Summary

Former WWE star Maven has gone on record with a list of criticisms aimed at the current state of WWE, publishing a video to his YouTube channel titled "WWE is in Trouble." In it, he outlined four specific areas he believes are hurting the company: a scaled-back live event schedule, overly choreographed in-ring work, rising costs across the board, and too many commercial interruptions on Raw.

Maven, who won the inaugural season of WWE Tough Enough in 2001, drew on his own experience working a much heavier road schedule to frame several of his points.

Quote from Maven

On reduced live events and their effect on in-ring development:

"The current talent is wrestling as much in a month now as we would wrestle in one week, sometimes even less. Younger me would have loved that schedule, but I also recognize now, with a little bit of age and a tiny bit of wisdom attached to me, that you only get better by doing something repeatedly, over and over. You flat out don't get better as a wrestler by not wrestling. And by limiting house shows, it's not making the guys' in-ring work any better."

Maven later went on to say:

"Every match looks like a dance. It looks structured. It doesn't feel free-flowing — listening to the crowd, reacting, giving what your opponent gives you. It looks like everything is laid out and diagrammed like routes on a map. To me, that hurts the product, especially for casual fans. You can't bring in casual fans if everything looks choreographed. As Al Snow always said, this is supposed to be a fight. When it doesn't look like one, it takes people out of it."

On the cost of following WWE in 2026:

"I'm also concerned about the long-term health of WWE because of how expensive everything has become. Not just tickets — though those are high — but everything. Streaming costs money. Watching on Netflix costs money. ESPN+ costs money. Merchandise costs money. There's something to be said for affordable family entertainment. Parents shouldn't have to spend a fortune just to follow wrestling. If fans feel priced out, they'll go elsewhere — especially when there's no shortage of entertainment options today."

On commercial breaks during Raw:

"I recently watched an entire episode of Monday Night Raw, and the biggest issue wasn't the wrestling — it was the number of ads. It felt like there was a commercial every few minutes. Just as you'd get invested, you'd be pulled out again. If there's no flow, fans will stop investing their time. And if they don't invest their time, they won't invest their money. That's what really hurts."

What Maven's Criticism Reflects

Maven isn't alone in pointing to the reduced house show slate as a developmental concern. The shift away from the grueling road schedules of the Attitude Era and Ruthless Aggression years has been a recurring talking point among former talent, and Maven's argument that repetition builds ring skill is a straightforward case that echoes what coaches and veterans have said for years.

His comments on Raw's commercial load have a clearer immediate target. With Raw now airing on Netflix, the ad structure has drawn fan attention and some pushback, and Maven's take adds another former talent's voice to that conversation.

Sources

As reported by NoDQ.