A recent report suggests that WWE is concerned that they are losing the teenager demographic in their viewership. Here are 5 ways that WWE can try to appeal to their younger audience.
5) Push Younger Talent & Build New Stars
Let’s start with an obvious one. I think that WWE can appeal to a younger audience if they start pushing new talent and build new stars.
Listen, I will always love guys like the Undertaker and Triple H. I grew up with them and I still love seeing them wrestle today. While saying that, why would a kid in high school care about watching a 50-year old Undertaker? They didn’t grow up watching him and he is a lot slower than he was in his prime. The appeal of these legends is really only for nostalgia purposes and not to bring in new fans. Nostalgia is fine but it feels like WWE relies on it too much these days.
Instead, WWE needs to focus on building new stars. Keep pushing guys like Ricochet and show off his incredible athleticism. Maybe that same fan in high school will love his crazy moves and will want to watch more of him. That fan is more likely to relate to Ricochet due to his age over someone like the Undertaker.
WWE can’t rely on nostalgia forever and I think pushing younger talent could help out with things. They need to build up the next Triple H, instead of just relying on him.
4) Actually Give Paul Heyman And Eric Bischoff Creative Freedom
A big thing for me is for WWE to actually give Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff creative freedom in their roles as ‘Executive Directors’.
I know that Bischoff and Heyman aren’t young anymore but they both had success in the past building ‘cool’ brands of pro-wrestling. This was Heyman with ECW and Bischoff with WCW. I think they both can do it again if given the proper chance.
My hope is that Vince McMahon does give up the reigns (a bit) and we see what both guys can do. Maybe they can light a spark that has been missing in WWE for many years. Maybe they can even make WWE ‘cool’ again.
Things have gotten a bit better since Heyman and Bischoff were given their roles so I think WWE needs to keep letting them do their thing.
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