What if TV Networks, Shareholders and Sponsors are partly the cause of bad ratings for WWE?

Disclaimer: These are the opinions of the writer and do not reflect Sportskeeda's stance.

Since WrestleMania 35 has been done and dusted, WWE has been suffering from bad ratings. While it isn't uncommon for the post-WrestleMania season to see things cool off, things appear to have cooled off too much in terms of ratings.

For a number of weeks, WWE has experienced record low ratings for a non-holiday, pre-football season shows. It does make you wonder why this could be the case?

WWE usually does suffer a decline in ratings at this time of year, yet this year appears to be the worst year affected for the company. One would have thought with the Superstar Shake-Up recently concluding, as well as the introduction of the Wildcard Rule ( which allows 4 superstars to make a one-night appearance on the opposite brand), that it would have kept up the momentum for the post WrestleMania season. So why hasn't it?

At present, WWE appears to be operating in crisis mode. Multiple superstars are unhappy with their position in the company, booking is sub-standard, champions aren't protected, storylines are repetitive and so on.

Many of us are usually happy to point the finger at the creative team or Vince McMahon himself, but what if they aren't as much to blame as what we think? Yes, the final say is Vince McMahon's but is it always the case? WWE hasn't been doing well in building up Superstars, so what could be part of the problem?

To answer this, we need to understand the dynamics of WWE as a publicly traded company. They are the largest pro-wrestling/sports entertainment company in the world today. Part of what has made them that is the number of sponsors they have, shareholders who have invested stakes into the company and also TV Networks, who pay WWE large amounts of money to air their product ( i.e Monday Night Raw and Smackdown Live).

Being an investor in the product, especially as important as they are, brings about certain privileges for them. TV Networks are able to have a huge say on the content that is being aired on their network.

Equally, sponsors and shareholders of WWE are allowed to demand changes be made to characters, storylines or anything else that doesn't fit the image of what they want WWE to be. While it is understandable why they have such input in the company, they are also taking away from it and here's why.

Vince McMahon has been making a lot of rash decisions lately, by making last minute changes to matches or storylines. It has affected the product because the number of storylines presented lately never have a logical point to it or logical outcome.

You may as well call these storylines " filler" due to the fact that the superstars are fighting for no reason at all. Basically, it's two guys or girls sent out to the ring to slug it out without any consequential reason to do so. It makes absolutely no sense and hinders the product. Every match needs to have some type of consequence to it, or why put on the match at all?

Fox Network is making demands such as Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey being relegated to Smackdown. The changes that Fox want are vastly different to how WWE programming usually operates.

Smackdown is said to become a more sports-oriented show, focusing less on character work and more on wrestling. This will be a big change for Smackdown, which hasn't been as sports-oriented since the early 2000s.

If the superstars tell a good story and have great matches, there is no reason why Smackdown can't start gaining higher viewership than Raw. If done correctly, it could be just as good as NXT, although let's not holding out hope just yet.

There is also the fact that Raw is still running for three hours, meaning creative have to try and come up with a good deal of decent storytelling for both shows. It seems that Vince McMahon has his hands tied, as USA Network is expecting WWE to produce a decent three-hour version of Raw each week, then wonder why ratings are down.

What the WWE management and TV Networks don't seem to get is that (A) It's not consistent, logical storytelling, which makes it hard to watch. (B) It's difficult to keep people invested for three hours, no matter how good it is.

If WWE and the TV Networks don't realize it yet, nobody wants the product to be presented like this anymore. It has made WWE incredibly stale and severely limits what stories can be told on television.

There are just as many adults who watch WWE as there are children. It seems that the hardcore fan base doesn't get considered, judging by all the restrictions WWE has. Of course, I'm not saying to bring back the Attitude Era, but changing the rating to M15+ and running some edgier storylines will garner attention from the hardcore fans.

If they are unable to, then the creative team could at least brainstorm and try out new ideas, provided they don't come across as ridiculous and make the performers look bad.

By saying that the investors have played a big part in poor WWE programming, doesn't mean that Vince McMahon and the creative team are not at fault, because they still are. Vince is more concerned about keeping all those shareholders and investors happy.

He seems to give in to most of their demands just to protect the image of his company and collect their money. Apparently, this is all more important than giving the people who pay their hard earned money, a decent product to watch.

Vince needs to try and convince the TV Networks to let him do edgier content. If he doesn't, then the company will continue to sag in the ratings and WWE could lose network deals, instantly destroying everything the company has built up.

What we have witnessed over the last few years is a drop in the product. It seems at times that WWE would like to produce some edgy content, but network restrictions put a limit on everything, preferring to make it PG family friendly.

WWE has the resources to run all types of shows. They could run a show on their own Network similar to the Original ECW ( for those who like Hardcore Matches). WWE needs to start using the resources and superstars they have.

Build up the talent they have and make people into top stars, not giving them a stop/ start push. WWE doesn't want or need to keep losing talent or any of their fan base. At the end of the day, WWE will hopefully bounce back as they have done in the past.

What are your thoughts on this theory?