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If you watch RAW and Smackdown every week, you are inevitably going to be disappointed some weeks. For any number of reasons, WWE's weekly programming does not always deliver what long-time WWE fans were hoping for.
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In turn, when listening to wrestling industry commentators discuss the less-thrilling segments of that week's WWE television shows, it is easy to get down on the wrestling business as a whole. After all, Roman Reigns has literally now been miscast as a leading babyface character for years now.
But sometimes you need to take a step back and think about the current state of WWE. Many things about the company and its offerings are undoubtedly better now than they have ever been. This becomes especially apparent when you think back to the experience of being a WWE fan in decades' past.
First and foremost, the WWE offers more content now in 2018 than it ever has. Beyond RAW and Smackdown, NXT, 205 Live and Superstars air on a weekly basis. That is in addition to the pay-per-views, which are in addition to exclusives made available through YouTube and WWE.com. In other words, the company gives you things to watch on a daily basis, much of which free.
Related to that endless amount of content is that the WWE Network exists altogether. Beyond all of the weekly in-ring competition that can be watched, the WWE Network also gives you original programming and access to the extensive tape libraries of many other wrestling companies. So whether you want to see something from 1988, 1998, 2008 or 2018, there is always something to watch or re-watch.
Further related to the WWE Network is that the WWE now regularly does something that it rarely ever did before NXT launched: acknowledge other wrestling companies. Sure, the WWE regularly referenced WCW and ECW after buying up those companies' intellectual property and talent contracts, but beforehand, WWE would only talk about its own programming. Nowadays, the TNA/Impact name pops up every now and then on WWE programming, while the pre-WWE histories of current performers -- especially in the cases of Finn Balor, A.J. Styles, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson and Shinsuke Nakamura -- regularly gets referenced. That is a long way from WWE pretending like Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant had never wrestled prior to Wrestlemania 3, even though the two had regularly competed over the years.
The WWE regularly uses the tagline of "then, now, forever" when promoting its long-term appeal. The aforementioned WWE Network keeps most of the company's past alive and well.
Arguably, the company also keeps its legends active in the minds of the WWE Universe by offering a lot of merchandise. Whether you are seeking merch from current WWE Superstars, up-and-coming NXT performers or WWE Legends, more goods are consistently being pumped out by the powers that be in Connecticut. Furthermore, WWE has also been partnering with third-party vendors like Pro Wrestling Loot in providing WWE-related swag alongside those of indie wrestlers.
Another thing that makes the WWE better now than ever is the diversity of the roster. WWE had a reputation in the past for being "the land of the giants." Nowadays, the roster is full of performers of all sorts of sizes, backgrounds, and in-ring styles. There are cruiserweights and giants coexisting, just as there are "strong style" Japanese performers and U.K.-based competitors. Meanwhile, the women's division has never been stronger in terms of in-ring abilities, as so many of the female competitors were proper indie performers before signing with WWE.
So even if you look back at the heyday of the WWE being when Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, The Rock and/or "Stone Cold" Steve Austin are at the top, the Stamford-based empire is doing plenty of great things. In today's society, where most entertainment is on-demand, the WWE is largely with the times and giving its fans things to be excited about. So even if this writer does not get to witness a B-Team tag team title run, he has plenty of content to zip through and lots of memories to hold onto.
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