Five things YOU would change or improve

[Guest Olympic Slam]

What are five things that you would change in hopes of improving WWE's current product? And no, firing a superstar is not an option.

 

1. Establish MORE siganture finishing moves for each wrestler - This is a big issue for me as something as simple as getting a finisher over can make any match a hell of a lot more exciting. It seems today that the only believeable near-falls are the one's involving roll-ups, cradles and backslides. Example: Benoit needs to win a match every now and again with the Swandive Headbutt, Jericho with the Breakdown and Flashback, Booker with the Bookend and Hangover. Ideally, every star of some importance should have at least two primary finishers and possibly a submission finisher to fall back on. Getting the crowd to pop for near finishes is essential to a better in-ring product.

2. Turn Eddie Guerrero heel and push him to the top

3. Turn Chris Jericho face and push him to the top to replace Edge

4. Bring back the I.C title and put it on the show that needs to establish better mid-carders

5. Hype future matches and DELIVER on the promise. More #1 contendership matches and more open-challenges for a match on next week's show.

[Guest BoboBrazil]

1. End the brand extension.

 

2. Fire the writing team.

 

3. Hire a writer that is also a fan of wrestling from a show such as the Sopranos or OZ.

 

4. Make the new booking and writing team up of one writer and a few former wrestlers.

 

5. If anyone whines about doing a job send them home.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

What would I do to improve the WWE?

 

1)Get new batteries in Remote Control.

 

2)Find any program on from 9-10 on Mondays and 7-9 on Thursdays (Canadian)

 

3)Watch that program.

 

... hmm, only 3 needed.

[Guest RedJed]

1. Demote Stephanie to a backstage agent or something not related to creative. She can stay as a on-screen character, but she is to not literally put her fingerprints on any of the writing.

 

2. Disallow any current workers to booking meetings, they can still throw in their two cents on things, but they cannot to the point where they are controlling their own programs.

 

3. Start over with the booking teams, obviously. Vince steps down at head writer and whatnot for both shows and is simply a creative consultant for both of them ala how Russo was for a short time last year.

 

4. Try to lure back the guy from 2000 who failed in his baseball books (Chris Kretski?) and make him head writer for Raw without restrictions. Vince and others (few ex workers, etc) will be underneath him and can offer their two cents but cannot demand how he writes.

 

5. Bring back Heyman for head writer of Smackdown and see what he can do without restrictions. Give each team 6 months AT LEAST and see what happens.

[Guest Space_Cowboy]

1. Lock Vince up in an insane asylum and throw away the key.

 

I can't be bothered doing 4 more, but there's the first step to recovery.

[Guest papacita]

1. I'd work on training the audience into buying that a match can end at any time and with any big move. This is similar to what OS said by establishing more signiture move as moves that can potentially end a match, but I think this should extent to other moves. I think it would be nice to see more matches end with cradles, backslides, schoolboys, etc, just to keep a level of unpredictability. Every now and then, it would be cool to see the hand ACTUALLY DROP for the third time when the face is trapped in a hold (while I'm not referring to the sleeper specifically, I can kinda see HHH's logic in trying to bring that back last year). I feel that the finishers should be used less frequently so when a wrestler does actually manage to get his big move in (like Taker with his Tombstone) it'll actually mean something (seems like lately you almost expect the opponent to kick out of a finisher every big match).

 

2. Less backstage skits. Wrestlers don't necessarily need them to build character. While it's good to give a wrestler a gimmick rather than just throwing him/her out there and having them wrestle for no reason, I think characters can be better established through matches and feuds as fans get a better feel for how wrestlers react to certain situations. Throwing them out there in meaningless comedy skits just makes it more difficult to look at a wrestler as a potential threat. And for God's sake, KEEP SKITS OFF OF PPVS! They have interviewers, USE THEM DAMN IT!

 

3. More interaction between the upper, lower and mid-cards. We seem to be seeing a little more of this lately, so...

 

4. Evil Authorities are played. If their gonna use a GM or commish, just keep him/her unbiased. That's one thing I've liked about Smackdown. For the most part, Steph's been good at being neutral.

 

5. Encourage the writers to book towards people WHO ACTUALLY WATCH YOUR PRODUCT rather than putting out dumb shit to attract people who otherwise wouldn't give a damn.

[Guest razazteca]

All I ask is that the WWE announcers start focusing on the match that is going on in the ring more than say bringing up topics about evil owners or hyping the Main Event.

 

For example say the opening match is RVD vs Rico, it would be nice to have a knowledgeable announcer to call the trademark moves instead of saying "what a move". But most of the time the announcers go off tangents by talking about the power struggle between the NUUUUUUUUU GM Bischoff and now Austin all the while a nice spot of moves happened in the ring. Such as RVD would do the spot of the leg sweep, spin kick, while Rico would counter with some kicks of his own then RVD would finish the spot with the leg trip takedown for a pin attempt. While all of this is happening Coach would be talking in Ebonics about Da Mack then King would retort with "That RVD has educated feet" then Coach would be like Foo Shizzlie Rico just got knock down on his hizzo or his dumn ass Classic Comeback routine.

 

At least Tazz & Cole try to call the matches on Velocity, I remember Cole would call the Shining Wizard and Tazz would comment on how a kick like that would hurt or be hard to counter because of its a surprise attack.

Edited May 4, 2003 by razazteca

[Guest MillenniumMan831]

Good point because when the fans hear the hype for other segments during a match, the general viewer feels that the segment they're watching may not be worth their time and may flip the channel.

[Guest El Psycho Diablo]

1) Say goodbye to Vince.

 

(Hell, that's the number one thing right there. Without Vince, the company would probably fix itself..)

 

2) Vince could take Ross, and Steph with him.

 

3) New creative, booking, blah blah blah.

 

4) Rename Velocity to Hossocity, and stick all of the worthless bastards on there. Let them run wild, for all I care.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Man, the WWE so needs a new approach to announcing.

 

I was watching Pride 25 today and Quadros and Rutten are heads and shoulders above anything the WWE has. They say stuff and you absorb it. The WWE announcers you just block out of your head because everything they say is a shill. It's disgusting.

[Guest BoboBrazil]

After seeing Confidential last night, Vince should get Bob Costas to be the pbp man on shows. Jesse Ventura could do color. This would give them a respectable announce team.

[Guest TheHulkster]

1. Work more towards establishing unique traits and mannerisms in the characters slowly over a long period of time that fans can be able recognize and react to.

 

2. I would bring back ringside interviews or the interview podium. Too much goes on backstage and the live crowds can't enjoy promos as much as they would if the person were right there reacting to them. Besides, it would make greater use of Mean Gene's talents than hosting Confidential. Piper's Pit and Highlight of the Night are steps in the right direction.

 

3. Focus on the wrestler's strength's and try to avoid their weaknesses.

 

4. Give Eddie Guerrero a serious push. The man has it all and he's one of the most over wrestler's on the roster despite being stuck in the SD tag division. He's got star quality and his work isn't shabby either.

 

5. Uh...........MAKE A FUCKING ALL WRESTLING CHANNEL!!!

 

 

Anyway, who knows if I could do a better job on a regular basis writing shows than the current writing team, I doubt it. As much shit as they get for all the bad stuff they do, they never get any credit for the good ideas. I wouldn't want to deal with that kind of stress. Nobody is perfect, hopefully they will get better with experience.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Anyway, who knows if I could do a better job on a regular basis writing shows than the current writing team, I doubt it.

 

Dude, a drunk retarded monkey could do a better job than the current writing team. Of course, there is still Vince McMahon to fuck up the drunk retarded monkeys ideas, but they probably think a lot a like so...

[Guest ViciousFish]

1. Stop bringing back nostalgia wrestlers. I can handle bringing back Piper because he isn't really wrestling. He's a manager and an interviewer. His one 'match' was 5 minutes of stalling until SOH interfered.

 

2. Stop the Cliq! Use tranqs, a shot gun, anything you have to.

 

3. Keep wrestlers out of booking meetings. It's counter productive. Its like a huge corporation bringing in normal employess when they are trying to decide who to fire.

 

4. Get rid of the WWE style. Most people are sick of punch, punch, kick, kick, finisher.

 

5. Lose the hosses.......or at least make it so they don't squash cruiser's every week. If you have to use them build them as credible threats. no one is goning to believe A-Train is a big bad guy if he wants to wrestle say Brock after beating the shit out of 4 guys who weigh half of what he does.

[Guest Cover of Darkness]

1. Build each show around one champion who can WRESTLE EVERY SHOW. Keep the World Title angle as the Number 1 angle at all times and the Champion as the focus of a show.

 

2. Begin to experiment bringing new indy and OVW guys and sending deadwood out. Hype every new arrival as something special and get them into the mix immeadiatly.

 

3. Repair the Tag Divisions or get floating champs.

 

4. Don't be afraid to allow workers to free their styles and do different things.

 

5. Restructure the creative team and give them leaders who won't make them afraid to speak up.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Leaders who aren't afaid to speak up get fired.

[Guest Cover of Darkness]

Leaders who aren't afaid to speak up get fired.

That's why the title of the topic is "Five things YOU would change or improve." Not, "What is the WWE doing wrong."

 

 

Duh.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Well then you'd have to change Vince McMahon for that to happen.

 

Having writers with spines does nothing for the product if they just get fired for not falling in line.

 

It's like saying:

 

"What do you do to fix a sinking boat?"

 

"Get more Oars."

[Guest Cover of Darkness]

Well then you'd have to change Vince McMahon for that to happen.

 

Having writers with spines does nothing for the product if they just get fired for not falling in line.

 

It's like saying:

 

"What do you do to fix a sinking boat?"

 

"Get more Oars."

No, we don't need Vince to go. The problem is that the people under Vince have radically changed.

 

 

In the Attitude era, the people in Vince's ear- the people who, for right or wrong- influenced every descision were:

 

Shane McMahon : Pushing for more storyline intensive "mature" programming.

 

Vince Russo: Pushing for a bastardized version of what Shane wanted

 

Jim Cornette: Pushing for a more "old-school" feel.

 

Bret Hart: The same as Cornette

 

Jim Ross: Telling him what the talent thought of every move.

 

Kevin Dunn: Pushing for additional production changes, etc.

 

And in the Attitude "97-00" era, wrestlers could still present their own views. They wern't always listened to, but...

 

 

Now those people are:

 

Stephanie McMahon: Pushing for more "Shock TV."

 

HHH: Pushing for himself

 

Brian Gerwitz: Who the hell knows what he wants.

 

Paul Heyman: Pushing, apparantly, for the cloest thing to a "smark" agenda that we see in the WWE.

 

Kevin Dunn: See: Stephanie McMahon.

 

 

The hierarchy is FUCKED UP TO ALL HELL.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

No, it's Vince McMahon going insane and having his head up his ass which is causing the WWE to suck so much.

[Guest Cover of Darkness]

No, it's Vince McMahon going insane and having his head up his ass which is causing the WWE to suck so much.

Source?

[Guest DawnBTVS]

#1: Establish 2 Finishers and 2 Signature Moves with the Finishers(Ex: Edge with his Downward Spiral, Edgeocution, Edge-o-matic, etc.)

 

#2: Change the ropes to cable and let the cruiserweights have more time in their matches. This way, cruiserweights can get more over on Smackdown by utilizing the ropes more to their advantage.

 

#3: Make feuds last longer and mean more over the long term. Ex: I would make the Jericho, Shawn Michaels feud get drawn out to 5-6 months rather then 2-3.

 

#4: Make the cruiserweight division more of a "special attraction" feature and put over the division based on their skills in the ring(Similar to TNA's X Division)

 

#5: Give the wrestlers a gimmick and let the wrestler's themselves build up their characters via interview time and mannerisms in the ring.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Source?

 

I need a source?

 

Try WWE television.

 

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same result.

 

*Looks at WWE television*

 

Yep, Vince is insane.

[Guest razazteca]

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same result.

I call that obsessive complusive.

[Guest Joe_G]

1. CMLL in Mexico has a segment in their shows where they air cool moves and highlights from matches that don't air on TV. Take this idea and apply it to house shows--send someone with a handheld camera and tape some neat moves and air them on Raw and Smackdown. Let people know interesting things happen at house shows.

 

2. Speaking of such, hype house show cards. Announce the cards on TV ahead of time and have wrestlers hype them. Like in the old days, when you'd see Tito Santana saying "I can't wait to come to the Boston Garden to get my hands on Greg Valentine." Make them seem important.

 

3. Do interesting things with the undercard. Like the old "gauntlet" idea from WCW, where one guy draws three names and wrestles them on three consecutive shows. If he beats all three, he wins X amount of dollars, and if he loses, have his opponents split the $$$. Set that up, have one match on Raw, then Heat, then the conclusion on Raw (or even have one on a house show and hype it). Or have a round robin tournament with the cruiserweights, where you take six guys and have them all fight each other for points, and whoever gets the most points wins a title shot.

 

4. Make title defenses more important. They've cut down on title defenses on Raw and Smackdown, but I'd eliminate them from most house shows as well. Announce that when Brock Lesnar faces the Big Show at Judgment Day that this will be Brock's first title defense. Make notes of title defenses and how long they've held the belt. I've always been a big sports statistics nut but you never see that in wrestling.

 

5. Consistently push new talent, leave wrestlers like Hogan and Piper more as opening match attractions (I know, I know, I may as well wish for the moon).

[Guest Lightning Flik]

4. Make title defenses more important. They've cut down on title defenses on Raw and Smackdown, but I'd eliminate them from most house shows as well. Announce that when Brock Lesnar faces the Big Show at Judgment Day that this will be Brock's first title defense. Make notes of title defenses and how long they've held the belt. I've always been a big sports statistics nut but you never see that in wrestling.

TNA seems to use this approach with it's World Title. Just noting, not meaning anything else by it.

[Guest TheBostonStrangler]

1. Eliminate the roster split. The roster split was correct in the theory that it would get some people who wouldn't be on TV otherwise some exposure. However, it's also put a TON of crap on TV. The simple solution is to take the next three months, figure out who can be an important part of the WWE in the next 30 months or so, and keep or release people based on that. If you fire 1/3rd of the roster which doesn't really do anything, and then end the split, you can get the good, quality people on television, and we won't be subjected to crap like HHH vs. Nash

 

2. Fire all the nonstalgia-types who were brought in besides Hogan, Goldberg, and Piper. Piper stays out of the ring, Hogan gets big enough pops to bother keeping him around as a nice side show, and Goldberg is better than a lot of what they got. Stick him in a ring with a guy like Benoit and you can most certainly get a good match out of the guy. He isn't the long-term solution, but if you're going to establish the plan I outlined in #1, then you need a few big names for the short-term, and Goldberg would certainly provide that.

 

3. Move to a more statistics-based setup. If you start treating the WWE like a real sport, I think that would make it much more credible. People made a big deal out of Austin and Rock's history at Wrestlemania, and it helped make their angle interesting. Why not extend that to most of television? If Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit square off, I'd like to see who leads the series between the two. Who won titles from whom? That type of thing would make the programming SO much more interesting, and it would also force the WWE to think about their decisions, since the revisionist history they seem to be so fond of would be infeasible.

 

4. Hire a new breed of writers. Throw millions of dollars at some young, promising Hollywood screenwriters and get them working on new, original storylines. Have them deal with the broad-based storylines and basics of the broadcasts. Give a few wrestling types (my votes would go to Steve Austin, Paul Heyman, and Johnny Ace) spots on the writing team as well, since they'd be valuable in the wrestling sections of the writing. Give the road agents a good deal more power to control how matches are created, and give the wrestlers freedom in their promos. Have the writers hand them index cards with two or three points to touch on, and let them go from there. If they request more input from the writers, then give it to them, but the wrestlers who work well on the mic, like Austin, the Rock, Angle, etc. deserve to make up their own stuff.

 

5. Give Stephanie McMahon an ultimatum: Either break it off with HHH, or get the hell out of the writing department and start working with Shane over in finance. She's been perfectly fine on-screen, so I have no problem with her maintaining her on-screen persona, but she has no right to be on the writing team with such a massive conflict-of-interest. She'll choose her husband, and take another highly paid position within the company. No one loses here.

 

BONUS: Tell Vince to take a one-year sabbatical and enjoy his time away from the company. Leave Linda as the boss, since she's just CEO, and doesn't have a ton of say on creative matters. Allow the writing crew to be the ones who make the final call, and make sure to hammer home the fact that it's time for writers to take risks with new storylines, not with shock TV.

[Guest Luke Cage]

What would I do to improve the WWE?

 

1)Get new batteries in Remote Control.

 

2)Find any program on from 9-10 on Mondays and 7-9 on Thursdays (Canadian)

 

3)Watch that program.

 

... hmm, only 3 needed.

We have a winner!

[Guest TheGame2705]

1.) Hide anyone's weaknesses and only bring out the strengths so that you can have EVERYONE be over and I mean EVERYONE which means using the big men as the immovable objects, the lightweights as the fast fliers and otherwise underdogs, etc. Some people can be used only to pop a crowd, some can only put on something entertaining involving "plundah", and some are multi-task. Use what works. Would it make sense for a computer programmer to be your envelope-licker if you run Microsoft?

 

2.)Re-do everything in creative so that the people who make the show are Paul Heyman, Vince Russo, Edge (while injured), Shane McMahon, Dean Malenko, and Ric Flair. I believe this team would be excellent if they each had equal say in the creative/booking dept. Paul Heyman is excellent at making shit smell nice and something good smell nicer. Vince Russo likes to get everyone over especially the midcard and if kept in check is good. Edge possesses a good knowledge of the business so far as evidenced in his columns, is humorous, and still has the little kid mark mentality too which would be necessary if trying to acquire money. Back in the earlier days, how many little kids didn't want Bret's sunglasses or didn't have a Hogan bandana? Call them whiny brats but kids are the best salesmen and if they're really into the show they'll make their parents buy everything. Edge constantly reminisces about what it was like as a little kid and how cool it was. If he can give the kids what they want, you have a lot of cash coming in. Shane McMahon is seeminly part of the MTV generation or atleast wants to be and he's also a good businessman so he could most likely cash in on anything teens found popular. You don't need to have it live on the wrestling show but say you have a popular band perform before the show to get the crowd hyped and bring in fans of the groups even if they aren't wrestling fans. Who knows? Some people might come in for the pre-show 50 Cent or Good Charlotte concert and stick around for the wrestling just to see what it's about. What would be especially good is if the wrestler likes wrestling and he would stick around to be in attendance after his pre-show concert. All the crazed fans want to be like their idols and if 50 or Eminem watches wrestling and says it's cool, GUARANTEED, some people will watch just to see what their favorites like. If Shane kept track of what's hot and cashed in on it using an example like above, you have MORE money and ratings too. Dean Malenko was a lightweight wrestler and thus he knows what works and doesn't with them so he'd be a good tool in booking them. He understands the different psychology used in lightweight contests so that's helpful too. Lastly, Ric Flair brings the old school feel. He can market to the older fans who used to like wrestling as a kid but hate it now. This doesn't strictly involve bringing in older stars and legends just for nostalgia value but like it or not, Nostalgia is what makes nowadays teenager/young adult watch Transformers. Ric Flair also knows how to create a lot of emotion and drama and that sometimes is very useful in wrestling to help create a remarkable scene i.e. Flair's return in WCW after the legal battles.

 

3. Establish a hierarchy/organization system that is clearly visible. Look at a messy desk. Everything's there and with a little work everything can still run smoothly assuming you can find it but say something gets lost in the shuffle? Now look at WWE and compare it to the messy desk. You have the computer that you always no where it is and always use because it's most convenient (Triple H) and the stapler because it's big and is sometimes useful even if it only has one function (Brock Lesnar) and then you have the occasionally found pens and pencils that are multi-purpose (Jericho, Benoit, Eddie, Angle, etc.) but then fuck it if you can find anything else. Analyze the main event scene and try and fix anyone in it who has a problem and if it's unfixable, move them out and bring someone new in. Establish then the different eschelons of the micard and the enhancement talent and then the divisions of the lightweights, women, etc. This keeps everything organized, establishes the favorite to win in a match when divisions fight amongst each other, and also establishes an underdog. Also, if you try to target everyone do it when it's appropriate. If you need to, put the racy/naughty content in Velocidential's timeslot, family programming when HeAT comes on and during the first hour of RAW and most of Smackdown, and throw in the teen/young adult elements in towards the end of RAW and somewhat on Smackdown. That's not perfect but as seen before, if you want parents to let their kids watch, don't have a lesbian angle on a sunday afternoon at 7 o'clock.

 

4. Never make anything seem unimportant. Hype the heck out of everything. House shows, PPV's, weekly shows, titles, matches, etc. Make a Heavyweight title which is the ultimate gold, the Intercontinental which is the stepping stone to the Main Event, the midcard title, tag belts, a hardcore title, a women's title, and a lightweight title. Hype each title as THE prize in your group to fight for or as the next step. Don't make a bastardization of the hardcore division either, it is entertaining when given the proper booking and build up the stars with the use of non-wrestling in productive manners. Stop the non-humorous comedy and use the good comedy sparingly as putting a badass in a joke angle doesn't do anything good for him. Use more backstage/in-ring solo and dueling interviews which really worked well. Highlight videos of a debuting wrestler or diabolical promos like when Goldust was coming in are a good way of getting people excited. And in the end, DELIVER. nWo had a lackluster hype and an even more disappointing delivery.

 

5. End the roster split, I've hated it forever. Injuries make the shows even worse as talent is less.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

I like the statistics idea. But that's too much trouble for the WWE, it means they have to keep tabs on everyone.... who wants to do that ?

 

There are so many possibilities that a statistic system would create, but it would be hard to implement.