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WWE has been criticized by fans for a few different things over the years, one of which is how wrestlers have very little room to be themselves on screen. Everything is scripted to the T, which is something that former WWE Superstars have spoken about and lambasted the company for over the last few years.
AEW's Chris Jericho, who was with WWE for a long time, has spoken about it in the past, and revealed how he has a lot of freedom in AEW to talk off the cuff on screen.
Former WWE Superstar James Ellsworth has come to the support of his former employers and revealed why it is a good thing for wrestlers to be told what to say and do on television.
James Ellsworth on why WWE is "produced so hard"
In a recent interview with Lucha Libre Online's Michael Morales Torres, Ellsworth spoke about his time in WWE and why the company is right in producing their shows so much.
"Well, people have to understand, I think I do, that it's live TV and you can go out there and curse or say something that you're going to regret. So it has to be produced to an extent, you know, because it's a live television show. You can't mess up. And so I get why it's produced and treated as such. There are time cues. There are time limits. There's one of the segments. So I get that. I mean, as a performer you want to be your own artist and you want to do your own thing, like 'any man with two hands has a fighting chance' was my line. And that's the line that got me popular. It's always felt like, 'man, I got here because of my line'. But I understood why it's produced so hard. It's a PG television show that you have, you know for Smackdown, it's two hours. You have two hours to get over the stories you want to get over and as far as WWE as a whole, I'm so grateful for it.”
In the same interview, Ellsworth said that the James Ellsworth character "belongs" in WWE and that he would love to return to the company.
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