The WWF

[Guest ])r. ])eath]

WWF Pay Per Views are too common. 12 PPV's a month not only put more pressure on the wrestlers, but it makes the WWF writing teams job almost impossible. If the WWF was to return to a four PPV a year program, the WWF writing team should have plenty of time to develop characters & storylines. Heel/Face turns would also come out better, as the WWF would have 3 months to build up the turn leading into the PPV blowoff. Add all of this to the fact the the PPV cost is increasing and it makes the WWF fan sit and question why they should buy any PPV's at all anymore.

 

People tend to blame the WWF writing team for bad product. I can't say that I disagree with that statement, though I don't 100% agree with it either. I feel that the WWF writing team could put on quality programming with the right amount of time. The current situation in the WWF right now, means that they don't have any competition from another wrestling company. So why should they keep 12 PPV's a year? There is no reason too. They aren't competitin with anyone but themselves, and they are losing.

 

Another problem area of the WWF seems to be the title department. Not only are there too many titles, but the title matches are too predictable. It seems that even the "marks" know when a title is going to change hands. I feel that the WWF was better when they only had 3 titles. It made it seem like people with titles were the men to beat, whereas nowadays it seems that if you don't have a title, you might not have a job for too much longer. The WWF Heavyweight Title obviously has to stay, but it should be made out to be the main goal of every wrestler in the company. Everyone should have their personal goal set to achieve the WWF title. The WWF Title should only be involved in the mainevent.

 

The Intercontinental Heavyweight Title has went downhill. It seems that it has no credibilty at all. Lenghty reigns seem to be starting once again in the WWF, but if the title is on someone that the fans don't care about, it would help add any prestige at all. I say, put the IC belt on someone that the fans care about. Rob Van Dam comes to mind, and it isn't a far fetched possibility seeing as how he has a shot at the IC title at Wrestlemania.

 

The Tag Team titles should stay. Every wrestling promotion has had a tag team division, and there is no reason that the common trend should change when it is successful. The problem right now is the WWF has not only a lack of tag teams, but they ones they have are stale. Simply turning heels into faces and faces into heels will not work. The solution isn't to change the Dudleyz face, but make them out to actually be hated by the fans. Fan interaction like they used in their ECW days is needed. I do think that few tag team matches on programming will result in people being more excited about tag matches when they get to see them.

 

Another thing that the WWF should work on is gimmick matches. If a gimmick match happens every three days, the fans will grow tired of them, or expect to see something that the wrestlers cannot deliver on. Remember when a cage match happened only every year or so? The fans were rabid when the match would actually take place. If the WWF went back to 4 PPV's a year, one gimmick match every PPV would be great. The matches themselves wouldn't get worn out, and the fans might anticipate them.

 

This has all just been some random rambling on some things that I think would help the WWF product overall. I'm just wondering who agrees with any or all of my thoughts, and wondered what some other people's thoughts would be. I don't want to comment on the minor problems like replay, I think we should start from the top.

 

Thoughts?

[Guest Repo Man jr]

I like having one a month, I think thats OK. But this crazy idea about having an extra four when they do, you know "the split" thing!!! maybe pushing it just a tad. But no, just four a year would be awful to me because I am very impatient.

[Guest ])r. ])eath]

Well, you would still have Raw & Smackdown every week, so I don't see what the problem is. Wouldn't you rather have quality programming every four months as compared to quickly thrown together garbage? Plus, it would save the fans tons of money.

 

Also, I wasn't talking about the split. I'm talking about right now. There is no guarantee that the split will even happen. The way the WWF seems to be hurriedly throwing together storylines, I don't think that it would be a good thing anyway. Not in the storyline department anyway.

[Guest X-Factor Corperation]

Having a PPV every so often helps brining in their revenue, though I think there are some months where they shouldn't have any, such as may and october.

[Guest ])r. ])eath]

The revenue would increase when the quality of the programming increased. The ratings would go up on the non PPV shows and more people would be interested. Thus, the PPV rating would increase, as would the merchandise sells.

 

Besides, it's not like Vince McMahon or WWFE are fearing going bankrupt anytimes soon.

 

More thought out and in-depth storylines could captavate more fans.

[Guest Jokir]

After the split one a month might work. They can have four for one division, four for the other division, and then the BIG four would be interdivisional.

[Guest Tony149]

WWF TV could suck, but Vince would still make money off the PPV's. One WWF could have a big buyrates, while the other gets WCW numbers, but Vince still makes money. Thats why WCW & the WWF went to 12 PPV's each. No matter how low the buyrate was, they still got some money.

[Guest ])r. ])eath]

There is no gurantee that the split will even happen. If it does happen, it's not like anything will be any different. Both shows will be wrote by the same writing team, and the matches will become interpromotional anyway. It will be exactly what we are watching now. Which means there will still be too many PPV's and too many titles.

[Guest ])r. ])eath]

Hypethetically speaking of course but this makes sense to me:

 

The WWF Makes

 

1 Bad PPV = say $20, so with the current format that would be $80 every 4 months

 

What is to stop the one good PPV from making $80 by it's lonesome? The storylines would be better and more people would care. So they would still make the $80 every 4 months, which would result in the same income.

 

I mean, it wouldn't work out like that, but it is logical.

[Guest Mystery Eskimo]

I think a PPV every other month would be ideal. It would give more time to build up feuds, more time for actual wrestling on Raw and Smackdown, and make the PPV more of an event.

 

If the split results in even more PPV's, I fear the WWF risks over-saturating the market and turning off even loyal fans.

[Guest Army Eye]

I really can't see it. Cutting down to 4-6 PPVs, you would need astronomical buyrates to make up for the lost revenue from 12.  

 

Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see it.  I loved it when it was just Wrestlemania, Summerslam, Royal Rumble, and Survivor Series.  (KOTR is fine too).  But until people stop shelling out every month.. this is what we've got.