Looking at why WWE tend to rehash previous storylines

In the world of Sports Entertainment, you have to be able to tell a compelling story with your character work, as well as in the ring. Being a WWE superstar is very different from working in other wrestling promotions, as WWE primarily focus on the art of character storytelling with wrestling being blended in. With most other companies, it is the opposite way around, with in ring action being the main focus and character storytelling not being a big focal point.

WWE often get bashed by the Internet Wrestling Community (IWC) for their tendency to rehash old storylines over and over again (e.g. an authority figure versus an underdog). While continuously redoing the same storylines over and over does get monotonous, there are occasions where it does happen to work.

In 2013-2014, we got to see the rise of Daniel Bryan, who was fighting against the authority for well over 6 months. He was not supposed to be in the position he ended up being in, yet due to overwhelming crowd support and the Yes Movement, the company was forced to alter their WrestleMania 30 plans for the main event. Some may say that Daniel Bryan winning his two matches at WrestleMania was a consolation prize to the fans, due to the fact that the Undertaker got his streak broken by Brock Lesnar earlier that night. However people look at the situation, it was still a good story that was told, with proof that dreams do come true.

Many people have compared the rise of superstars like Daniel Bryan and Becky Lynch to the original storyline rise of another superstar, Stone Cold Steve Austin. There are many similarities with each of these stories, such as all of them battling an authority figure ( Kofi Kingston being the most recent example), yet each character has always dealt with their battles in different ways, to separate their storyline from the original classic Austin/McMahon rivalry. Becky uses twitter as her way to vent as well as ruthless aggression, Bryan used his pure wrestling skills and organic popularity, and Kofi got over by his passion and determination to prove Vince McMahon wrong.

The reason that WWE tends to constantly rehash their storyline is due to a number of reasons. Firstly, due to it being pro wrestling and not a TV drama show, only certain storylines will work in that type of environment. Another reason would be to do with the PG rating that WWE programming has on their product. To keep it as family oriented as possible, they stick to the same storylines that they know will work and fit that PG rating. One could argue that they could add a few different twists to the storyline, but usually, they turn out pretty good.

We have seen the typical authority versus heel angle done to the death, however, it still does work if the crowd are behind a certain superstar who was never supposed to be in that position. Other angles such as romance are a little harder to do, considering how much people know about a WWE superstar's personal life nowadays.

There are certain storylines that have a lot of potential like the Mandy Rose/ Sonya Deville one, however, others are just doomed from the start ( Mandy Rose and Naomi/ Jimmy Uso), due to poor execution from the superstars or writing team. I don't think anybody wants to remember Lashley and his " sisters " or the Katie Vick story. These were done in very poor taste by WWE and did nothing except tarnish the legacy of those superstars involved.

In WWE, there are always going to be certain storylines/angles that a select few people don't like. We may complain about what we see, however, we still continue to watch the product. The intrigue is what makes us tune in the next week to see what happens, even if it is predictable.

The WWE creative do mess up a lot of storylines, by adding things that are unnecessary, however, we have grown accustomed to that What we need to remember is, writing television is no easy task by itself, let alone writing storylines that Vince McMahon approves of.

We know he isn't the nicest boss in the world. WWE have used a similar formula for TV ever since the product became PG rated. It's still keeping them as the top global wrestling company, so they must be doing something right.

What do you think? Leave your thoughts below.