Alex Riley was interviewed by the soon to be released “Kind of Fun” podcast, a new wrestling podcast by the hosts of The Last Podcast on the Left. In it, Riley teases an upcoming “WWE Rebirth” movement.
Some highlights of the podcast, available to download on June 17th, are below.
>On WWE Ratings and Financials
Things are doing well, but obviously we want higher ratings. We think doing a sort of soft reboot is the key. From fan polls and marketing data we’ve discovered that a lot of people think the stories are too confusing and it’s hard to remember who is heel and face. That’s because our long term storylines can sometimes alienate new fans. We want to fix that.
>Riley was then asked if that means new champions and storylines
Yes, more or less. We want to do it organically, though. End all the feuds, crown new champions. Start fresh from there and maybe do another draft. We have a handful of storylines that we believe are drawing in fans. Rusev has had a year long story and a lot of people love that, it’s been compared to Game of Thrones. So we won’t change that much. But we want every match to have a reason to exist.
>Asked when to expect this change, Riley was more candid:
Soon. Some of the pieces are being moved into place right now. Alexa’s coffee gimmick for one. The Firefly Funhouse. These are two pretty big keys to what we’re doing.
>To end the podcast, Riley volunteered the new WWE mantra.
We don’t want to rely on part time talent. Cena is done and he hurt the business, we can see that now. He didn’t build any stars and just kind of left. Hunter has built a ton of talent in his part time role, guys like Rollins and Reigns are where they are because Hunter put them over. Taker as well, very unselfish guy.
Riley also comments on Jon Moxley, Chris Jericho, and AEW on the podcast.
