WWE's brutal travel and taping schedule is much harder on guys than their elaborate spots.
Look at guys like CM Punk and Bryan Danielson. WWE milked every single bit of vitality those guys had. They were both in ROH longer than WWE and they've been hurt in WWE far more often.
And for the record, toned down violence is not the only thing I was referring to when talking about WWE being watered down. They allow very little freedom on the mic, they condense movesets (not just the dangerous ones, either; grapplers and cruiserweights are few and far between), they skew the product towards a younger demographic, they emphasize celebrities and gimmicks (remember when the freaking Muppets were on RAW? and Cody Rhodes might be wrestling Amell as the Arrow? that's worse than Karl Malone and Rodman in WCW) rather than the in ring product. They don't even want their product referred to as "wrestling"; their PR department sends out nasty emails to news outlets that call their product anything but "sports entertainment".
It's the biggest stage in the world for wrestling, and they're ashamed to be a wrestling company.
I grew up with WWF, ECW, and WCW. Even though I really hate the modern product, sometimes I still catch myself watching it and hoping it will improve. And sometimes they do still get it right, and when they do it's awesome. But more often than not it's just a sad reminder of what wrestling used to be, like when TNA was trotting the barely mobile Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, or five years too late Raven out there.
And I'm just worried that these great indie/international stars are going to end up like Cena, Orton, Batista, etc: a set list of about six moves, absolutely no personality, etc. What they did to Danielson was bad enough; he had to adopt a clown persona just to get into the event scene, despite being possibly the most talented technical wrestler in the world today.
You talk a lot about these wrestlers lose, in that they no longer get to go out and wrestle for 50 minutes of constant high spots and dropping each other on their heads. That's exciting for a viewer, absolutely, I love those matches. And they can no longer go out and drop F-bombs in their promos, which might take the edge off them. But I actually look at what they've gained, as well. When it comes to in-ring, I think there's been a change of culture in the WWE system to what it was 10 or even 5 years ago. It seems like they no longer want everyone working the same "WWE style," but rather work has been done to bring more of a wrestler's character out through their ring work. Like, Kevin Steen/Owens. I've watched indie matches where he's flipping off the top rope and doing crazy agile moves and it's a spectacle to behold, and on the surface it may seem less exciting that now his moveset is dominated with ground-and-pound and momentum-killing headlocks and strikes. But he's selling his character, and actually playing the heel beyond just when he's holding the mic. And on the rare occasions where he does break out a moonsault it's a big deal. That's the kinda thing he was already working into his game late in his ROH run, but he's refined it in WWE.
And in terms of character, you talk about scripted promos, and yes, WWE has a problem with this. But again, a Kevin Owens can go out and tear the house down with a killer promo on WWE TV. And then there are guys like Seth Rollins, who was never a great promo, who can now go out and carry a 10-15 minute talking segment and get across his character effectively as a solid talker. Scripted promos haven't undermined him, quite the opposite, they've helped him immensely. You might think it undermines Rollins' credibility that he can trade verbal barbs with Jon Stewart on live TV because celebrities cheapen the wrestling, but for many viewers, including Rollins himself I'm sure, this is a boom for him as a character. Or look at Sami Zayn. The El Generico character was always going to have a ceiling. But unmasked, Sami has developed into a strong promo, and has built himself up as the ultimate clean-cut babyface character. The NXT environment can help a lot of guys, including great workers, in helping them develop character through promos, which is just as important. And yes, I think scripted promos are the equivalent of training wheels, and letting them cut loose and be themselves on the mic is the equivalent of finally riding the bike, but before the WWE environment a lot of these guys couldn't get on the bike at all in this regard.
You call Daniel Bryan in WWE a clown. I disagree. He had his time doing comedy, but that's not what pushed him to the main event. And as much as I agree he's probably the best wrestler in the world today, that wasn't what got him to WrestleMania. It was the character he developed in WWE. I think Bryan is a personality is actually long underrated, and he did fine mic work in the indies. But he was at his most successful in ROH as a cocky heel. What took him to the next level in WWE was his portrayal as the ultimate underdog, always being short-changed, dismissed and cheated. It was a story that all fans, regardless of how many indies they'd watched, could relate to. And everything from his mic work to his ring work has been adapted to enhance this aspect of his character. And though there were booking stumbles along the way, at the big moments, John Cena and Triple H respectively had GREAT MATCHES with Bryan, and in WWE style too. Bryan showed you can adapt, and change, and still be true to what made you popular in the first place.
You have a point about the gruelling schedule of wrestling for WWE, and more still needs to be done to protect workers' health. But I wouldn't say it's as simple as wrestlers not getting injured on the indies. A lot of the time, workers in the indies are working hurt because they can't get medical insurance for surgery, and can't afford to take the time off they'd need to recover. WWE has its issues with sometimes bringing talent back too soon, but if you get injured in WWE - or, in Sami's case, a nagging injury you've had from the indies becomes too much to bear - then the costs of surgery are covered by WWE, and you're on the payroll through your downtime.
There have been false flags and disappointments before, but I do think there's a sense of genuine change in the air with WWE now. While Vince has always had definitive final say, more and more it feels like there's a creative tug of war going on between HHH and Vince, with HHH pushing for more indie guys prominently features, bringing in more international stars, strengthening the women's division, strengthening the tag division. Crucially, it seems like the generation of OVW products as the headliners - Cena, Orton, Batista - is coming to an end, and giving way to the generation of NXT products as the headliners - Ambrose, Rollins, Reigns, with Owens, Balor, Zayn, Samoa Joe and more incoming - and NXT seems to operate on a very different ethos to what OVW back in the day did.