Wwe needs to reinvent itself

[Guest justcoz]

First, why couldn't they have just been World Wrestling Federation Entertainment?  WWFE like on the stock market?  This way the brand name they've spent years building would still be in their brand name?

 

This is the scariest time in the company's history, in my opinion, since the steroid trial and sex scandal.  This is why the McMahon's have to seriously sit down and restructure their product and the company's goals for the future.  This is what I would suggest.

 

OBTAIN THE RIGHTS TO ALL WRESTLING MEDIA:  While some don't believe the concept of a 24 hour wrestling channel would succeed, I still believe WWE should prep for such a project.  They blew the WCW Invasion angle so make use of the archive footage they obtained.  Combine that with the WWF library, possibly obtain the rights to ECW, make a move for AWA, Mid South, Memphis, UWF, World Class, etc.  Negotiate with the Japan and Mexico promotions.  An actual channel is year's worth of work and preparation but in the meantime begin the tease by convincing Viacom to let them run old WWF and WCW broadcasts on TV Land or Nick At Night perhaps.

 

Another option would be to run a show in the same vein as an E! True Hollywood Story or VH1 Behind The Music where they introduce us to past legends and big wrestling moments.  For instance run a show on the Monday Night Wars with people within the company speaking openly about that era just like you see on those shows.  Stick a camera in the face of Hogan, Savage, Austin, Vince, Russo, Bischoff, Flair, Nash, Triple H, etc and just let them shoot and educate.

 

More or less just give us something different... and...

 

BEGIN PROMOTING TO THE SMARKS:  Again, people will criticize this but there should be one WWE show a week which breaks a little kayfabe, let's the guys speak honestly about what they do, their matches, "working" with this guy vs. this guy, their characters and storylines openly.  Present a behind the scenes glimpse into the inner workings of WWE.  Often in storylines the character's real personalities don't come out.  Showcase some of that.  Present the usual WWE fluff pieces to make the company look good but at the same time present the product for what it is.  ENTERTAINMENT.

 

NEW/SEPERATE CREATIVE TEAMS- BRING BACK RUSSO, FERRARA:  I can just envision all of you hitting reply and mocking such a suggesting but WWE is a publicly traded company and has been in a downward spiral since the XFL disaster.  The product has suffered and with that so does profitability.  I am not saying that Vince Russo and Ed Ferrarra are creative geniuses.  They worked well enough with Vince McMahon though to save the WWF from potentially folding years ago and helped create the next generation of superstars which is something that needs done desperately right now.

 

I would give Vince/Russo/Ferrarra/Raven RAW.  Vince/Heyman/Stephanie/Terry Taylor Smackdown.  They need to present cutting edge television again even at the risk of losing advertisers.  Their advertising should come from deals with record labels, movie companies media, computer/gaming/software companys and maybe try to target more adult advertisers like beer companies, etc.

 

Hell, I wouldn't be opposed to fitting Bischoff in there somewhere.  The bottom line is WWE shouldn't be running ads for a creative team on Hot Jobs.  They should have proven talent in these roles under the supervision of Vince.  Like them or not, Russo, Ferrarra, Taylor, Bischoff, etc. are proven.

 

GIVE THE SHOWS DIFFERENT LOOKS:  Smackdown should take a darker appearance and begin the next season on UPN with a new live Wednesday night time slot.

 

HAVE THE SHOWS CRITIQUE EACH OTHER:  With seperate creative teams, seperate talent, etc. the announcers should take pot shots at their competition.  Create a rivalry, albeit under the same ownership.

[Guest JHawk]

Some good ideas there, but quite honestly I'd keep the kayfabe breaking to a minimum.  As smarks we complain about where our "sport" has gone and breaking kayfabe is part of the problem, IMO.  I do agree they need new looks for the shows ("new look, same attitude" and nothing's changed) and separate creative teams, but bringing Vince Russo back would be asking for trouble.  At least for me since I have to recap this crap.    

 

And if the New York Yankees can get their own network, why can't professional wrestling as a whole?  I know I'd watch the pro wrestling channel before, say, Lifetime Real Women (which is a joke since Lifetime is for women anyway.  But I ramble).

[Guest El Satanico]

Well anyone can get their own channel if they have the money. Only problem is that most of the open channels just get limited coverage.

 

So getting a channel isn't that big of a deal. The problem is getting national cable coverage.

[Guest Risk]

My ideas are as follows:

 

Have only three titles: Heavyweight and Cruiserweight singles titles and the Tag Team titles.

 

Fire EVERY active wrestler over fourty.

 

Fire EVERY wrestlers who weights more than 350 lbs.

 

Fire the writing and booking team, save Heyman, and hire new writers and bookers.

 

Hire more Cruisers.

 

Bring in more HWA and OVW talent.

[Guest tombstone]

The split has happened so I can't put that Genie back in the bottle and they have also melted the belts so HO HUM.

 

But.

RAW & SD! have to be different.  I see RAW as being quite DARK with the nWo, Austin and the Taker wheras SD! can be quite clean cut with Angle, Rock & the Cruisers.

 

No more recycled storylines.  I dont want Austin vs. McFlair to last, it wont help the ratings.

A heel HHH vs face Y2J feud sounds good as does a badass angle out for respect.

Austin should take on Show and eventually a heel RVD (too cocky etc., they sowed the seeds of a feud for these tow last year)

Hogan should job to a heel HHH who eventually jobs to Austin / Rock who job in short order to Angle who carries it to WM X-9 then drops to Rock in his wrestling swansong.

Just a few ideas.

[Guest griffinmills]

Grabbing up Media rights would be really smart.  Just look at what Paul McCartney said about buying up music rights.  Sounds like maybe it could apply here.  They don't even need outrageous amounts of footage.  They could do the Cartoon Network/Boomerang thing where they loop 8 hours 3 times a day.

 

As for promoting to smarks.  Well, one of my favorite shows for it's short lived life was Livewire when it was live.  Austins performance slapped my smark ass into MARK mode.  I didn't know what he was going to do!  Something like that would be great.  They could even test it online.

 

New writers/creative team?  Man, it really seems like it.  One thing though is that I personally always appreciate the down times in the industry as it makes the hot times so much better.  Giving the shows a different look should fall under this too.

 

I don't know Risk, those suggestions sound pretty crazy but they could be what is needed.  Just realise that it could also conceivably drive them even deeper in the hole as lots of established stars disapear and it takes a while to build up the fan base for the new stars.

[Guest]

I don't know Risk, those suggestions sound pretty crazy but they could be what is needed.  

And what Vince has been doing to his company isn't? While he might be wrong in fine details, you have to agree a new, radical change is necessary. Wrestling has to grow again. It shifted from kiddy to teen angst, so where odes it go now?

[Guest justcoz]

Playing into wrestling's history and past isn't a bad direction to go in.  You have two major boom periods in wrestling history.  Wrestlemania and the Monday night wars era.  One thing I've always found interesting is if you are sitting in a room full of people and the topic of wrestling comes up, very seldom do you find someone who has "never watched it".  You will run into people that watched it in the Bruno Sammartino days.  Another person may bring up memories of the Four Horsemen.  Someone else may bring up Jimmy Snuka or The Honky Tonk Man.  I think there is money to be made from that and WWE are morons for not capatalizing on their archive footage.  Even if a 24 hour channel is a long shot, with this Viacom deal, even if it's on shaky ground, it should at least be in the talking stages.

 

And I agree with what griffinmills said about a show like Livewire.  That's what I'm talking about when I say break kayfabe.  I'm not saying showing heels and faces sitting around with their arms around each other.  More programming along the lines of Livewire or the early Sunday Night Heat format when they would spotlight particular matches and have the stars relive those moments (Foley/Undertaker, TLC matches, etc.).  Whenever the WWF tours Canada, I'm always amazed by how the press and mainstream media treat them.  They "get it" and ask appropriate questions.  WWE should make sure the same thing happens in the states.  

 

It would also eliminate WWE's concern for the incorrect news popping out in the sheets and on the net if they approach their fans one hour a week with a "tell it like is" attitude.