if given freedom at any point, hence his Hollywood persona being arguably his best ever, but there's not a chance in hell he would have gotten any bigger in WWE. He had already accomplished everything humanly possible.
JackSlater
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It is kind of forgotten how iffy The Rock's reactions were many times even after he broke out. He wasn't getting consistent Austin level reactions.
Le Tricolore
Boo! BOOOO!
Triple H made NXT popular for the hardcore fans, but in order for WWE to thrive, he'd have to do that for the mainstream and casual fans too. Very different task.
GKJ
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BruinDust
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Perhaps, no doubt he had already done a lot as a full-time performer. But like the Undertaker and others, I would think someone as creative as Dwayne Johnson would of found ways to evolve. Look at Jericho's last run in WWE. Who would of thought almost 20 years after his debut, he would be more over than perhaps he ever was before with his "List of Jericho" gimmick? Whose to say the Rock wouldn't of created a new persona or gimmick for his overall character that would of gotten him more over than he was before. We will never know.
67 others
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dahrougem2
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No, we don't know that but you will almost never build a "face of the company" after that individual has already been with the company for years - especially when that individual has been on top for 6-7 years.
