Gimmick No Go

WWE has seemingly been on an uphill battle with ratings for years and even though righted the ship a little last year having some fresh names step up during the pandemic, the problems still persisted. Now, reports have arisen that both television networks which carry WWE programming have been pitching various gimmick themed shows to WWE to help with the ratings. However, theme shows will help in the short term, boosting ratings from the week if they are hyped properly in the long term though more changes need to made to fix the underlying issues. 

You aren't going to fix the issue by putting a band-aid on it and calling okay, you need to fix the issue by coming up with a plan. Last year, I said more than once that WWE needed to come up with a long term plan and direction for the promotion. I also said that once Wrestlemania they should immediately start coming up with ideas for Summerslam to keep development and momentum flowing. In the past the company would let talent know months or even a year ahead of time what plans will be for the future, but now it seems like they don't know a week ahead of time what is going to happen. 

This isn't to blame on Vince or Hunter or Stephanie or Shane, it is to blame on perception how they see the issue. Fix an issue by making a change, but unless you make the right change, you won't fix the issues. I would hope that if they haven't figured that out yet that they will figure that out soon enough, because even though some changes were needed the problems that existed before the changes still exist now. It won't be fixed with a special show or special appearance, it will be fixed by changing perception the wrestling business may have changed, but what was once important in the business is still important today. Everything goes back to making a plan and sticking to it aka long term booking, and now I realize a big problem within WWE is shortsighted decision-making. 

A gimmick or themed show will help for one week, but unless you have a plan for where you go next, it will mean nothing in the long term. Eventually if you overuse the concept of a theme show then what once worked will not work anymore, because it will become overdone and stale. Themed shows are a short term fix, if WWE wants to fix the problems that plague the promotion they need a long term fix. Patients will be the only way to get to that long term fix, and I'm not sure that those in power have the ability to stay the course and keep with a long term plan as they might prefer a quicker fix.