Vince said it's fake. Fans treat it as performance art, and that's bad?
Yes, because they don't acknowledge the performance correctly. What's the point of there being a story at all if you have nonsensical reactions to it? Helms had a good analogy of comparing wrestling to movies. This would be like if people went to Star Wars and cheered for Darth Vader because James Earl Jones paid his dues in Claudine and Mark Hamill was a green nobody pushed because the office saw dollar signs in him.
Again, the issue isn't that they cheer for workrate and skilled mic workers, it's that they have the same reaction for skills levels and *don't* respect the performance of the character. It fukks the show up and makes it hard to tell stories. It's hard for anyone to get strong reactions because there's such a disconnect in how crowds should react. The worst thing that can ever happen to a performer in wrestling is to get no reaction but you have these dummies booing people they think suck. Boos should be for people you hate if you think it's real, and if you respect the performance you should save them for exceptional heels.
Yes, the show is too long.
Yes, the show is too sterile and controlled.
Yes, the wrong guy gets pushed frequently.
Guess what? None of those thing fukk up the fundamental dynamic that wrestling is supposed to operate on like what the fans do when they ignore characters and try to hijack shows. Even when lapsed fans tune in, then turn it on at it's confusing.
We've had periods with no Hogan or Austin or Rock before and we've had periods where the product was sterile before. Popularity relative to other entertainment wasn't at it's peak but it was never*this* bad. The only thing that's different between now and then is that the fans have changed. Maybe WWE should do a fan engagement program and try to see if they can get the crowds to actively play along and show their support in the correct fashion. That would go a long way towards improving the watchability of the shows. The greatest thing about the Attitude era was the talent and stories at the top. The second best thing? The crowds. They were always hot when it counted and it elevated a lot of the subpar aspects that we were seeing at the time.