5 Reasons why WWE might currently be in panic mode

WWE has experienced some of its biggest problems recently regarding the ratings for both Raw and SmackDown. Raw suffered its lowest ratings in late 2018 and although they have slightly risen in 2019, they are still among the lowest in the show's history.

And even though the SmackDown product has been much better than Raw since the brand split, its ratings have also suffered the same fate. It has also dropped to some lows that haven't been seen before in WWE.

Because of the ratings issues and several other factors, whether they will admit it or not, the WWE is in a panicked state of operation. If that wasn't the case, then we wouldn't have been 'gifted' the totally random 'Wildcard Rule' that Mr. McMahon made a big deal about creating on this week's Raw.

That's the reason for wanting to have AJ Styles and Roman Reigns being featured on both shows, as if that would help greatly increase the struggling ratings. The easiest thing to do would be to let more superstars have some creative freedom so that they come across more natural.

Whether or not you are on board with Bray Wyatt's new direction, you have to at least respect the effort that Wyatt puts into 'the Firefly Funhouse' segments. They could also have better storylines rather than the Usos shaming the Revival in various ways.

Despite WrestleMania being only a month ago, it's luster has worn off and things haven't risen to levels that are acceptable for the WWE to feel safe and comfortable. A lot of the problems aren't easy fixes, but pushing different superstars would help. Newer faces help the product evolve rather than pushing the same four or five wrestlers.

Since the problem is a multi-layered one, there isn't one sole reason why WWE is currently in a tough spot. Here are five reasons why WWE seems like it might be in panic mode regarding the current state of its product.

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#5 All Elite Wrestling and other competitions

The mere existence of AEW has put pressure on WWE even though it hasn't had a TV show yet.

WWE hasn't had any viable competition since WCW closed its doors in the early 2000s. The main competitor was gone, so WWE was able to keep things going along at the same pace for much of the 2000s and 2010s. But wrestling as a sport and business evolved a lot during that period, and promotions like Ring of Honor, Major League Wrestling and Impact started to garner national attention.

They still weren't major threats to the WWE, but with the sport evolving so much every year, some promotions seemed to be cultivating their own stars. The WWE would soon sign them, but the fact that other promotions could churn out great wrestlers started to show the WWE that there were still competitors to deal with.

Once the Elite helped grow New Japan Pro Wrestling outside of Japan, it also started to threaten WWE's international influence. NJPW had been around almost as long as WWE and now its biggest acts were leaving to start their own promotion. While the jury is still out as to how successful AEW will be, they have the billionaire backing of a family with pockets deeper than the McMahons.

They can offer more money to superstars and offer possibly more creative freedom to any superstars unhappy with how they are being handled in their current promotions. If WWE wasn't worried about the young upstart promotion, then they would have released any unhappy superstars that have asked for their releases. Instead, they have offered them more money in order to keep people with them rather than letting them go to their competition.

#4 Turnover issues with Writing/Creative staff

Road Dogg has had a whirlwind few months in WWE.

Why have so many writers either left over the last year or been fired? Part of the reason is that the WWE might be looking for some fall guys for the recent ratings woes. Another reason is that some writers have probably had enough of working in the high-pressure environment. That's been stated as part of the reason for Road Dogg stepping down as lead writer for SmackDown right after WrestleMania 35.

And along with Road Dogg, writers Ryan Callahan, RD Evans, Dave Schilling and Kazeem Famuyide have all either quit or been fired. Backstage agents and former pro wrestlers Dean Malenko and Arn Anderson have also left the company.

If it seems like some of the recent episodes of Raw and SmackDown (and mainly Raw) have been hard to watch, then it can partially be attributed to the turnover in the writing department. If your ideas are always shot down, then it's hard to care about the product if you don't have a say.

The final say always comes down to 'the Chairman', so some of the blame is his, but not having a writing team that is on the same page and working together has given us some strange and uneven episodes of Raw.

If you have such a deep roster, why are you having two matches with 'local talent' on an episode of Raw rather than dipping into your own roster? The writing changes aren't the sole issue but not having good and fresh ideas added to the product helps lead to a ratings' plummet.

#3 Wrestlers asking for releases

The Revival asked for their release from WWE in early 2019.

In the age of social media, if a particular talent is currently unhappy with their spot in the company, they will let the world know. Superstars like the Revival, Luke Harper, the Kanellis' and Hideo Itami all reportedly asked for their releases since the beginning of 2019.

And that's not even considering the whole Sasha Banks situation. While she hasn't necessarily blasted the company on Twitter or other platforms, her disappearance from WWE after WrestleMania speaks volumes enough as to her displeasure. Bayley might have also been unhappy, but she at least has continued to show up for work and appear on TV.

WWE might not understand why so many people are unhappy, but they haven't put every superstar under contract on TV. If someone isn't getting used at all, of course they will likely be an unhappy talent. But everyone can't get on TV either, so it's a double-edged blade sometimes.

Not everyone is going to be pushed to the moon or booked like they'll always want to be. But part of the compromise is helping your fellow superstars when they are getting pushed. If you are unhappy, wait until you have the leverage, like Dean Ambrose did, and refuse to resign.

It might be more appealing to wrestle in a new promotion that might offer more creative freedom, but consider your contract's expiration date before you might express your unhappiness to the world on Twitter.

#2 The SmackDown move to Fox this Fall

SmackDown is slated to air on Fox starting this October.

WWE had to be both excited and slightly wary of the move to Fox. It will be the biggest network on which one of their shows will air, but along with that comes more demands on your current product.

The ratings have struggled mightily since last year, and if WWE wants things to go smoothly, they'll have to greatly improve them. That became apparent when Fox revealed that it might air WWE programming on FS1 or other networks if the ratings don't rise to where they want them to be.

Fox also reportedly requested SmackDown to be more reliant on the athletic aspect of wrestling more so than the entertainment side. That meant certain stars were better suited for the blue brand (Finn Balor, Ali, Buddy Murphy, Asuka, Cesaro), while others were better suited for Raw (Baron Corbin, Heavy Machinery, Alexa Bliss).

While all of those superstars didn't end up where they would be better suited, WWE apparently moved certain superstars from one show to another at the request of Fox. Due to having a Fox Deportes channel on which to highlight programming for the Latino audience, Fox reportedly requested to have Andrade move back to SmackDown after having originally joined Raw during the Superstar Shake Up.

Rey Mysterio had been a big draw for SmackDown back in the 2000s, so Fox wanted to try to recreate that success with the top Latino star currently in WWE in Andrade. The 'Wildcard Rule' was also reportedly put into action because both NBC Universal and Fox wanted more star power on their respective shows in order to up the ratings.

#1 The drop in ratings

The former Constable of Raw has been a featured superstar over the last two years.

A big sign that those backstage in WWE might indeed be panicking has to be because of suffering some record lows in terms of ratings. That all started late last year and has continued until as recently as this week.

In order to combat the ratings drops, they've had John Cena come back a time or two and they announced that several NXT stars would be debuting in January 2019. When they had to call those NXT stars up sooner rather than later in order to boost ratings, it caused WWE to present them in an awkward fashion. Sometimes half of those new superstars wouldn't even appear on programming for a couple weeks. Or they would show up for two seconds backstage like EC3 or Heavy Machinery.

Lacey Evans walked the aisle literally almost every week, causing fans to wonder what her true purpose really was. Was she lost? Nikki Cross practically never appeared on either show.

Once these call-ups seemed to be doomed from the start, Mr. McMahon apparently called for the four top superstars in NXT - Ricochet, Johnny Gargano, Tomasso Ciampa and Aleister Black - to be called up to both shows. This was done allegedly without Triple H's knowledge.

Mr. McMahon also felt that the product had become stale and that they needed to create new superstars. Apparently Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman weren't in the running for being big stars. Wyatt lost every major feud he was in (John Cena, Reigns, Seth Rollins, Undertaker) and Strowman has had title shots but was booked to lose each time.

The ratings drops of late 2018 were ultimately blamed on Baron Corbin and his tyrannical run as interim-GM, but it obviously didn't solve the problem. Ratings are still hovering around lower numbers than WWE would like, so they might need to think outside the box in a good way in order to truly boost ratings into the stratosphere.