As much as I think most of this and what Russo says is bullshit, and it is, as the wrestling being good is a benefit, not a curse, I might agree a bit about the part with storylines.

I can remember things happening that made wrestling a bit more soap opera-ish but made me want to watch next week.

I wanted to know who the "Higher Power" was really badly. I wanted to see what was going to happen after the cliff hanger where Kurt Angle kissed Stephanie. I wanted, believe it or not, to know who this "Katie Vick" person was, despite it being a terrible angle. I cared about who Mr. McMahon's illegitimate son was. I wanted to know who took out Stone Cold.

Storylines drew in my attention, and good wrestling was a bonus.

Shows now seem to be just a bit too formulaic. Someone has a title, people fight over the right to challenge for that title, they fight very often because there is a lot of programming, they fight for the title at PPVs, and it goes on and on. Every show can be more or less watched whenever you want, and you don't have to watch next week, because a video package two weeks from now will get you up to speed. I never feel a need at the end of a show to immediately watch next week for reasons of storyline.

The exception to this for a while was NXT at its peak in late 2014/early 2015. Don't get me wrong, I still love NXT, but that show was really the only one I could feel a desire to have to watch next week and want it not to end.

That doesn't mean wrestling has to be bad or dumbed down. It doesn't. But I think that storylines ultimately are what draw people in to watch and keep watching, and bring that serialized element.