the problem is that the WWE flushes a generation/era of fans and then solicits the next crop.
when they ignore or neglect the fanbase of the most financially successful generation/era in the company's history to move forward in "another direction", they lose viewership, ratings, and respect.
I never understood how they expect ratings to rise when they bring back an "old wrestler" from an era past, when the fans of that era no longer watch. If the producers kept the same format where the first half of the show was more kid friendly (RAW) and then as the show progressed, it became more edgy (WAR), maybe they could have maintained some of the fanbase that grew out of watching it or tuned away all together.
the WWE's success came from stealing from other companies, especially ECW in the late 90s. When ECW folded and they bought out WCW, there were no ideas to steal, so they had to go with whatever ideas they could come up with; which are usually lame. Even in the 80s, the WWF was bringing in talent from the NWA, AWA, and other territories from around the country to showcase. These talents were already established character-wise, the WWF just put a new costume on them and tweaked their names. Then they would go tic for tac with the NWA, AWA, Memphis, UWF, and GWF on storylines.
the new crop of fans don't have a clue what they are watching. The new talent are all from the same school, so their styles are all the same. They just have different gimmicks based on size.
The WWE can't steal from UFC because they are two different styles of sport. The UFC grabbed the fans that grew out of wrestling or lost respect for wrestling because of what it has become. No more chairs, tables, ladders, barbed wire, bleeding, etc. Though, UFC doesn't do any of those gimmicks, seeing blood and seeing someone get beat up or knocked out feeds what those fans have been missing.
Once the WWE took away their own edge for the sake of corporate sponsorship, they cut their own wrist, not deep to where they will die off immediately, but deep enough so that people don't want to sit around and watch them die. The new fans don't have an idea, they see these "superhero" types running around and slamming one other; the older era has seen it all before and are turned off by the lack of what they enjoyed the most.