Rebuilding the WWE in Five ways or less

[spotlightmagnet1]

My five, probably going over some previous points:

 

1. Solidify the brand split. Personally, you have the WCW name make two companies with two different names, rosters, agents and booking committees. That way you can two shows with fresh talent and appeal to a different market and make money (hopefully).

 

2. Fire Matt Striker, Santino, Teddy Long, The Usos, Tyson Kidd, Justin Gabriel, Ted Dibiase, The Great Khali, and some others I can't think of right now. They're used up creatively and are just hovering aimlessly.

 

3. Give Dave Otunga a boot lick push like he had with Johnny Ace. He seem to excel in the role and it seem to have alot more mileage in it.

 

4. Fire some main eventers, Randy Orton was mentioned earlier, the problem is if he just turns heel then we'll see a rehashing of his feud with Cena and Kane. He could go and so could Big Show. Replace them with Mark Henry, Daniel Bryan (Hey I'm a mark) and Christian.

 

5. More Road Dogg.

[King Pitcos]

Guys like Eddie got noticed and popular for their in ring work before their character came along and because people already liked him it was a lot easier for the fans to buy into whatever he was doing character wise.

Eddie Guerrero started the Latino Heat character and mega-entertaining Chyna storyline within about a month of debuting, before he was even cleared to wrestle after the injury in his first match. In his whole WWE career, he was never just the bland, characterless, flippy workrate guy that mongos love. And if he was, he couldn't have gotten over anyway because according to spenks and retards, WWE's big fault is that it limits and restricts guys from going all-out and getting over by being exciting in the ring. So your examples are not only a load of bollocks, but if they were true, they'd only further highlight how stupid your initial post and follow-ups have been.

[PowerButchi]

Guys like Eddie got noticed and popular for their in ring work before their character came along and because people already liked him it was a lot easier for the fans to buy into whatever he was doing character wise. I think if u let your guys have better matches it will make the crowd more receptive to their persona and story lines.

 

What on earth are you talking about? Eddy showed a shit load of character going back even to Los Gringos Locos, then there was his stuff with Chavo showing loads of character, the LWO stuff showing loads of character, the mamacita stuff about 2 months after he came into WWF...

 

Loads and loads and loads and loads and loads of character work. Do your research.

[Loki]

1. Retire Vince and sack Stephanie McMahon, and put HHH in charge of the whole company.

 

2. Hire some people who know about wrestling to book some storylines. I'd suggest Nash. Give Heyman some creative input, just don't give him any real power. Concentrate on putting together some longer-term directions and storylines, as TNA has done so successfully over the last few years. Set high level goals and let the road agents and wrestlers come up with the promos and matches.

 

3. Clean out the roster and hire some seasoned wrestlers in. There are a bunch of wrestlers who will NEVER now draw money for WWE, no matter what they do. Let them go, being em back in a few years if there's a good opportunity for them. Go on a talent raid of the TNA locker room, and hire some guys who know tv, have good characters and can work.

 

4. End the brand split. Whilst I agree with Trips that the man makes the belt, and not vica versa, I definitely think the belt helps the feud, in many cases. Have one world title, one 2nd tier title, one tag, etc. Simplify the stage and let the wrestlers sell the stories.

 

5. Keep it simple. They can't force a superstar into the public arena - the Rock and Austin happened because they were there and were talented at a particular moment of zeitgeist. You can't replicate that. Just put good wrestling matches and storylines on tv, with distinct characters, and if you're lucky something will click.

[PunkStep]

3. Clean out the roster and hire some seasoned wrestlers in. There are a bunch of wrestlers who will NEVER now draw money for WWE, no matter what they do. Let them go, being em back in a few years if there's a good opportunity for them. Go on a talent raid of the TNA locker room, and hire some guys who know tv, have good characters and can work.

Absolutely- why not. WWE is an endless pit of midcard talent that aren't screaming 'STAR', and you also have to think how long some of these have been hanging around, it would surprise you. Drew McIntyre has done nothing of note in more than three years of debuting. Kofi has been stuck in a rut (and probably won't get too far out of it) for ages now and he's been on TV for 5 years! I'm not saying everybody has to amount to something in terms of climbing the ladder to the top of the bill, but if after so long they aren't making waves and aren't going to, then they are probably replaceable and it's worth trying someone/something new. Dolph Ziggler- either push him or don't, I've practically lost interest in him now.

 

The roster is clear- you have a few 'stars' (Rock, Cena, HHH, Taker, possibly Brock), only one of which isn't a rare attraction, a few decent guys that are capable of making waves (Punk, Bryan etc) and then you have everybody else. Doing nothing. Even in the late 80s the low-card feuds would be mildly interesting. Give Regal a bit of a push, bring in a few more seasoned vets, shake things up. Nobody up in the offices is going to panic if you chuck out half the roster if nobody gives two shits about them.

[Fatty Facesitter]

The social networking stuff is one thing they've actually done quite well, and without it as a marketing tool they'd probably be in even deeper shit than they are now.

 

Are they really in deep shit at all, though? I know TV ratings and PPV buyrates aren't fantastic, but they're still a very profitable company, aren't they?

 

Therein lies the problem for me, from a fan's POV. All the things that a lot of us think would make the product more compelling and exciting are also things which would probably hurt its profitability. To me, overexposure is what's killed wrestling. The more hours of TV you have to fill, the quicker people get bored of potentially compelling storylines because the writers run out of ways to keep them fresh. The more PPVs a wrestler has to main event, the quicker his act gets stale. The more world titles you have, the less special they seem. It also seems that, the bigger a 'talent' pool they've had access to, the more limited their resources seem to appear - in 6/7 years they haven't come close to creating a main event-level draw to match Cena, and they continue to give major angles and storylines to someone as limited as Vickie Guererro.

 

There's little doubt in my mind that I'd be far more inclined to start watching WWE again if it featured only one, 2-hour TV show each week, 6-8 PPV's a year, and one world title. It would likely be far more entertaining, but also far less profitable. This is why I don't see the status quo changing anytime soon - to me, the current business model is inextricable from dull, repetitive and formulaic TV, but as long as it remains profitable, they won't be in any rush to mess about with it.

 

I'd say they are on a slippery slope, profit wise. There's only so long they can keep up the dull, repetitive stuff before it hurts the rest of their profit. As you say, PPV buys and TV ratings are far from what I think they're hoping to achieve, so surely that in itself calls for some sort of change? Areas like merchandise are still big money makers, but there's only so long they can keep that up for before the rest of the areas of the company that are dwindling start to hurt this aspect of their business as well.

[The Total Package]

1. Bring back Jeff Hardy. I'm not really a fan of his, but he is good for business, and in WWE would be leaps above anyone not called Cena.

 

2. Get Batista back on a one year contract at-least, so theirs another big attraction around when the others like Rock/TripleH/Brock aren't around, so theirs always some kind of big attraction around RAW and more importantly the PPV's.

 

3. Make RAW a 1 n half hour show, yeah I would cut 30mins off what they used to have, the depth of the roster is really piss poor at the minute, 3 hours every week is not doing these guys any favours, other than people getting bored of them more quickly.

 

4. Get rid of Smackdown, it was a show born out of the boom that has long ended and it's really starting to show now.

 

5. Most of those above are short term fixes, what WWE need are long term fixes, right now WWE's future does not look great, I dont see them going out of business like WCW, but I do see their fanbase shrinking, especially when Cena starts to appear less and less. Pick four guys that have the talent to become something bigger, that does not mean they have to be able to wrestle to ROH standards, but have "it" as they say. You do this while you still have the big names around, as I think you need stars to make stars. I dont watch as much anymore, but it seems like they have picked CM Punk, Sheamus and maybe Wade? looking at the roster that's probably not a bad set of people to go with, it may or may not work out, but if they don't try, then they're screwed either way, so might as well give it a go.

 

Loki

Go on a talent raid of the TNA locker room, and hire some guys who know tv, have good characters and can work.

 

I mentioned Jeff, but I like this idea also, it might hurt TNA a little, but I think they could survive it. In a way, it might actually help TNA freshen up their own roster. Given WWE's recent stupid storyline with Cena/AJ, WWE is clearly watching TNA, so they must see the talent on hand, it would makes sense if they tried to do that.

[LaGoosh]

1. Retire Vince and sack Stephanie McMahon, and put HHH in charge of the whole company.

 

How would that help? People seem to think Triple H being the boss will make everything better but I think that's fucking bollocks. Triple H has been in a position of massive influence for years now and I'm sure his views, opinions and ideas hold alot of sway in the company so WWE turning into the boring dull crap it is now has been on his watch as much as anyone elses. His wife is head of creative and you'd think he'd be giving her tons of ideas for storyline and character development, if he isn't now then when will he? I doubt he's saving all these great ideas for when Vince snuffs it.

[ItsClobberingTime]

"Influence" perhaps but not control, and that's what he needs. He clearly has a better understanding of the fact that he needs to build towards the future.

[LaGoosh]

Wasn't it reported that Triple H is high on Michael McGullicutty? And ever since he took over his new "talent development" job how many successes has he had? None. I'm sure everyone in WWE knows they need to build towards the future, but no one there seems to have much of an idea of how to do it other than "let's throw them out there to wrestle eachother every week for the next 6 months and not give them any storylines/character whatsoever".

[CavemanLynn]

Such a bittersweet thread. Hilarious but head-into-keyboard-bangingly painful.

 

Here I go...

 

1) You want characters? Bring back those pop-up promos during a guy's entrance, talking directly to the camera, in'character, chatting sh*t about himself or his opponent. These came back for those retro Raws we had last year, and they were brilliant. They get loads done in a shorter space of TV time, leaving more room for the actual match. It's all about economy,and the reason shows have dragged recently is surely because everything is given TOO LONG.

 

2) More squashes against local jobbers. Great for building tag teams and debuting wrestlers (see Ryback), getting moves and characters over so when they're thrown into proper feuds, fans at home and in arenas are already familiar with their signatures. Also decent for talent scouting, and cheap.

 

3) Stop spending so much money on bloody sets and pyro. Back in the day, sure, the wrestlers were roided out of their minds and much larger, but they also came out through what was basically a black curtain. That's it. The Wrestlemania RC ring was a big deal! Huge Meccano sets are all well and good for general spectacle; problem is, it makes whoever comes out through those sets look even smaller.

 

4) Don't have the house shows full of wrestlers off TV. Save them for matches on the higher card, cutting the workload for each member of the roster, keeping them fresh and healthy, and hopefully motivated.

 

5) Take a chunk of those profits you somehow keep making, and invest in a proper physical rehabilitation facility, and employ fitness and health professionals to monitor your talent and look after them. Again, it's to keep your talent motivated, healthy, and happy. Happy workers (should) mean harder workers.

 

Do your worst...

[Loki]

1,2 and 3 I reckon are all good points. Squashes are of more limited use nowadays, but it'd nice to see more of them, particularly for some of the lower-card superstars to make them look good.

 

Not sure about 4 though. Don't think the wrestlers would like that, house shows are money spinners for them, and the bigger names help sell the houses.

 

Number 5 would be great, but difficult to work. Where would the facility be, Stamford? Would each roster member have to travel there once a week or month?

[King Pitcos]

Don't they still do those pop-up things now and again on Smackdown or NXT or something? I've seen at least one quite recently, and they're rubbish. The old ones were rubbish as well. The old style pre-taped wrestling promo, with some poor fucker stood there snarling and shouting a date and venue into a camera, is horrendously outdated now. I gave myself a blinking tic in late September with the amount of cringing I did watching Royal Rumble build-ups from the late eighties and early nineties. A lot of the wrestlers who need it most don't really have a character that can fill twenty seconds anyway, let alone elevate themselves with it. "I'm Justin Gabriel, the Cape Town Werewolf. And tonight when I hit my 450 splash, it will be a thing of beauty!"

 

The pacing of shows would definitely be improved by making things shorter though, you're completely on the money there.

[PowerButchi]

I think it's worth remembering that WWE have TV contracts, so they just can't fuck about with how long programmes are or drop them willy nilly or they'll get in shit.

[DeanoTheGame]

I've seen one fairly recently too. Think it was Antonio Cesaro. They're shit. A short pre-match promo in front of the live crowd achieves exactly the same thing and is more effective.