June 27th, 2011. That was the day that everything changed in WWE. After years of the “same old shit” being shoved down out throats finally someone spoke up on behalf of loyal fans who just couldn’t handle it anymore. Love him, hate him, respect him or despise him, you can’t deny that CM Punk changed WWE as we knew it with one roughly 6 minute promo. For far too long WWE had been dominated by the same superstars over and over and over again. WWE superstars that were once fan favorites were now despised by the fans for being shoved down their throats. CM Punk popped the lid off of the jar that no one wanted to open and gave a voice to the voiceless.
Fast forward to the modern era where we’ve just closed out an exhausting 8 month storyline which featured Daniel Bryan fighting against The Authority. Was it planned the whole time? Was it a shoot? Who knows for sure. The only thing we know is that from a fan’s perspective it seemed that WWE legitimately didn’t want Daniel Bryan as WWE Champion.
After months of seemingly fighting against the voice of the fans the dam finally burst open. Instead of casually chanting for their favorite wrestler, the fans started hijacking the show. The past few months have been a volatile time in WWE and unfortunately the “hijacking” was at the expense of quite a few wrestlers that didn’t deserve it. Still, the WWE exists to please the fans, plain and simple.
Over the past few months we’ve seen quite a few people comment on our Facebook page saying things like “giving the fans what they want is bad for business.” What? Giving the fans who spend their hard earned money on WWE pay-per-views, tickets, video games, clothing, action figures and more is bad for business? Make no mistake about it, the WWE is a global entity but without the fans it would nothing. Some of the wrestlers on the WWE roster are millionaires and deservedly so, but don’t ever forget where those millions of dollars came from.
The tide has turned in WWE and the walls between “smart mark” and “casual fan” have been broken down as well. Triple H has seemingly made a great decision by embracing the “internet wrestling community.” He spends a lot of time on television doing things that cause people to think he’s trolling the IWC but in the end he’s giving them what they want. Like it or not, reality is the new kayfabe.
Certain wrestlers have embraced the change in WWE such as Randy Orton, John Cena and Triple H but others seem to be caught up in the past. No longer can you just arrive with really big muscles, a good look and rise to the top of the card. People in the back might be receptive to that sort of thing but the fans won’t. The fans want heroes and they want to not only be able to relate to their heroes but they also want their heroes to be able to perform in the ring.
The boundaries have been broken between “casual fan” and “smart mark.” The fans now know the difference between pro-wrestlers and sports entertainers and it’s clear that they want to see pro-wrestlers at the top of the card. Anyone who isn’t on board with that mentality will just have to “deal with it.”
Like it or not, John Cena, Randy Orton and Batista’s time is over. Now is the time for new superstars such as Daniel Bryan, The Shield, Antonio Cesaro, The Wyatt Family and more to rise to prominence in WWE. The future of the WWE roster hasn’t looked this bright in years and it’s time for yesterday’s wrestlers to put the next generation over or get out of the way.
No crowd ever booed Orton when he was a babyface, he can probably keep going for another ten years.