To answer the original question, all it takes to really be a #2 is money and a good time slot on a good TV network... TNA doesnt really have either... Wednesday night are kind of a dead market.

If someone had Turner money, they'd pull from everywhere... period. There is so much talent, known or unknown, when you have money you can create your own stars.

^ also needs good advertisement, which TNA is god awful at.

Wrestling is dying. People want something they believe is 'real'. Whenever you talk about wrestling, the first thing that comes into people's minds is 'fake'. That stigma doesn't exist with normal TV programs, even though they are more scripted than wrestling is. Even 'Reality TV', which is normally about parallel with wrestling with how 'real' it is.

Also, the American wrestling industry is in a hopeless paradox in regards to its survival. The Summer of Punk didn't save wrestling, The Yes Movement didn't save wrestling, and I don't think Roman Reigns can save wrestling. The only thing that can save it is a true #2, to light a fire under WWE's ass. However, as this topic has proven, a true #2 cannot exist in the current state of the industry, due to lack of star power.

Honestly, it's a very real possibility that WWE goes out of business in roughly 10 years if nothing major happens to change the shape of the industry. They are losing money, simple as that.

TJ wrote:

Wrestling is dying. People want something they believe is 'real'. Whenever you talk about wrestling, the first thing that comes into people's minds is 'fake'. That stigma doesn't exist with normal TV programs, even though they are more scripted than wrestling is. Even 'Reality TV', which is normally about parallel with wrestling with how 'real' it is.

Well it doesn't help that WWE did a lot of goofy shit in the past. And probably still are.

wrestling isn't dying. It's in rough shape yes, but it won't die off.

Raw is getting 4.5 million a week still yeah? That's not "dying" to me.

I think people that say "wrestling is dying" need to have some actual backup to that claim...

Ok. That's fair. Here's some backup.

Raw Rating:
August 20, 2001 - 5.20
August 19, 2002 - 4.00
August 25, 2003 - 4.20
August 23, 2004 - 3.50
August 22, 2005 - 4.00
August 29, 2006 - 3.40
August 27, 2007 - 3.15
August 25, 2008 - 2.84
August 24, 2009 - 3.83 <-Exception
August 23, 2010 - 3.20
August 22, 2011 - 2.97
August 20, 2012 - 3.10
August 26, 2013 - 3.07
August 18, 2014 - 3.04

Ratings have been in a rut for almost 6 years now. I don't know the exact numbers for other weeks, I just kinda pulled ratings numbers for 'this week' in certain years. But that's pretty bad.

They're also losing money, and have been for a while. Didn't Vince lost 2/3 of his fortune in one day not too long ago? The network has been deemed a failure so far, and doesn't really look like it's gonna pick up.

ratings are down because Vince no longer wanted to appeal to 18-34 male crowd that made him tons of money and instead he is focusing on families

they are losing money because of the WWE network and imo bringing it out too fast.