WWE needs to start getting more grounded and have more realistic characters. I'm not saying everyone has to be themselves from top-to-bottom, but if you have guys who are an extension of themselves, people can relate more/enjoy it. Just take Adam Rose for example. The documentary got him more over than WWE ever has done.

When I watched the Roman Reigns documentary, I was able to side with him. I saw a reason to not boo him. I saw him as a realistic Roman Reigns, not the corny one they put on WWE TV.

What are your thoughts on this? Should WWE start treating its wrestlers more as athletes than entertainers?

There is difficulty in doing this. Roman Reigns and Adam Rose, they lead lives with which we can view them as a way that they are complemented to their in ring characters. We want to like them, and to sympathize with them? People like Orton? Who have characters that are designed around their own thought processes and ideals? It's different. A superstar like the Undertaker wouldn't need the same treatment as Reigns to get over with the fans. I feel like WWE needs to pick which stars should be treated as they would be in real life: Reigns, Adam Rose, etc; and which superstars need to have a character gimmick that works with them as a whole: Ambrose, Wyatt, Big Show (heel).

No they should be treated as entertainers. But in that respect they need to actually be entertaining. I actually don't have an issue with Vince McMahon's philosophy of sports entertainment, they have made it clear that's what they are promoting since the 80s not professional wrestling. I don't want to see Roman Reigns being Roman Reigns because real life is boring. It's boring to listen to WWE talk about John Cena's media appearances and charity work because as great as all that is, it's real life and irrelevant to the entertainment of the fans. Reigns needs to be an entertainer and if he's going to be a main eventer he better be a good one.

They can have them write their own work, or improv in their promos, thereby simultaneously retaining the integrity of their characters and having things be a work rather than some shoot, real life persona. I think that would be more entertaining than this cookie-cutter garbage they've been putting out.

Facts only

You know though I'd have zero problems with WWE's sports emtertainment philosophy if it actually lived up to its name and was entertaining. The attitude era, for instance, was the definition of sports entertainment. Now you're getting characters, booking and storylines that insults your intelligence as a viewer. Theres barely any continuity, a lot of stuff is corny and not in a humorous way.

So if WWE cant produce good sports entertainment on a weekly basis anymore why not build the roster like athletes and real people and look for putting on the best matches and feuds as possible? Thats the  part I dont get. UFC has that type of presentation, as do all sports, of glorifying skill and athleticism with the real hype being the fact that these guys in the championship bout are "THE BEST". When you have average ass green ass Roman Reigns whos character basically acts like hes still in the shield, why should I buy into it?

Instead of using the "its sports entertainment" copout, think about whats actually "sports entertaining" in 2015 society. Heres a hint, its not Big Show vs Roman Reigns for the upteenth time, its not 30 minutes of uninterrupted screen time used for an authority segment when it could be used for a daniel bryan match, its not the same tag team matches ending raw with a mixed assortion of the same 4 people every week, that will obviously end in interferance. If you think that's entertaining cool but seeing how low the ratings of gotten over the years youre in the minority

I said a year ago WWE needs to look at what the UFC does in terms of presentation and go with it, before every single fight, whether its fight night or a PPV, you have a video package highlighting the two fighters with Joe Rogan talking about the strengths of the fighters and why this fight could/should be good even if Rogan/UFC knows its gonna blow. Watching Wrestlemania, you get JBL making farm animal sounds when Bryan is climbing a ladder, essentially burying the most over/popular guy since Austin and Rock and letting people think he's a farm animal.

UFC got popular because it's two real guys fighting each other, WWE actually has a roster that can pull off believable matches and in WWE's advantage, they can control the quality of those matches where the UFC will always run the risk of a main event fight ending in 14 seconds - like Ronda's last fight. All they need to do is actually take their wrestlers seriously and stop burying them/highlighting all their weak spots and making people want to see fights, they do it with Brock but Brock has that aura to him when you feel like you have to see him wrestle anyway. 

edit:

It's why UFC consistently does better than WWE and why WWE shills PPVs for a tenner a month on a streaming site now (and still gives away free months most of the time from what I've seen) and why UFC still does PPV's successfully. They make people want to see a Ronda Rousey fight because he has that Mike Tyson effect and they hype her as the most dangerous woman in the world. Mark Hunt went on a six fight losing streak and almost got cut by the UFC, won a fuckton of fights and got a title shot for the interim world title when Cian got injured and they hyped it up as Mark Hunt getting this Cinderella story tale of almost being released to winning the interim world title and pretty much every single person was wanting to watch the PPV just to see Hunt win (he didn't but that's irrelevant) - WWE had that with Bryan and they blew it until Punk forced their hand by walking out. 

They pushed Jon Jones/Daniel Cormier as a fight you had to see, by not only having a brawl at a press conference, the ESPN thing where Jones said shit when he thought he was off mic and that these two hate each other and are likely to beat the piss out of one another but by having Cormier openly discussing failing at the Olympics  and pretty much always coming second in life but all of it was meant to happen so he could fight Jones and beat him. 

Who can't feel and relate to that? All they need is relatable characters that people can either cheer or boo for. If it was WWE they'd have made fun of Cormier or Hunt being losers, or Ronda being a woman. Hell they'd have made fun of Connor Mcgregor's accent and yet  McGregor/Aldo will probably draw more than any WWE PPV this year, Mania aside and Jones/Cormier prolly drew more than Mania anyway.

It's why ECW was so awesome, everybody could relate to Raven, whether they hated him or not, every guy in that ECW crowd was pretty much the Sandman (hell Sandman was more of a true American than Hulk fucking Hogan was), they could relate to Stevie Richards who was a huge loser/geek trying to fight back against the bully in Raven when they split, Taz was on some Brock Lesnar believable shit. Terry Funk had the Rocky style storylines.

If WWE or TNA did something like what Demon said, I would bother watching it because that sounds like a real cool idea to go on about.