Has the WWE product got better since 2011?

Raw was okay last night, no where near as good as the week before. I guess they set the bar too high they couldnt quite carry it forward.

For me, yes - although its not without it's problems. Its better now for me mostly because CM Punk is gone. It got to the point where I nearly stopped watching altogether because there is nothing about him that I find entertaining or enjoyable. Bonus points for Orton and Cena being out for awhile. The biggest improvements have been on the tag and diva side, as Sasha, Becky, and Charlotte are exponentially more interesting than people like Kelly Kelly, Candace Michelle (who I had the hots for), and even Victoria. As for tag, 2011 was right in the middle of the old 'tag team debuts, become champions, don't get over, lose to next debuts who also don't get over, who then lose to some tag team that includes Big Show, Kane, or both' routine. New Day is probably the hottest tag/trio act since the height of the Dudleys/Hardys/E&C. We also have the Usos, Lucha Dragons, and the Dudleys (although in terms of tag, things are starting to wear a bit thin). There were a lot more main events containing the Big Show in 2011 as well. Overall today's product as more exciting superstars and divas, some of the people who have been on top for years are (temporarily) out of the picture, and some of the former older mainstays (Kane, Mark Henry, Showses) have been scaled back considerably.

On the bad side, the top of the card is super weak. Like them or hate them, we don't have Cena, Orton, Rey Mysterio, Edge, or Daniel Bryan. Further, some of the other lower main eventers have dropped off (as mentioned above). They've replaced Cena with Roman Reigns. As much as I've had enough of Cena for 10 lifetimes he's still light years ahead of Reigns in terms of charisma and star power. No matter what that one Roman Reigns fan says, he's still not anywhere near as over as he needs to be if he's going to be the top star, and a lot of that has been his Marty Stu/Pet Project booking - although the rest of it is that he's just not believable in his promos, and smiling while getting his ass kicked is lame; he's not Mick Foley.

Otherwise, many of the problems have remained. The writing still isn't very good, pushes begin only to be cut off with no warning, too many people lost in the shuffle. For me it is better now. The future is looking promising. New stars are coming in, NXT is on fire, the in-ring aspect is better than 2011, and the mold has somewhat been broken regarding who can make it. I'd like to see better quality storylines, I want Cody Rhodes back, I'd like to see a stronger main event scene. The mid card is huge, I'd like them to stop cutting people off just as they are getting to that point (again, see Cody Rhodes).

2009-2010 was by far the worst WWE period of all time. Guest hosts, Orton/Cena/HHH every week, Hornswoggle/Chavo... Cena in general. It was unbearable to watch. Every week, it was like they followed the same script with the guest hosts and main event. The only saving grace from those years was Smackdown wasn't too bad and NXT Season 1 was fun. Too bad they screwed up Nexus but yeah, that was a massive buzz at the time. I remember being on this forum when Bryan got fired and we had all these theories about him coming back as a ruthless rebel to help Nexus. Too bad it didn't happen.

2011 was better. The Summer of Punk was brilliant at the time... but again, they messed it up. Diesel coming out, Del Rio cashing in... I mean come on.

The product now has definitely improved but for the most part it's still the same. Atleast we have brilliant wrestlers like Styles, Joe, Bryan, Aries, Neville, Balor, Zayn, Owens, Ambrose, Rollins, etc to help us through it. The roster is absolutely STACKED with some of the best indy wrestlers of the past decade and it's great to watch... NXT has been a lifesaver for fans like me. But AGAIN, the product is still very much the same. Same production, same presentation, same stage, same feel, same formula... every week, I watch Raw and I say to myself "Well, there goes another week where nothing happened." and it's been this way since 2008. It's easy to blame the rating and say "HURR DuRR PG SUX!" but I think it might be true. WWE don't take risks anymore. They don't give us that feeling that we're gonna miss something big if we don't tune in. And maybe I'm just getting older and that feeling has past... I don't know. But it definitely feels like they're not trying. They're content with this formula when they could really be utilizing this brilliant roster they have and giving us compelling storylines and brilliant matches. Instead we have "Angry boss vs obviously chosen wrestler" storyline 42423.

Come on WWE, we're in 2016. Times have past. I remember people saying "Nobody would know AJ Styles if he debuted", and yet look at the reactions he's getting. Fans don't want super heroes anymore, they just want great wrestlers. Roman Reigns has his place in the company but it's not in the main event. He was a good third wheel in the Shield but if you ask the majority of fans "Would you rather see Reigns vs Lesnar or Bryan vs Lesnar?", the majority would say Bryan. Cause it would be a better match.