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What's the story?
With WWE seeing some of its lowest ratings in history, a lot of people and former wrestlers have ideas that they feel could help the WWE rectify their declining ratings.
One such former WWE Superstar was Bully Ray, and he suggested that using veterans and legends in a different manner would help things going forward. WrestlingNews.co carried transcripts of his thoughts from his 'Busted Open Radio' podcast.
In case you didn't know...
To close out 2018, WWE experienced the lowest ratings in the history of Raw. In storyline, the McMahons blamed the drops on Baron Corbin's run as interim-GM but things haven't risen to acceptable levels for WWE and the networks on which the shows air.
The heart of the matter
With WWE panicking due to the ratings' issues, they have tried several things in order to raise them. They first promised that some new superstars would be debuting in January 2019, but they were used sporadically.
They then called up another four NXT superstars and had them (Aleister Black, Ricochet, Johnny Gargano, Tomasso Ciampa) appear on both Raw and SmackDown. It helped those four superstars but not some of the previous ones called up in January.
WWE also recently introduced the '24/7 Title' that can be defended anywhere at any time on any brand. So far, it has mainly been used as a comedic tool rather than something serious and prestigious. In order to help cure what's ailing the WWE in terms of its low ratings, former WWE superstar Bully Ray suggested a few things on his 'Busted Open Radio' podcast.
“There are no mega-stars right now and they are what always carried WWE. Right now we have stars but none of those megastars. That is going to affect them going forward. I don’t know if they have anyone that is really over. It’s not about one person anymore. It’s becoming about WWE. You come to see WWE. You used to come to see Cena, The Rock, Austin.“
Regarding those 'mega-stars,' Bully Ray thought that using them in a different fashion rather than how WWE has used them might help turn things around. Rather than having Elias get interrupted by and choke-slammed by the Undertaker, use the Undertaker to put Elias over.
He mentioned that "instead of doing Goldberg vs. Taker, have Finn Balor beat Taker and go over to raise his stock as a star." Instead of having The Rock shame Lana and Rusev, allow 'the Bulgarian Brute' to come out on top of the situation.
Elias has been used to put over John Cena and other legends instead of the inverse. Due to that constant need to make the legends look strong, it has cost new and current stars like Rusev and Bray Wyatt from joining the main event as credible stars.
What's next?
Bully Ray's point is spot on. But due to WWE's insistence to cater to legends and keep them looking strong rather than current talent, it has actually hurt WWE's ability to build stars that could one day rival the likes of Cena or the Undertaker.
While it would certainly be hard to become as big a star as either of those men, WWE would be wise to change its tactics if they want to remain atop the pro wrestling business. If not, then they'll have mainly themselves to blame for refusing to adjust.
