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I listened to your hotline on Tuesday and I agree, the end of Raw was just bizarre this week. The way that Brock Lesnar was portrayed as not caring about WWE, the show or its fans, they should hate him and cheer for Roman Reigns, yet despite the way the show ended, there are still some in the crowd that won’t do that. What can WWE do to fix the disconnect that it has with some of its fans?
Honestly? I have no freaking idea at this point. As I said on Tuesday, WWE used to say that Canada was Bizarro World for them due to the opposite reactions certain people would get there, like Canadian heels being cheered. That, I can understand. It was people cheering for their countrymen. It makes perfect sense that Canadians would like their country men and women.
What is going on now? I honestly have no idea how to really make sense of it. This is the best I can do to try and figure out where we are now.
Vince McMahon obviously sees Roman Reigns as “the guy”. It’s also clear that a subsection of the fan base vehemently disagrees with that and no matter what Reigns does, they will boo him (while also often chanting “This is awesome” during his match later on, adding to the bizarre nature of the situation). I have had people try and explain to me why they can boo him at the start only to later compliment him but I can’t say any of the explanations have ever made much sense to me. Every time someone starts with “we are sending a message” I zone out since, well, it hasn’t worked in years so all they are really doing is adding to the WWE coffers while infringing on the experience for the normal fans by disrupting the basic nature of the show.
What has become pretty clear is that even if they announced that Reigns was going to come out and hand everyone in the crowd a hundred dollar bill, those fans would probably still boo him (while taking the money). Those fans just love to boo him and see him being rammed down their throat, a la John Cena.
Now, in fairness and maybe to their detriment, WWE has tried at times to adjust the Roman push. For those that compare him to Cena, it doesn’t hold water because Reigns has lost far more often than Cena ever did. They probably thought that those losses would make the fans give Reigns a break, but it didn’t and to a degree it has hurt the man’s push. He has lost so often to Brock Lesnar that even if he wins at SummerSlam it will be anti-climatic if that is how the show ends (and there isn’t some kind of cash in of the MITB briefcase or other bit of smoke and mirrors). I was a guy that used to defend Reigns against the negative reaction but now? He is like Lex Luger during his failed WWF run in that he has had so many chances and yet came up short almost every time.
They have also kept Reigns out of the main event of big shows, like they did at Extreme Rules. At that event, they gave the fans someone that they supposedly love, in Seth Rollins, and the Roman hating fans hijacked that match too (which frankly I found to be extremely disrespectful to Rollins and Dolph Ziggler since they didn’t even give them a chance). Even on Raw this week, The Revival (who this group of fans should love) took on Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt (again, who they should love) and those fans were chanting for CM Punk and Rusev Day, again disrespecting the talent in the ring.
So now, it’s not just about booing Reigns any more, it has become an issue of them enjoying disrupting televised events. They are not happy with a lot of the things WWE does now, so they hijack the show to, I guess, show their displeasure. On the one hand, I get that. They paid for their ticket and they are making their opinion of the product known. Well known actually. On the flip side, I think they need to realize that no matter how much they boo, Vince isn’t going to let them set the course of WWE, especially after doing things during non-Reigns matches that I mentioned above. And to be fair, a lot of the fan base (especially the target demo of WWE), does like Reigns and does want him to beat Lesnar.
A big issue here is that a subset of the fans base has become a hurdle for WWE. I would say a problem, but I can’t go that far since those people are spending significant money on WWE’s product and the company will gladly let them continue to do so. In a lot of ways, those fans are like a sprained muscle. When its healing, sometimes it feels fine but then, out of nowhere, BOOM you get pain. Sometimes you do something and realize why it hurt (in WWE’s case sending Roman out there) but other times you do nothing obvious and it hurts anyway. That is that subset of fans now.
Part of the problem has arisen from the way WWE has booked the product, I get that. I know things are not always logical or even fun to watch play out from a storyline perspective. I feel that pain too, believe me. I wish we were back in the Attitude Era too but that ended 15 years or so ago. I can see pining for it for a few years but this current era? It’s been the standard for far longer than The Attitude Era ever was, so to me, if fans are going to pay to see WWE events live, they know what they are going to get. They know they will often be bored and/or unhappy, yet they continue to pay for the privilege. I don’t understand that kind of thinking. If I knew that was what was waiting for me, I would save my money. But we don’t all think the same way. My issue with those fans is that they know what they will get yet they try and ruin it for the other fans that are just going to have a good time and don't share their contempt for the product.
So to try and answer your question, as long as there are those who defy logic by going to a show and expecting something different from what they have basically been promised that they will get, I don’t see how WWE CAN fix the disconnect.
And after the stuff that happened in the matches mentioned above, I don’t see why they should even try to make that subset of fans happy. If someone asks you for something and you give it to them, yet they still act out, why should you bother trying to please them anymore? If it’s me, I just take their money, like WWE is doing.
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