Rebuilding the WWE in Five ways or less

[Fatty Facesitter]

Raw this week highlighted to me just how poor the product has been of late. I'm not even talking about ratings and attendances, but the actual content the company are putting out on TV. The storylines are either incredibly boring (See Cena/AJ for an example) and the angles either seem to go nowhere or just reduce the show to the absolute lowest form of shitarsery, (like THAT segment on Raw. Yep).

 

Having a quick scan at the roster, it also seems to be clogged up full of people who just have nothing to do. Randy Orton just seems to be killing time with meaningless Smackdown matches until he gets his third and final wellness failure, for instance, and most of the tag team "Division" is either crammed with jobbers or singles midcarders who just don't have anything else to do, or at least aren't being given anything to do by the writers. Also, is Kofi Kingston still bouncing around from different tag team partner to different tag team partner?

 

Smackdown has been something of a waste for a while now, but since Raw in particular seems to have really suffered by going to three hours. They didn't have enough good content for two hours, let alone three.

 

Ratings and attendances aren't the biggest concern to me on a personal note, as I'd much rather they pump out good shows in general. But they are dwindling alarmingly now, and so too are PPV buys and ticket sales on things like overseas tours. Smackdown shows now will normally have half of the arena taped off because of the sheer volume of empty seats.

 

This isn't a fantasy booking thread as such, but what would you do to help arrest WWE's current slump?

 

 

 

Here's my 5:

 

1) Raw goes back to 2 hours. The occasional 3 hour special was all fine and dandy, but not every single week because it's just absolute overkill. To add to this point I'd actually give Smackdown some 3-Hour specials too, just to at least TRY and make that show more important and worth a watch before it eventually dies on it's arse and winds up being a glorified Superstars.

 

2) Clear the deadwood. I'd actually be pretty ruthless with such cuts and extend them to people who just haven't done anything of note now for a while. If you've been treading water for a while, i.e Randy Orton, I'd throw you out on the skip. I'd probably do away with the brand split too, and chuck out the vast portion of jobbers they seem to have on the roster at present and just generally fine-tune it. If nothing else it saves money in the coffers for when a decent free agent comes along that they can pinch.

 

3) Hire a new creative team. I think you'd need to strike a healthy balance between one/two Hollywood writers, 1/2 Ex-Pros who know the industry and 1/2 writers who are skilled in their profession but are also avid fans. I think that way you get a nice balance in trying to come up with some fresh and exciting, non-vomit inducing ideas to get people tuning in again. Give the workers a bit more creative freedom with their own gimmicks/character and at least TRY some new things out. They don't have to cater to my own tastes, but when you've got 800,000 people turning off their TV's during this week's supposed "hottest segment" then you've got serious, WCW-esque problems.

 

4) Reduce the amount of PPV's. They do still make money from these, but by slightly reducing the PPV schedule to say, 10, and placing an even greater emphasis on promoting the Rumble, Summerslam and Survivor Series in the same kind of way they promote Wrestlemania (Albeit obviously not on the same budget) then I think they can arrest the slump in this area of their trade, and eventually if business picks up (no pun intended) then you could move it up to 12 PPV's a year.

 

5) Ditch some of the titles. It does mean that there are less opportunities to win things, but it does place a greater emphasis on the title belts left from the cull. They may not mean as much as they used to, but when used effectively they could still be a pretty valuable prop. The more important you try to make them, the more chance you have of someone buying a ticket or your PPV to see it fought over. Or at the very least try and give them individual identities in some form or fashion, the Hardcore title being an example. I'm not asking them to bring the Hardcore title back by the way, but a similar use of clever booking and the way it was portrayed could do wonders for a different strap.

 

 

I'm not so much looking for booking ideas here, though they're obviously welcome. I'm no businessman either, but with the five reasons I was more thinking about the actual company structure rather than any fancy storylines per say. There are some aspect of the company that will always do well, i.e Merchandise, so how can they keep up the good work with that?

[Stealingsilver]

2 things to add to this

 

1) Make the brand split a proper brand split. there is now no reason to watch smackdown because most of their feuds happen on RAW anyway. Then make the brands actually different. Maybe one could be more for kids and the other for adults. Or one more wrestling and the other more storylines?

 

2)Superstars and NXT are only broadcast in Europe. So record them in Europe. Take the wrestlers who star in it and also the guys from FCW and create a new brand called "WWE Europe" and have it as a development territory. Bring a couple of midcarders like a Christian or a Cody Rhodes over for a month at a time to feud and main event.

[King Pitcos]

1) Make The Rock and Brock Lesnar turn up for work every week.

 

2) Bring Stone Cold and Shawn Michaels out of retirement.

 

3) Rehire Candice and Trish and have them doing dildo shows in segment five.

 

4) Don't do matches on pay-per-view that have happened three times on telly since the last pay-per-view. In fact, just do mostly squash matches on television.

 

5) Make Regal the GM of Raw.

[Vamp]

2)Superstars and NXT are only broadcast in Europe. So record them in Europe. Take the wrestlers who star in it and also the guys from FCW and create a new brand called "WWE Europe" and have it as a development territory. Bring a couple of midcarders like a Christian or a Cody Rhodes over for a month at a time to feud and main event.

 

I'm no being sarcastic here, in case it sounds it, but why? What does that achieve?

[IANdrewDiceClay]

1) Make The Rock and Brock Lesnar turn up for work every week.

 

2) Bring Stone Cold and Shawn Michaels out of retirement.

 

3) Rehire Candice and Trish and have them doing dildo shows in segment five.

 

4) Don't do matches on pay-per-view that have happened three times on telly since the last pay-per-view. In fact, just do mostly squash matches on television.

 

5) Make Regal the GM of Raw.

There would be nothing else on TV I'd watch.

[PowerButchi]

2)Superstars and NXT are only broadcast in Europe. So record them in Europe. Take the wrestlers who star in it and also the guys from FCW and create a new brand called "WWE Europe" and have it as a development territory. Bring a couple of midcarders like a Christian or a Cody Rhodes over for a month at a time to feud and main event.

 

That's a lot of visas, flights, ballache, and paperwork in general to do that.

[Devon Malcolm]

2)Superstars and NXT are only broadcast in Europe. So record them in Europe. Take the wrestlers who star in it and also the guys from FCW and create a new brand called "WWE Europe" and have it as a development territory. Bring a couple of midcarders like a Christian or a Cody Rhodes over for a month at a time to feud and main event.

 

That's a lot of visas, flights, ballache, and paperwork in general to do that.

 

Yes. It would be an absolute waste of time and money. I can see no positives in the idea at all.

[Stealingsilver]

2)Superstars and NXT are only broadcast in Europe. So record them in Europe. Take the wrestlers who star in it and also the guys from FCW and create a new brand called "WWE Europe" and have it as a development territory. Bring a couple of midcarders like a Christian or a Cody Rhodes over for a month at a time to feud and main event.

 

I'm no being sarcastic here, in case it sounds it, but why? What does that achieve?

 

I don't think it will achieve major things but it would be a better use of the roster instead of NXT, superstars and FCW

 

Firstly you could get guys over in Europe before they make it to the main roster. Just think how big Claudio Castignoli could have been before joining the main roster. They could also have storylines more tailored to Europeans and add Europeans to the roster even if they have not plan in pushing them further.

 

They also already spend a lot of money keeping the developmental talent and lower card talent on their roster. The attendances to FCW were very small If i recall correctly about 200 a show). I am sure they could make a larger attendance over here even if it would be more expensive to house them here.

 

Also a large part of WWE's income is from merch that they sell at shows. Increasing their physical presence over here means more sales. They are quitting their DVD deal with Silvervison so this now means that they can sell their DVDs at their shows here.

[Devon Malcolm]

Firstly you could get guys over in Europe before they make it to the main roster. Just think how big Claudio Castignoli could have been before joining the main roster.

The whole of your post makes little sense but you'll have to walk me through how this works especially.

[king_dezeeuw06]

There is so much wrong that you could go on forever but for just 5;

 

By far the biggest problem - Get rid of the 'WWE style' and it's limitations to allow the guys to have good matches again.

 

It's bizzare that the biggest wrestling company in the world probably has by far the worst in ring product than all the international / national promotions. No matter what storylines you have, if it doesn't lead to a good match then it will mean very little. Even if you are afraid to let the guys go hell for leather every night, at least remove the limitations and let them pull out all the stops on PPV or big TV matches.

 

Other 4 main points;

 

- Let the guys have more creative control over their own character, story and promos, give them room to develope themselves rather than scripted promos and the garbage the writers produce. All the best characters are the ones that the guys developed themselves.

 

- Stop giving away so mutch on TV and endless rematches that don't mean anything. It doesn't build anticipation or excitment How many times do you have a feud that begins and ends in weeks or match on PPV then have a rematch on free tv the next night?

 

- Cut down to PPV; Just have Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, King of the Ring, Summer Slam, Survivor Series in their traditional formats and maybe a couple of specials throughout the year so you can have time to build excitment and anticipation to big matches and allow feuds to build over time.

 

- Turn Cena heel, it's going to be huge if done right. Or if they insist he has to stay face for merch sales then stop making everything revolve around Cena. No problem with him being involved but not the main focus of everything.

 

 

 

Other stuff that would help but maybe not as important as the main 5;

 

- Unify all titles, just have world, intercontinental and tag and make them all mean something again.

 

- Put Hero and Claudio back together and reboot tag team division. Make tag wrestling matter again.

 

- Get Hero, Moxley, Black, Pac, etc on TV and push them, they will be new and exciting to the audience.

 

- Make brand split complately seperate and have rivallries with each other, make big deal of show where they all go against each other with occasional and inter brand feuds throught the year.

[Stealingsilver]

Firstly you could get guys over in Europe before they make it to the main roster. Just think how big Claudio Castignoli could have been before joining the main roster.

The whole of your post makes little sense but you'll have to walk me through how this works especially.

 

 

I admit I may be wrong but it is my idea of how the lower card talent could be utilised.

 

Well Castignoli can cut promos in is it 6 languages? You could get him over in Europe as a babyface and like Hart did, he could then cut anti american promos but still remain face outside of the US.

 

Other than cutting the lower card talent does anyone else see a better alternative to NXT and Superstars?

[Stealingsilver]

- Turn Cena heel, it's going to be huge if done right. Or if they insist he has to stay face for merch sales then stop making everything revolve around Cena. No problem with him being involved but not the main focus of everything.

 

I think a lot of people would love to see this happen. But there is so much Cena merch and to families (and lets be honest this is demographic where they generate most of their income from)he is the face of the company. They would basically need a Cena 2.0 waiting in the wings to take over his role. Maybe Cena could be Cena 2.0's mentor and Tag Team partner. Then Cena turn on him at a major PPV?

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[King Pitcos]

This thread is awful. Nicko's usually a decent poster, but he's made stupid, unrealistic suggestions in the first post and if we're honest it's gone solidly downhill from there. You just know the morons who use indie names for WWE wrestlers are going to turn up making idiots of themselves in threads like this. "Stop limiting Sydal's moveset" and the like.

[PowerButchi]

Well Castignoli can cut promos in is it 6 languages? You could get him over in Europe as a babyface and like Hart did, he could then cut anti american promos but still remain face outside of the US.

 

Antonio Cesaro isn't Bret Hart though.

 

Bret Hart had years of history though which was relevant to the turn. About how he'd always been a hero for years and years and years and how the USA had changed, and not him and how he was still true to everywhere else which had supported him and countries he'd loved for so long.

 

Whereas Cesaro would have spent about 3 months on a European show which no-one in the US really watches, and no-one would give a shit.