The WWE's downfall

After years of rebuilding, it seems as though the WWE is on the downfall.

The WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) spent 1996-1998 creating new stars and creating new storylines in hopes of defeating rival WCW (World Championship Wrestling) in the TV ratings war. They succeeded and didn't look back.

In 1999 and 2000, the WWE kept on producing quality television while the WCW could barely keep up.

As 2001 approached, it seemed as though WCW was going to go bankrupt, which they eventually did, and the WWE purchased the company to give the fans what they wanted -- WWE vs. WCW action. That storyline did take place, but it added to the WWE's downfall.

Every March, the WWE holds the top event in wrestling -- Wrestlemania. During the main event, Stone Cold Steve Austin (a man the fans adored for many years) aligned with evil owner Vince McMahon and defeated The Rock to become the new champion.

The move was obvious to everyone, because Rock was scheduled to shoot "The Scorpion King." Fans immediately expressed their anger toward Austin turning "heel" (wrestling term for "bad guy").

The WWE, however, didn't listen to their fans. They believed the fans would like what they told them to like.

The obvious storyline they should have followed was to pit Austin against longtime rival Triple H. And, On the Raw, which was held after Wrestlemania, it seemed as though they were heading in that direction.

Austin took on The Rock in a cage match, and during the match, Triple H came down and helped Austin defeat The Rock. Before Raw went off the air, Austin, Triple H and McMahon all stood together raising their arms over the fallen Rock.

This marked the beginning of the "Two Man Power Trip," which was step one in the WWE's decline.

With a lack of top "faces" (wrestling term for "good guy") the WWE had no choice but to put the Undertaker and Kane in this spot. The two failed miserably and the two pay-per-views they headlined drew very low buyrates.

Then the WWE decided to put Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho into the top face position. Previously, Benoit and Jericho were being portrayed as midcarders who couldn't hold their own against the main eventers. They needed to do something big, so they had a match with Benoit and Jericho taking on Triple H and Austin for the tag team titles.

Jericho and Benoit defeated the team and became the new tag team champions. During the match, however, Triple H tore his quad and was put on the injury list.

For the next few weeks, Benoit and Jericho were put in a feud with Austin, and the WWE tried to build up the two, but they couldn't. The main reason for this was because Benoit and Jericho needed each other to defeat Austin, they couldn't do it themselves.

For their next pay-per-view -- The King of the Ring -- a triple-threat match was booked between Jericho, Benoit and Austin. Austin won the match and retained the title, while Benoit was injured and put on the injured list.

Now was the time the WWE decided to make use of WCW.

The plan from the beginning was for WCW to takeover Raw and the WWE to have Smackdown, but the WWE spent years making WCW look like a mediocre company.

How would the fans react to this mediocre company taking over the main WWE show?

The WWE decided to test it out by having Buff Bagwell and Booker T wrestle each other on Raw. This event turned out horrible, as the two put on a terrible match and fans left the arena.

The WWE didn't expect the storyline to turn out like this, so they decided to add ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) to the mix.

ECW was considered the No. 3 company in the world. They pushed wrestling to the limit and they were the innovators of hardcore. In fact, the WWE and WCW often stole ideas from the ECW and they were usually successful.

However, ECW was without a TV deal, so they stayed in the No. 3 spot even though they produced cutting edge storylines. As time went on, the company went into debt and declared bankruptcy in 2001.

WCW and ECW joined together to form the Alliance. For a week or two, the storyline was successful and interesting, but the wrestlers in the Alliance were portrayed as jobbers (losers) who couldn't defeat any WWE star without any help.

Instead of the focus being on the wrestlers, the focus was being put onto the McMahons. The WWE didn't know why the storyline didn't succeed, and put the angle (storyline) out of its misery in November of 2001.

Ratings were slowly declining, so they decided to shake things up a bit. In the beginning of 2002, they signed three men who were considered cancers in the locker room. However, when business is going down, people will do anything to get back up again.

In January, they signed Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Hulk Hogan.

Only the signing of Hogan proved to be worthwhile, as Nash injured his biceps despite not wrestling, and Hall was fired after three months for showing up late to shows and putting on horrible matches.

Hogan just came in for nostalgic purposes and the reactions he received from the live crowd forced the WWE to put the World Title on Hogan, but Hogan quickly dropped the title due to poor ratings.

During the same period, the WWE decided to split the roster into two. They had half the wrestlers perform on Raw, while the other half performed on Smackdown. By doing this, they hoped to create new stars.

However, the WWE didn't take time to develop the stars and wanted overnight success, so they kept the same main eventers and kept rehashing old material.

The writing of the TV shows lacked any direction. What happened during the previous week had no follow-up or nothing to do with the show the next week.

Austin was the most vocal of all the wrestlers by stating publicly that he hated the current product, and after many screw-ups, Austin, the man who basically carried the WWE during their rebuilding period, had enough and left the company.

With ratings sinking every week, the WWE hoped to capitalize on Austin leaving by dedicating shows to him even after he left the company, but just like all their other attempts, this didn't help their ratings at all.

Fast forward to today.

Eric Bischoff was signed by the WWE and became the general manager of Raw. Bischoff owned WCW during 1996-1998 and tried to put the WWE out of business. He often insulted the WWE and performed low tactics in order to get viewers to watch WCW's product. Now, he's working for the WWE.

It just shows how strange this business of professional wrestling is and how desperate some people can get in order to climb to the top of the ladder.