What to do with tag titles?

[Guest LooneyTune]

I think they should get rid of the brand extention as well. Maybe I'm just a bastard, but I don't really care about which wrestlers can feed their families anymore. I mean, what about people like Rodney Mack, Test and A-Train? No one was talking about "feeding their families" back then.

I liked Rodney Mack and A-Train. Test deserves no love. He milked his injuries and KNEW WWE never fires people who are injured, then when WWE starts hinting towards firing him, he gets a neck surgery he put off for months.

 

Anyone who milks injuries (cough:Rikishi:cough) deserves being fired. Sad, but true.

[RedJed 0]

I dont think they should eliminate the brand extension but I think its about time they eliminated the brand seperation for most of the titles. For right now, I'm fine with leaving the world and WWE titles seperate, and same with the IC and US titles, but with the tag belts, CW, and Women's title, there isnt enough talent in one brand to really have any of those belts prominent. They should unify the tag titles at Mania in the very least and at best, also decide to make the Women's and CW titles interchangable through both brands, akin to how the WWE title was right after the brand extension.

 

This is how I would do it....

 

Tag titles: Make a TLC 4 Way match at Mania: RVD/Rey v. Dudleys v. Jericho/Benoit v. Edge/Christian - Duds and E/C being in there since its a TLC match obviously.

 

CW title: Have a 8 man tournament leading to Mania on Raw for a shot at whoever the CW champ would be come Mania from Smackdown. Raw would obviously need to sign up some more CWs for their side since they maybe have 2 or 3 at most who qualify, but this would be a perfect time to show them off and debut them.

 

Women's title: Just have a bra and panties elimination catfight with all of the WWE chicks at Mania with the winner taking the title. I think its time WWE came to realize this women's division, as it is currently, is never going to fully get over and all of the women workers and "divas" should just merge together and have pointless eye candy segments/gimmick matches for the belt.

 

Just my two cents....

[Nighthawk 0]

I think they should wear them around their waists.

[Guest Coffey]

Sorry, I would've replied earlier, but I've been having internet problems.

 

That's because they weren't releasing guys with talent. With the business in a huge slump, there's no reason for talented guys to be starving on the streets all so you can see HHH do two 20-minute promos a week instead of one.

 

Why the flip does it matter if they have talent? Non-talented wrestlers can't reproduce and have families? It's not fair to people like A-Train to mention "feeding their families" now, but not then, just because of personal wrestling preference. You're either humane for everyone, or you're not. There's no middle road.

 

You can't just grab an argument out of the woodwork and try to stick with it. No one cared when the "less talented" wrestlers were released. Now since we're talking about "smark darlings" suddenly we're talking about feeding their families and crap? C'mon. They ALL have families. Whether they can wrestle or not. Saying A-Train couldn't wrestle too great, or get over, and people like Chris Jericho can; that would be an argument to make. Feeding their families isn't.

 

Besides, I'd like to see guys like Kurt Angle and Rob Van Dam again. They wouldn't get fired, I just might have to pay attention to Heat again. So ending the brand extention wouldn't matter to me. You're either a fan of WWE, or you're not. If someone you liked was fired, if they don't suck, odds are they'll show up elsewhere. Hell, it might give a number two promotion the chance to compete with WWE anyway. So, in the long run, it might turn out BETTER for the industry as a whole. Heck, people might actually watch Heat and Velocity! Come to think of it, the wrestlers don't even have to be talented and they'll still probably get picked up elsewhere.

 

Did you watch WCW? At all? Do you remember what happened when they did this?

 

I liked WCW. I liked them when they didn't have a lot of tag team matches and I liked them when they had a cruiserweight tag team division. It wasn't so much that I thought their product was good, it was that I had an alternative. I could switch back and forth between Nitro and Raw. Heck, I watched Thunder every week. Just because WCW was ran bad doesn't mean it was because of the tag team situation or whatnot. It was a combination of bad decisions. The tag team decision I don't believe falls into that category. As a matter of fact, what the heck did WCW even have to do with what I said? ECW had great tag team wrestling and they died too.

 

You'd eliminate any hope of a midcard match saving the show completely. You'd eliminate any possibility of a turnaround or fresh matches. You'd also be begging for competition with a roster full of unsigned talented wrestlers, but sadly, they'd have nowhere to go.

 

This is bullcrap. It just takes good, competent writers to have a good midcard. They don't have a good midcard now, so why would it be any different if they fired some more people? Same with a lower midcard, an upper midcard and even the main event.

 

Besides, they DO have places to go. The wrestling world doesn't exist just in North America and WWE. It'd just require another company to sprout up or get recognition. Heck, if TNA can get a PPV and TV deal, then a company with established wrestlers could easily. I heard Ted Turner was wanting back in the market anyway.

[Black Lushus 0]

my whole point is that even just 2 or 3 years ago, they had the same amount of people in the upper/midcard and are still having the same issues now with a brand extension:

 

the same people on top, the same people stuck under the "glass ceiling" and no one new arising (according to you guys, Cena and Orton are NOT the rising stars although WWE wants them to be)...your top guys will always be on top, no matter what...with ending the extension, your mid tier guys would cycle in and out the top spots while the up and comers catch on through Heat and Velocity until they are ready to replace a fading Raw/Smackdown star...keep both programs, drawing maybe your two biggest fueds out between them while every other superstar only does one show a week...maybe this week we see Edge on Smackdown only and next week we see him on Raw only, then the following week, perhaps he's on BOTH shows, for example...for god's sake, when Raw first began it was only ONE hour and they were still able to produce 10 match cards, most of which had some sort of fued and weren't just thrown together matches...

[Perfxion 0]

If they want to keep the spit, then do this: merge both tag team titles and make the belts interbrand champs being able to be on both shows. Do the same with the World title. This way the can alternate who gets a title match and makes for longer storylines. Then this builds up the IC/US title as being the top titles of the brands.

[SuperJerk 0]

Why the flip does it matter if they have talent? Non-talented wrestlers can't reproduce and have families?

Non-talented people should find jobs doing something else.

 

If I suck at my job, I'd be better off having a job I don't suck at.

 

If ran a record store, would I continue to employ a person who couldn't run the register right?

If I'm a comic book editor, why should I give assignments to guys who can't draw?

If I'm the manager of a restaraunt, should I put up with a waitress who screws up people's orders all the time?

 

 

As far as the tag belts go, doing anything other than a tourney for them would be a wasted opportunity.

[Guest Coffey]

If you're looking at it like that, everyone should get a different job because wrestling, for the most part, is shunned in our society. Why do you think you don't see highlights on Sportscenter? It's a joke.

 

I'm sure someone like D-Lo Brown, whom doesn't suck at wrestling, could make a decent living at being an accountant (which his degree is in). That doesn't mean that if he gets fired from wrestling he doesn't still have a family to support.

 

I think you missed the point, dude.

[strummer 0]

"Talent" is an ambigious term to use in a worked business like pro wrestling. In baseball or any other sport, the most talented players are featured, because the goal is to win. Wrestling is worked, having talent doesn't guarentee success. In wrestling you can be successful with a talentless guy if you work the public through effective booking. Pretty much any other business or way of life, you can't do that. I guess the only other business that is similar would be Hollywood, where critics say people like Adam Sandler are "talentless", but yet he is successful.

[King Cucaracha 0]

I think they should wear them around their waists.

Man, this isn't the 70's. Cool people wear them over their shoulders now.

 

 

Anyway, they should bring in Colt Cabana as Regal's long lost twin brother. Seperated at birth, Cabana was adopted by American parents. But now they're re-united, they can point out the quirks in each other's nationalities. Hilarity would then ensue.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

The need to do a lethal lottery tag title tournament.

[Guest Coffey]

The need to do a lethal lottery tag title tournament.

I said that to one of my friends the other day. I'll never forget when Sting's partner was announced as Abdullah.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Ok, here's how I'd do it.

 

On the post Rumble Raw (Jan 30th) Bischoff comes up to Regal and tells him that in 2 weeks the titles will be stripped from him and Eugene and there is nothing he can do about it. Before Regal blows up Bischoff says "hold that tirade, and wait until you hear what I have to say..." Bischoff comes out to the ring and says in 3 weeks (Feb 21st), there will be a tournament to decide who the tag champions are. However, this will not be any old tournament, it will be a lethal lottery where two men will be randomly paired in a 16 man tournament. There will be 8 teams, where the 8th team will be Regal and a partner of his choice. The incentive for Raw stars to put their name in the hat is that the final, title-deciding, match will be at Wrestlemania 21. Also, a Smackdown superstars contract has expired and Bischoff has picked it up. This wrestler will be included in the lottery. (The selections will be discovered Royal Rumble style, where it wont be known until the match who the tag partners are)

 

The Draw

 

Rhyno

Rosie

vs.

Hurricane

Tajiri

 

Sheldon Benjamin

Charlie Haas

vs

Christian

Maven

 

Chris Jericho

Hassan

vs

Ric Flair

Shawn Michaels

 

Conway

Val Venis

vs

William Regal

Chris Benoit

[Guest LooneyTune]

The Lethal Lottery could be good as long as it's rigged (wasn't Starrcade 91 actually improvised, or am I hearing the wrong thing) and the pairings result in good matches, not awful garbage.

[iggymcfly 0]

Why do they have to fire everyone if they end the brand extension? Right now, they have the same people having the same matches against the same opponents every week.

 

If they combined the rosters, they could have a real tag division with six or seven teams, and they could actually flesh out a few different stables, rather than having one stable with three members be the focus of every show.

 

Look at New Year's Revolution. Everyone remotely capable of main eventing was thrown into the EC, and the only undercard match with any singles wrestlers that were even in the upper midcard was Kane vs. Snitsky. Also, we're forced to see one of the losers get a title shot again next month. If say Orton and Batista had both won undercard matches while, three current Smackdown wrestlers were also in the EC, it would have actually made sense for them to fight to get the title shot.

 

If you remember right, part of the allure of the RR used to be that anyone could get a title shot, but now it doesn't even matter because everyone even slightly qualified has already gotten a shot at the title.

 

I'm not saying that the writers would actually do anything good if the brand extension ended, but there are certainly plenty of possibilities to use the whole roster if the two brands were combined. If somehow I took over the WWE, and it became my full-time job to run/book the company, I'd probably end the brand extension.

[Guest LooneyTune]

Please tell me how WWE can use 70 wrestlers regularly when every show (that matters) will be filled with Hunter, Undertaker, and Angle.

 

WWE has quite obviously gotten away from the 8-9 2:00 matches per show route they were going in 1998-2000.

[reign 0]

A good question is also what to do with Eugene as his character is stale as month old bread...While he is out(isn't it like six months) they should show him rehabbing so he stays fresh in our minds, continuing his "challenged" persona in the hospital and such but slowly start to show little bits of him acting "normal"...like hitting on a sexy nurse as a guy at a bar might do but stopping just as the camera comes in...just tease a little that he's not as challenged as we all thought...while he's out he needs to WORK THE FUCK OUT..I have no idea what he looked like as Nick Dinsmore but now he looks a little chubby but I heard he's a helluva worker so let him get into good shape so that when he does come back as "Eugene" he can turn heel saying that he used everybody and their sympathy to get into the WWE..he can shave his head and become a killer heel...the other option after he has surgery for real have cameras show getting ready for the worked surgery on his knee...after a week or so have the doctors be like "uhhh I'm sorry Mr. Regal we actually perfromed brain surgery instead" and have him come back as a brainiac and still be a killer heel...as far as the titles go I hope that the Chris's get them or have a team come in (like AMW) and state that they want to regenerate the titles and have them just start attacking random top guys, like the Chris's or Flair and Christian so that they will team up to get beaten by this new team therebye proving that they beat anyone...

 

BTW it looks like we can have this same discussion about the SD! titles now that RVD is gonna be out...

[iggymcfly 0]

Please tell me how WWE can use 70 wrestlers regularly when every show (that matters) will be filled with Hunter, Undertaker, and Angle.

 

WWE has quite obviously gotten away from the 8-9 2:00 matches per show route they were going in 1998-2000.

First of all, they don't use 70 wrestlers now. They use about 20 per show, so to keep it at that level, they'd only have to use 40. That wouldn't be difficult at all.

 

Have two heel stables and a face stable, that's 14 guys right there.

 

Then, outside the stables, have 4 real face tag teams and 4 real heel tag teams. That makes 30 guys.

 

Two heel main eventers and two face main eventers besides two of the stable leaders makes 34 guys.

 

Then have another 3 heels who wrestle in the upper midcard, and another 3 faces who wrestler in the upper midcard. That make 40 guys.

 

Finally, besides that you can have 3 faces and heels who are midcard projects, that get time on the big shows two or three times a month. That makes a main roster of 46 men with another 10 or 15 jobbers who wrestle on Heat and Velocity untl one of the midcard projects gets demoted.

 

One thing to remember is that not everyone has to wrestle every show to be "used." Stable members can help with beatdowns or say a couple words during interviews, while a tag team can just have a backstage segment, talking about aiming for the title, even if they can't actually get a shot for a month or two.

 

Also, if someone loses a match on Raw, there's no reason they need to turn around and get another match on Smackdown. A larger roster makes it feel like there's real competition rather than the same "only face team takes on only heel team" matches we see three times a month now.

[SuperJerk 0]

If you're looking at it like that, everyone should get a different job because wrestling, for the most part, is shunned in our society. Why do you think you don't see highlights on Sportscenter?

Because its not an actual competition. Same reason World New Tonight doesn't do stories about what happened earlier today on "General Hospital".

 

I'm sure someone like D-Lo Brown, whom doesn't suck at wrestling, could make a decent living at being an accountant (which his degree is in). That doesn't mean that if he gets fired from wrestling he doesn't still have a family to support.

 

Who are you going to feel worse for?

 

The the guy with two kids who was fired because of reasons that were not even the guy's fault, or the guy with two kids who got fired because he sucked at his job?

[razazteca 0]

Steven Regal & Rey Mysterio for unified tag team champions.......just end the brand split now.

[Guest LooneyTune]

I'll be damned the day I have have to watch HHH and Undertaker posioning both shows every week. I'd rather watch TNA's best of Cheex.

[Black Lushus 0]

but Looney, isn't that what is happening now?

[Guest Rrrsh]

Since the Midcard is so dull right now, I would give it an angle by making the Tag Titles up for grabs in a BattleBowl type format.

 

From now till a major RAW in Febuary (you know, if you dont have a PPV that month you have a massive RAW to combat the PPV by Smackdown), have the Tourney take place with 8 teams.

 

At that RAW, you have the team that survived the BattleBowl tounrey pick their own partners and have a Match to decide the new Tag Champs.

[Guest Hass of Pain]

Raw's tag division is abysmal right now, so why not give the belts to the only established team on Raw. Tag Team wrestling has it's cycles, and this certainly is a down cycle. I'm not a fan of makeshift teams ever, so I say just keep them on La Resistance and build them up while giving Rob Conway as much mic time as he wants.

 

I totally disagree with ending the brand extension. It has worked on so many levels thus far. It gives significant TV time to guys like John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, Batista, Eugene, Christian, Shelton Benjamin, JBL and others who would be so lost in the shuffle by this point if the extension hadn't happened that Taker/HHH would still be headlining every other pay-per-view. The brand extension gives fans an option and gives wrestlers who's careers stagnate a chance to start over fresh on the other brand. Combining the brands again would just result in two HHH promos a week, overexposure of everyone and the company being in even worse shape than it already is.

 

What they need to do is switching the formula up to 8 split brand pay-per-views per year, and two big brand exclusive PPV's per year for both Raw and Smackdown.