WWE News: WWE Set To Add The Rock And The Undertaker Into Major Programs Before The End Of 2016
It has been clear that WWE needed to do something major to bring fans back into WWE RAW and SmackDown each week. The shows are not getting it done, and most are blaming creative for the lack of interesting and compelling content. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon has decided to counter his problems here with not the addition of better storylines, but more stars from yesteryear.
WWE has brought back Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker early just to be sure that they could work and help ratings. WWE is set to bring Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin to WWE RAW in a few weeks. After that, WWE will be running through to WWE Survivor Series with yet another potential Undertaker rivalry.
According to the Wrestling Observer, The Undertaker is set to work for the rest of the year as he has been added to several more shows, according to scheduling. He is healthy enough to work, and due to this, Vince wants him to get back in the ring and potentially help ratings go up. While it is unknown if Taker will stay healthy after his Hell in a Cell match with Brock Lesnar in a couple of weeks, the hope is that he will be fine.
WWE is now attempting to get The Rock back on as well.
The Observer noted as follows about The Rock’s return.
“[T]he promotions department has been told that Dwayne Johnson and the company are having serious talks about doing something before the end of the year”
WWE has been suffering through lower ratings, but the response to this shouldn’t be bringing back legends every month. WWE does this every year for WrestleMania season, and we put up with it for a time, but at least they use top-tier stars from the past with people from present day. It seems now that WWE is simply relying on older talent and not trying to fix their main problem — creative.
The Inquisitr reported on Wednesday that Vince McMahon and Triple H were trying to come up with a blockbuster storyline to help ratings. Those ideas were said, at the time, to include the likes of Dean Ambrose and potentially Daniel Bryan. While those plans very well could still be in play, it does appear WWE is most likely going to focus on a big storyline involving The Rock for WWE Survivor Series. While Survivor Series in one of WWE’s “Big 4” of the year, it is by no means a WWE SummerSlam or WrestleMania.
The Rock has appeared at Survivor Series before in his part-time status, but it was a number of years ago as WWE prepped him up for a match with John Cena the following year at WrestleMania 28. Cena and Rock teamed up to take on the team of The Miz and R-Truth, where they won against the Awesome Truth team.
The weird part is that The Rock has not wrestled outside of WrestleMania since then. While he has appeared and fought a bit at other shows like WWE RAW and even this past year’s Royal Rumble, he never wrestled a match at any of these events. It shows major desperation on WWE’s end to bring him in now and keep The Undertaker around longer.
While no one will hate the return of The Rock, the same problems WWE has right now will exist again whenever the veterans leave. Unless WWE changes its creative approach, they will continue to slide in the ratings. This is not an easy task, of course, so no one is asking WWE to change everything overnight. However, fans have asked for a variety of things WWE CAN give them, and that isn’t going to take a lot of time to accomplish.
[IMG Credits: WWE.com]
