My Opinions on how to fix the WWE

[Tully316 0]

Well, this is my first post here.... some might say, "I'm a long time viewer, first time poster". I have to start off by saying it's refreshing to find a place where so many share the same sentiments as me (from my HHHating to my desire to see future superstars from being held down (most namely Mike Sanders!!)). Anyways, here's my .02:

 

First off, I think we can all agree that the creative end of the WWE right now just plain sucks. Booking is done on the fly, panic-mode is set in and they're hotshotting angles and titles on everyone to blindly see what'll stick. So what are the main problems? Lack of ability to use the talent they have.

 

Case in point. Raven. When he came into the WWE last time around, he was in phenominal shape. I think we can all agree that his last run with ECW was just crap, he was fat and lazy and just didn't care. So here's a guy who litteraly carried ECW during it's glory years, cuts incredible promo's and has excellent ring psychology, when ALLOWED to work it. In my mind, very reminiscent of Jake Roberts. Do they take advantage of his experience or talent while he can still contribute?...no, they job him out on Heat. Why not pair him up with Perry Saturn? Great heel tag team I think. Why not start up some version of the Flock angle, great midcard angle that could be used to elevate some talent.

 

Next. Tag Teams. At this point in time, they have the most talented roster ever assembled in the history of wrestling. Certainly not enough air time for everyone right?...so why not start pairing up two nobodies to make them into somebodies. It worked for the New Age Outlaws (despite what we all think about Lame Ass and DrugDogg, they were over before they joined DX). I think Brock Lesnar would have made a great team with someone like Bautista..maybe in a feud with a face team of Taker and Kane.

 

Ahhh....and that brings me to my next point. There are several superstars on their last legs (Hogan, Taker and as much as I hate to admit it, Flair). They should team them up to hide their weaknesses. What would you all think about Flair and Hogan as Tag Champs for a long period that would end with a Flair heel turn that led to one great match between the two at Wrestlemania (because god knows they screwed up that money maker back in '92). Anyways, my point is use them while you still can, because Hogan and Flair jobbing to the Heatless Wonder is a waste of what limited rub they can still give.

 

Next point...the so-called Glass Ceiling (and when I say so called, I am being soooooooo sarcastic). Fact: since March of 1998, with the exceptions of three 1-day reigns (Mick Foley, Kane, Vince McMahon), a nostalgia reign (Hogan), a desperate attempt to save face in their signing a stupid long-term contract (i.e. Big Show), Mick Foley's selfless work to put over Rock and HHH on the downside of his career, and two of their best workers who they pushed worse than a crack dealer in the ghetto (Angle and Jericho); you've had the same wrestlers on top (Austin, Rock, Taker, HHH). While some of those reigns were valid, most were poorly planned and no vision was set for the future. That's what happens when you shoot up young stars so quick. Rock and HHH are relatively young for their success, will we give two shits about them in 10 years?..I don't think so.

 

well, that's my ranting on that. So here's my great idea to "save" the WWE. In my opinion, the WWE has lacked severe character development for a long time. What about a character who comes out and simply does worked shoots on all the crap we bitch about. I will use Mike Sanders for an example (because I'm a HUGE Sanders mark). Lets say Sanders would debut on a Raw. He could cleanly whip the hell out of someone like Matt Hardy for an impressive debut. During the match, JR and King could be talking about puppies and other matches for the night during Sander's match (like they always do). Next week, Sanders comes out again and beats soundly on Jeff hardy. When he wins, he gets on the Mike (to Ross and King's surprise) and starts shooting:

 

(a little fantasy booking here):

SANDERS: "Cut the damn music, I'm gonna tell you right now, the next time I come out here, if they play any goddamned music, or run some stupid-ass video on that screen, I'm coming down to the production truck and kicking everyone's ass! I don't need some third-rate guitar riff and a highlight reel to get over, I do that by busting my ass in the ring. Now, that i got your attention, there's a few things I wanna get off my chest. First (as he turns to JR), who the hell are you to ramble on about other matches during mine?! Isn't it your job as an announcer to help the audiance get to know me? HUH?!! No, instead, you blabber about some jobber like Albert...(mocking JR) OH!! But he's a hoss BAH GAWD!! ...(turns to King) and you, if you spent more time doing your job right instead of screaming about puppies, maybe we'd be getting better ratings right now.

But noooo, you'll leave here and head for the latest tittie bar...oh wait, no you won't, cuz the girls there need to be at least 18...I know, maybe there's some high school party around where you can tell some hottie about how you're the King of Memphis wrestling!!! You're freakin pathetic!!! (turns back to the camera) You know, I've busted my ass for two years now in the territories, watching guys like "The Heatless Wonder" Brock Lesnar get pushed to the moon, while I get cut so you can watch a bra and panties match. I thought to myself, hey self, what could I do to get over with the WWE crowd?..maybe I could drink a bunch of beers and flip people off...maybe I couls blabber on about puntang pie and no sell my opponents moves..or, no wait I got it!!! I could get roided up and nail the boss's daughter!!!! but you know, thats been done before, so I decided to go with what works best, and that me coming out here and kicking ass every week. So I'm sure you'll see me in a feud here with Rikishi, I'll be kicking his fat ass, ....maybe Test, if he could get his nose outta Shane's ass for 2 seconds,.....maybe Bubba Ray Dudly, cuz he's Bubba Tough BAH GAWD!!!....maybe someday I could even hope to have a feud with the Game!!! of course I would get buried and he would steal all my heat, but that would give something for me and Jericho to rap about back in the locker room. So in case you didn't hear my name during the match, cuz we all know how you need to hear about Puppies and Barbecue sauce, my name's Mike Sanders....and I'm the furure of wrestling!!"

 

end my little wet dream.

 

Anyways, i know I stated the obvious here, and I know that it will never happen, but hey, it was fun to bend your ear for a few, see you around the board.

[Guest converge241]

good ideas.

I sahre most of those sentiments

 

especially the tag team one. I dont know why theyve let tag wrestling die. Thye ony time you see the concept pushed is when they do the "2 faces team up against their 2 single heel opponents".

some rookies as well as washed up guys would ebnefit from being protected in a tag enviornment.

[Guest cabbageboy]

I think a major reason tag wrestling dies at various times is due to the fact that it all tends to look alike. Unless you've got crazy Mexican or Japanese guys who bust stuff out a tag match essentially involves a dull formula. Stuff happens for a while, then the face gets in trouble and the heels beat his ass for 10 minutes, face makes hot tag, then the finish.

 

I used to like ECW tag wrestling since it typically didn't follow this tired formula.

[Guest deadbeater]

All tag matches should be Texas Tornado, baby. Heck, Austin always act like it does.

[Guest Ram]

Tag team wrestling has always been a favorite of mine. The WWE's current tag divison isn't very good. But, with the champions on RAW, it looks like the division is getting set up for a new reign of glory. I hope, at least. We need a few more established teams, but so far, so good. We have the Hardys, UnAmericans, Island Boyz, and who else? Chuckabilly needs to stay away from the titles now. To tell you the truth, I think both members have been completely spent. Don't waste time dropping the gimmick, just get rid of them. As much I'd like to give them another chance, Billy has used all his up, and Palumbo hasn't impressed me. Keep the super power wrestlers out of the division for now. Taker/Kane wasn't a fair fight because both had been in the main event before and were going to ultimately be at the top in tag teams just for that. Brock should work in midcard for a while. Then after some time, set up a joint team with Bautista or O'Haire. All three look insane and like they could snap on your ass at any time. And give them a name, dammit. Not just "Bautista/Lesnar", but something like "Faces of Fear" (used, I know, but hey..)

 

A good way to reestablish tag team fighting is to do like WCW and do a tournament in a PPV. The premain and main event(s) don't have to be tag, but at least 4 should be done. A good way to make it interesting and quick as though it were one match (like usual) would be to have WWE Wargames I. Yes, the WCW PPV. Two rings. Have two teams battle in each ring, and the winners of each face the others as soon as both have finished the first round. Winners get the titles.

 

I at least hope the titles can get back up to a little below the Heaviweight title like it was in WCW for a while (as a mark I remember their importance).

 

Plus, you know, Wargames was always a good PPV for me for some reason.

[Guest Vitamin X]

That Mike Sanders would have been cut the second any "backstage talk" is used. Do you HONESTLY HONESTLY believe that even in a shoot segment, a guy would blatantly say another wrestler "no-sells" another wrestler's "moves"? The fuck is that? Sgt. Slaughter and Finaly would come out there and obliterate Sanders, if Sanders didn't know any better than to do that.

[Tully316 0]

No, I don't honestly believe that could ever happen, but I can imagine quite a few of us would love it, if it did happen. I guess my main angle was one where Sanders could bitch about being held down while no-talent people could be pushed....it's kinda a rip off the one they're flirting at with teh Truth in TNA, but it would work well in the WWE I think

[Guest Insane Bump Machine]

Another thing that is missing from the tag division is one of the most important parts of a good tag team: double team moves. Most (All?) of the teams don't even have a double team finisher, whats up with that? There are so many cool tag team moves they could pull off but they don't do it. Double team moves are one of the things that really distinguish tag matches from singles matches. Lance Storm was asked on his comment board when he and Christian will introduce a double team finisher. He answered that they didn't even think about that (!!) but will now. Am I the only one who's pissed about that?

[Guest Goodear]

Chuckabilly needs to stay away from the titles now. To tell you the truth, I think both members have been completely spent. Don't waste time dropping the gimmick, just get rid of them. As much I'd like to give them another chance, Billy has used all his up, and Palumbo hasn't impressed me.

Oh man, that's totally wrong! Chuckabilly have been working extremely well since they added Rico to the mix. They have had consistantly good matches with a whole bunch of mongrel teams like Al Snow & Maven and Hogan & Edge. Are they the next coming of The Midnight Express? No. Are they a perfectly legitimate team? You betcha. There's absolutely no reason to cut them loose, especially if you are trying to revitalize a tag team division.

[Guest jester]

The tag division (if indeed, you can call it that) clearly needs three things at minimum to start working. One, and this has been said a zillion times but is no less true, FLOAT THE DAMN belts between shows. This will help make them look like they mean something again.

 

Second, we need team finishers, and team moves. And I don't mean "one guy holds opponent while other guy punches him"--double suplexes, footsweeps, slams, whatever. You hardly ever see those anymore.

 

Finally, we need a credible face tag team to oppose the Unamericans. Right now it looks like they're feuding with one guy--Undertaker. Possibly UT and Kane when he comes back. Ugh. I don't think they should do this. Form a new face team. Edge and Hogan wasn't a bad combo, I thought.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

Chuck & Billy have had some damn good matches against Hurricane & Shannon Moore on Velocity. They've even added a double team finisher "Code Red", a variation of the Road Warriors finisher.

 

It's too bad they were booked as jokes during their tag title reign. If they were booked like this, maybe they wouldn't have needed Hogan/Edge to bring some credibility back to the belts.

 

And even that didn't last long. Hogan/Edge were only transition champs to get the belts to Storm/Christian to avoid a heel/heel C&B vs. S&C match/feud. But now S&C are stuck w/out opponents, so we're back in the same position C&B were.

[Guest Ram]

Chuckabilly needs to stay away from the titles now.  To tell you the truth, I think both members have been completely spent.  Don't waste time dropping the gimmick, just get rid of them.  As much I'd like to give them another chance, Billy has used all his up, and Palumbo hasn't impressed me.

Oh man, that's totally wrong! Chuckabilly have been working extremely well since they added Rico to the mix. They have had consistantly good matches with a whole bunch of mongrel teams like Al Snow & Maven and Hogan & Edge. Are they the next coming of The Midnight Express? No. Are they a perfectly legitimate team? You betcha. There's absolutely no reason to cut them loose, especially if you are trying to revitalize a tag team division.

It's the whole "gay" thing that takes away from it for me. I haven't seen some of their recent matches, so maybe they've accustomed themselves to each other. They could be a legitamate team if they can get away from the pink shorts and boy bands. They're playing comedy heels otherwise, and the bit is getting pretty old, pretty fast. Yeah, they act homosexual. Now what?

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Chuckabilly had some good matches with Hurricane & Shannon Moore in recent weeks. Not as much what Billy/Chuck were doing but Hurricane was getting some serious air with moves like the DDT and neckbreaker, and it looked Much MUCH better than the big-man "I'll walk behind ya, grab your neck, and we fall down, okay?" stuff.

 

Sure, Hurricane was carrying it, but at least Chuckabilly was able to keep up.