Honestly, I think its because the company has no idea how to build anybody properly anymore.
Think fast: who was the last face that the company made into a superstar? Not a heel who got popular with the fans, but someone who was a face that got built into a main eventer as a face.
The answer you more than likely came up with was John Cena, right? He was turned face at Survivor Series 2003, and got his first big push to the main event during 2004 up to WrestleMania 21 in 2005. I honestly can't think of anyone they've successfully done that with since Cena, which is a terrible omen for their future ability to build stars (this is, by the way, the main reason why Cena's really the only guy who moves the needle when it comes to ratings and house shows: because they didn't fukking kneecap him for no good reason while they were pushing him).
What WWE's writers know how to do is build heat, and that's it. Period. Every single angle that makes TV seems tailor made to get heat, but never to actually build someone. And one of the easiest ways to build heat, especially with a smark crowd, is the worked shoot. This isn't to say that the worked shoot is a bad tool, per se (CM Punk used it fantastically, and if you listen to his promos, took great care to either NOT break kayfabe during his shoots, or to organically build a kayfabe framework around the shoot material), but it's very easy to use it as a crutch, especially when you're a. desperately trying to build heat and b. are dealing with a crowd that's smart to 20+ years of the same tricks. Bryan Alvarez and Lance Storm (I know, I know...) actually had a really good convo about WWE creative and heat on Storm's podcast about a month back that you should listen to, if you haven't already (start it at 30:45):
PodcastOne: Bryan Alvarez talks WWE Creative and Cyrus Live from New Japan G1 in Long Beach and much more!!
Building someone up, on the other hand, actually requires that you make the crowd believe in whoever you're trying to build, which requires some thin veneer of kayfabe at the very least. That is what allows you to craft storylines and obstacles for your guy or girl to bump up against and overcome. If you can't craft a story because you don't use the tools of kayfabe, then what tools do you have left? Heat, worked shoots, and insider knowledge, that's what.
And the worst part about this is, it's not as if no one wants to engage in well-written storylines and kayfabe (see the best of NXT, the best of NJPW, and Lucha Underground for recent examples), you just have to actually work at it and plan well. But WWE always wants to take shortcuts and brute force everything, so here we are.
? Why wrestlers relying on shooting on another opponent via social networking to create a storyline, when it can go back to the basics? I'm talking about promos, backstage segments without it being "legit". I miss when wrestlers would get jumped or buried alive at the mercy of crowds. Thankfully, the booking of Braun Strowman caters to such things (hoss ass wrestler murdering wrestlers because reasons
)
...but TSC we need to go back brehs
. We need that fukkery in our wrestling for old times sake without the insider shyt.
