What would you do

[Hasbeen1 0]

Not talking about booking an angle or for an individual wrestler, just general ideas you think would help the product, especially for people watching at home: These are in random order:

 

1-Bring back male managers. Divas aren't managers in the old sense, I do like Melina managing Nitro though. I'm talking about the Bobby Heenan types. Give an Albert or a Matt Morgan a mouthpiece like that, and maybe they would have gotten over. Maybe not, but they'd have a lot better chance. You might say there's no Heenan out there, but Heenan, Blassie, more were wrestlers before they managed. Flair, Foley, Funk, guys that can talk, let them be managers.

 

2-Related to the managers, bring back heel stables. They don't even have to have a a manager but ones that do need one, get them one. Find them a reason to be together other than they're just heels. Big thing, leave the roster at 3 or 4, max. After that, too many get lost in the shuffle. Another thing, don't fall into the old NWO thing "Who's going to change sides." That really made me switch the channel sometimes.

 

3-If a wrestler gets no reaction at a taped show, give them canned reactions. I'd rather hear a fake reaction, face or heel heat, than no reaction at all. Where it's already being done, do it better. It's 2006, the technology should be there to make it sound real.

 

4-Merge the Raw and Smackdown titles, let the champ defend on both shows.

 

5-Make the IC title and US title co-number one contenders. Both wrestlers get regular shots at the belt. Maybe once every year to 18 months, have one of those win the belt, make a tournament for the US or IC title that's vacated.

 

6-Give more hype to secondary titles, and bring back the 6-man title to get heat for one of the stables. Bring back a TV title that's defended on both shows, every week.

 

7-As much as possible, don't talk about other matches and angles while a match is going on. I know it's necessary sometimes, but not 10 seconds into a Shelton match.

 

8-Either hire more women wrestlers with ability, wait until the number is built up through training, or end the division. There should be at least 6 who can wrestle, not embarrass themselves, and not risk hurting themself and the opponent.

 

9-Post a weekly top 10 on both shows on TV and the net, and not the stupid one on WWE.com. At times, make matches from the kayfabe list, #5 beats #4, they switch places next week. Add as much realism as possible.

 

10-Keep the announcers from name dropping hip musical acts, movies, etc. Lawler and JR aren't hip, keep that crap out of their headphones.

 

11-Limit heel or face turns to at least 18 months, unless it's for a good reason-unexpected crowd reaction, injuries, etc.

 

12-Limit the legend type segments. The more often they're done, the less effective they are.

 

13-More tag teams, permanent type tag teams, not just to booked for an eventual breakup and feud. No explanations really needed on this one.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Put everyone in creative in a room, throw in a hand grenade and shut the door.

[razazteca 0]

1. Don't bring up people until they have toured the indys, canada, mexico, and japan so that they have an understanding of how to get to a response from the crowd in the ring and on the mic. There is absolutely no reason at all to put green people on WWE tv period.

 

2. Quit shrilling movies on tv.

 

3. Quit trying to crossover to please the mainstream. Its ok to go to certain outlets that are open to pro-wrestling like Conan O'Brien or Regis or Howard Stern or Best Damn but don't do something stupid by going to a talk show that has no idea what WWE is about like the Today Show or Ellen or Martha. Outside of the selected group the WWE is considered a joke and will be seen as nothing but a glorified circus sideshow with bodybuilders who are sexually repressed.....enough of the gay shit already. Bad publicity is and will never be a good thing quit trying to shock the media into talking about the company when it will only be panned. Outside of pro-wrestling the WWE brand means nothing.

 

4. Quit doing the diva search or tough enough. If WWE is supposed to be the big time the major league then why have these "open auditions" on tv where all of the contestents get embarressed everytime they are on tv? Make them "pay their dues" in the developmental feds in the South not on national cable tv.

 

5. Keep Mr. McMahon's sex slaves and wrestlers girlfriends/wifes off tv. Very few of them are able to speak a complete sentense or take a bump so why have them on tv?

 

6. Instead of attempting of making new superstars in OVW do what worked in the past and BUY established names from the indys, mexico, japan and make them look good on tv. If WWF didn't buy the talent from AWA in the 80's the boom would of never happened. If WWF didn't buy the talent from WCW and ECW during the 90's the Attitude Era would of never happened. Right now the company is staginate and boring stuck in nostigia with nowhere to go and unable to kickstart the next boom era.

 

7. Find a replacement for JR and King already. Instead of forcing people to work the WWE style let them do their own thing. Joey Styles used to be entertaining in ECW but now he is just another victim to the earpiece and the people feeding him the lines. Why must every new announcer be a pretty boy?

[Jericho2000Mark 0]

1. What HTQ said, but throw HBK in there too, and if Triple H isn't considered part of creative, then him especially

 

2. Fire 75% of the roster, and hire guys who can work, cut a promo or have charisma. Besides, most of the midcard is totally replaceable anyway.

 

3. Scrap ECW, fire 95% of the roster.

 

4. Replace Micheal Cole with Josh Matthews, replace JR & Lawler with Joey Styles and make Tazz a manager because he's a mediocre commentator, but has a load of charisma

 

5. Fire most of the divas, only keep the ones with heat

 

6. Completely change the entire direction of the show and make it more fake reality TV than the retarded, offensive, 1999 teen comedy mess it is now

 

7. Try to bring back Jericho and push him hard

 

8. Encourage wrestlers to put on good matches and stop being so strict with the WWE style

 

9. Let wrestlers who can talk, talk, and give managers to those who cant

 

10. Throw another grenade in the room just to make sure.

[Just John 0]

1. Get rid of ECW, trim the fat roster wise, merge the good talent to the other brands.

 

2. For SD: More clean heel wins, otherwise don't change a thing.

 

3. For Raw: Follow the formula used for the weeks leading to Unforgiven (i.e. More SD-like)

 

4. Maybe throw in a good old fashioned stable war. No, DX vs. McMahons and friends doesn't count.

[cd213 0]

Well, the obvious change would be, since it is World Wrestling Entertainment..WRESTLE!

[TheInsane 0]

* WRESTLING - Like it or not but the name of the game is WRESTLING! I would focus more on an in-ring product. Sure wrestling is entertainment but for me the entertainment is mostly consisiting of watching a good match. There are hundereds of ways to do storylines based on matches and run-ins, cheating etc. I dont need alot of stupid backstage segments or 20 minute promos all the time.

 

* Differentiate the product(s) - Im all for the brand extension. Can you believe the pain it would be for the big stars to hog the spotlight on both RAW and SD (and maybe even ECW), well that kind of hapens now too. I would create way more distance between the shows. Make them all look unique. They managed with ECW but RAW and SD are just two sides of the same coin really. I do think that 3 brands might be a little bit to much though. I might put and end to ECW.

 

* Titles - I would have a world champ on each show. RAW and SD should have a secondary title as well (IC and US). Im not sure about if they should have one tag title or two though. However with WWE not having a crusierweight title the lightweights could be put in tag teams instead. If I had total control I'd make a lightweight division worth the name though and then RAW could have the tag team titles and SD have the crusierweight title.

 

* Managers - I would bring back real managers. I dont care if they are male or female as long as they actually have a purpose beyond being eye candy. Most Divas would be fired and only those that matter would stay (like Melina).

 

* Listen more to the audience. Like it or not but most of the time its the people who decide whos getting over and who's not. Orton was pushed down out throats and he still isnt as over as Vince wants.

 

* Use more stables. I dont want a stable everywhere on the show but make something. Its a good way to create stars and maintain interest in older stars. Just give it time.

 

* New announcers - Man JR and Lawler are both so boring and Michael Cole is awful as is Tazz. Styles is alright and JBL can be funny but overall the announcing pretty much suck. Why not give Josh a shot at the "big time"?

 

* Dont overdo the stupid and/or over the top charachters. Once in a while a Goldust is ok but not all the time. We dont want no Boogeyman or a japanese guy who acts like a cowboy. Enough with the stupidity.

 

* Hire a better roster of wrestlers. By this I want them to pretty much drop OVW because most guys are pretty darn bland when they get up from there. Why not let guys do the independent, japanese and mexican thing? That serves as more of a developmental than anything WWE could do. Most of them would sign with WWE anyway if they approached them since they offer the best contracts (money wise).

 

* Fire the writers - I would hire people with great knowledge in WRESTLING, not soap operas or reality tv-shows or alike. Why not make Cornette the head of RAW writing and Heyman the head of SD writing. That would go hand in hand with me wanting to differentiate the products. Both these guys are great but vastly different and it would make the shows stand on their own and be somewhat unique. The people to assist Heyman and Cornette would be people who are also deeply involved in the business.

 

* I'd like to see some special attraction matches once in a while. Maybe they could hire a few luchadores from CMLL for a one PPV only thing to show of what they know. They could do the same with some puro guys and then also some joshi stuff (like WCW did on a Clash of the Champions). It would be a nice addition that might not work fulltime in a WWE enviroment but could serve a good purpose every once in a while.

 

* I wouldnt be so paranoid with trademarketing names and then sue wrestlers if they used it outside of my organisation. I fthey do good outside of WWE then the name they have will be strengthened and if they dont perform well it wont effect WWE anyway since they wont resign them (well I wouldnt if I was the head of WWE).

 

* I'd make sure that the entrance themes were more personal. WWE has gotten alot better at this since 2003 or so. The theme should reflect the charachter. Good examples are Daivariand Finlays themes.

 

* Cut the number of PPV's - This might be a bad move since the PPV's bring in the money for WWE but I do belive that they will mean less and less with time because there are so many of them. I'd keep the 4 big ones and then put KOTR on PPV again. Thats five PPV's. Then I'd give each brand 3 PPV's (this is if I let ECW die and go up in SD). That way WWE would still have 11 PPV's but also the time to build them up and make then somewhat special.

[Red Baron 0]

Merge Raw with Smackdown and ECW. Trim the fat.

[BorneAgain 0]

From a purely interest standpoint they need to establish more episodic booking, including something different from the cliche of unlikely tag partners teaming with JR/Cole screaming "how are they going to coexist?!"

 

WWE seems to be relying on the same, "what's this going to mean next week" and/or "what will so-and-so's payback be next week". The same kind of hollow questions that suggest the company for real and kayfabe doesn't know what the hell is going on.

 

As cheesy as it comes across, the cliffhanger model (ie someone in the middle of a move as the show ends, a showdown or discovery at the end) would do a far better job of getting people to want to see the payoff. The announcers or hype people shouldn't be asking the questions, the audience should.

[Si82 0]

1. End the roster split. Merge the three brands into one and trim the fat. In addition to that merge the titles so that they have the WWE, Intercontinental, Tag Team, Cruiserweight and Women's titles.

 

2. Cut PPV's down to one a month. WWE may make it's money from PPV's but the only seem to have halved the number of people who buy the shows when they have two shows on a month.

 

3. Change the focus of the company away from goofy skits and backstage antics and focus on the in ring product itself.

 

4. Overhaul the development system. All the guys who are coming up now, in addition to being far too green, all wrestle the same style and it sucks.

 

5. Cut down the Divas. I'm not saying to get rid of them all as they do appeal to the audience but certainly cut down on the number of them. Give them an actual reason to be on the show, have them be interviewers for example.

 

6. Give the shows new sets. The Raw set has had basically the same design now, which some small changes, since 1997. Give them a fresh and unique look.

 

7. Hire new commentators. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler have been around forever and need to be replace. The same goes for Michael Cole who just plain sucks.

 

8. Put together serious cruiserweight, women's and tag team divisions. Don't make the cruiserweights jokes and gives them more time to put together entertaining matches. Hire more women with actual wrestling ability and as for the tag teams, have proper teams with matching ring gear and double team moves rather then simply two guys put together because creative have nothing for them.

 

9. Less goofy gimmicks.

 

10. Hire a new creative team that isn't made up of bad Hollywood hacks. Give the job to guys who have booked before and people who have actually worked in the business and know it.

 

11. Try to form relationships with other promotions in order to bring in outside talent now and then in order to give fans something different now and then.

 

12. Listen to the fans. If they don't like a guy don't push them down their throats.

 

13. Bring back male managers.

[foleyfanforever88 0]

1. End the roster split. Merge the three brands into one and trim the fat. In addition to that merge the titles so that they have the WWE, Intercontinental, Tag Team, Cruiserweight and Women's titles.

 

 

8. Put together serious cruiserweight, women's and tag team divisions. Don't make the cruiserweights jokes and gives them more time to put together entertaining matches. Hire more women with actual wrestling ability and as for the tag teams, have proper teams with matching ring gear and double team moves rather then simply two guys put together because creative have nothing for them.

 

I really think that ending the roster split is the absolute stupidest thing that could be done. Here, you say they should, and then you say they should also put together serious divisions. How are you supposed to put together serious divisions when you have to cram everyone into one brand?

[Si82 0]

1. End the roster split. Merge the three brands into one and trim the fat. In addition to that merge the titles so that they have the WWE, Intercontinental, Tag Team, Cruiserweight and Women's titles.

 

 

8. Put together serious cruiserweight, women's and tag team divisions. Don't make the cruiserweights jokes and gives them more time to put together entertaining matches. Hire more women with actual wrestling ability and as for the tag teams, have proper teams with matching ring gear and double team moves rather then simply two guys put together because creative have nothing for them.

 

I really think that ending the roster split is the absolute stupidest thing that could be done. Here, you say they should, and then you say they should also put together serious divisions. How are you supposed to put together serious divisions when you have to cram everyone into one brand?

Be cutting a whole heap of dead weight.

[foleyfanforever88 0]

1. End the roster split. Merge the three brands into one and trim the fat. In addition to that merge the titles so that they have the WWE, Intercontinental, Tag Team, Cruiserweight and Women's titles.

 

 

8. Put together serious cruiserweight, women's and tag team divisions. Don't make the cruiserweights jokes and gives them more time to put together entertaining matches. Hire more women with actual wrestling ability and as for the tag teams, have proper teams with matching ring gear and double team moves rather then simply two guys put together because creative have nothing for them.

 

I really think that ending the roster split is the absolute stupidest thing that could be done. Here, you say they should, and then you say they should also put together serious divisions. How are you supposed to put together serious divisions when you have to cram everyone into one brand?

Be cutting a whole heap of dead weight.

 

You know they wouldn't get rid of DX, Cena, Taker, Booker, Batista, Edge, Orton, Umaga, Kennedy, Kane, Benoit, Flair, Carlito, Hardy, or Lashley..where in there do you see a strong tag or cruiserweight division? They'd have to add 4 or 5 tag teams, 4 or 5 women, and 5 or 6 cruiserweights..that's a lot of people to fit into one brand.

[Art Sandusky 0]

You can condense all of the suggestions above into one sentence.

 

"Whether you like it or not you're making wrestling programs, not movies."

[razazteca 0]

Move all the cruiserweights to ECW to form a tag team division.

[BorneAgain 0]

I often wonder if a floating title (ala the Undisputed and Women's Championships back in 2002) could work today with three brands. Not as a major championship mind you, but a mid-card belt, maybe the "World Television Championship" that moves from one brand to another (Raw, SD, and ECW in that order) every thirty days and must be defended at least once on that paticular show.

 

At the very least it could give the mid-carders something to do and provide for some potential build-ups like a heel winning the belt on the last week its on a show, so the babyface they're fueding with has to wait two months before he can get his hands on him.

 

Wouldn't bring in huge ratings or anything, but I can see it helping out the undercard.

[Art Sandusky 0]

They'd just have the guy he's feuding with follow him from show to show.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I'd end the brand split since it's basically "in name only" at this point. I mean, you have each show's champion appearing on the other two shows almost on a weekly basis at this point...Big Show was wrestling RAW and Smackdown guys for like a month straight. Just have Vince McMahon come out and say "we're merging all three rosters, and everyone can wrestle anywhere they want" and be done with it. I'd get rid of the GMs/Executive Assistants, or have a "WWE Championship Commitee" that occasionally makes matches or decides who gets title shots when needed. You could still give each show a unique flavor by doing the following:

 

- All ECW matches would again be under extreme rules. If someone like Misterio wants to wrestle an ECW match against, say, Sabu, he knows he's going to have to deal with tables and chairs, etc.

 

- Smackdown would have very strict "wrestling" rules. DQs are strictly enforced, maybe even make a rule where titles can change hands by countout or DQ. Guys would get DQed for excessive punching or choking, etc. Make the US Title a pseudo "TV Title" and have it defended with a strict TV time limit each and every week.

 

- RAW would kind of be the "in between" brand...loosely enforced rules, but not as extreme as ECW. Build up the IC Title as the belt that's used as a stepping stone to a world title shot.

 

Certain titles would still stay exclusive to each brand (I'd keep all three World belts for the time being). I'd probably merge the tag titles again, but keep the Cruiserweight title Smackdown exclusive. Maybe give RAW the tag division to balance things out. I'd probably mothball the Women's title, since there are few actual female wrestlers in WWE, and just strippers who can't even put on a coherent match for the main part.

 

Each show would also retain specific gimmick matches. Maybe RAW has the elimination chamber and Smackdown gets Hell in the Cell, while maybe ECW could have barbed wire matches. Each show should basically have one ultimate gimmick match for settling big feuds. Also, each show could have a gimmick tournament once a year...maybe RAW has Survivor Series (bring back the final "survivor battle royal" that they used one year, with the winner getting a title shot), Smackdown has KotR, and ECW could have a "Lethal Lottery" type thing. Just different things to keep each show from being completely the same, which is kind of the trap they're falling into right now.

[Betty Houle 0]

fire hhh, hbk, cena, and batista

fire all the writers

keep mcmans off tv

put over benoit every nite

push finlay, paul london, and cmpunk

hire samoa joe and put him over every wwe "wrestler"

[garfieldsnose 0]

Bring back WCW.

[BruiserKC 0]

I'll try not to be repetitive here and come up with a couple of different ideas.

 

1. Do Clash of the Champions-type shows...one every 3 months. This going on the assumption they are cutting back on PPVs...you can have them in a month where a PPV won't be on.

 

2. Longer matches...at first you slowly build them up and gradually the fans will buy into a longer match. Look back to the days of Flair-Steamboat when they could go 45-60 minutes and the fans ate it up. A good number of wrestlers on today's roster I think have the ability to go that long if they wanted to. This way you can make the jobbers look a bit more respectable also and marketable to an extent.

 

3. Occasional title changes on house shows. Remember the days when they used to promote the idea, "Anything can happen?" The house shows don't mean as much anymore...the fans don't get into them as much and attendance is down. Seeing a WWE title change at a house show can ignite that feeling again that anything is possible.

[Guest Overworked]

1) up the number of shows to the number they had in the mid 80's, have Raw and Smackdown be the main shows, but give 2 hour spots to shows that allows the lesser talent to shine giving them jobbers to wrestle, while the higher talent get tv time for interviews and spots.

 

2) Get the tag team title from raw OFF the god damn spirit squad and put them on an actual team, not a gang.

 

3) Put more material on WWE 24/7 give more variety especially on those months where there is an annual PPV like the survivor series, Royal Rumble, etc etc etc, put on those events from various years to choose from.

 

4) If you got the talent out of the farm fed and introduced them on WWE tv, then...Use them. Even if you have them lose, at least use them.

 

5) Less about divas and backstage skits on the main shows.

 

6) More Tag teams...... All the shows need them.

 

7) More cruiserweights, send out feelers to Japan and Mexico.

 

8) if you are going to revive the ECW, then let it be....you know.... E C W! This mutant version of ECW is just something that has been raped and urinated on. Vince might not like hardcore wrestling all the time on his shows, and thinks ECW like it was before was only for the fringe group of fans, well thats fine, but keep in mind Vince would probably get more viewers and more money from these Die hard ECW fans instead of those who just sorta watch now. And since ECW is on the Sci Fi network of all places he wasn't going to get a Maximum amount of people watching anyway, so may as well let it be what it is. Give ECW a two hour show, or even another show, let it be Hardcore to a point, let veteran ECW wrestlers do their thing instead of jobbing them to WWE wrestlers you just send over because you got nothing for them on Raw or Smackdown. Then try to grab other former ECW wrestlers and Indi wrestlers to keep it going. Build the roster and remake the ECW Tag and TV titles. If any of the roster like Francine or Credible does fuck up then remove them like the WWE did thats fine, but let those ECW allums already on the payrole either work the creative, management side or Wrestle and be given the spotlight.

 

9) IF someone is getting booed out of the building for months, maybe turn him heel.

 

10) be both innovative but respectful to tradition.

[The Buzz 0]

I'd bring back the Ultimate Warrior complete in suit, graying short hair, and no face paint. I'd pair him with Orton and Edge, and let him be himself. Feud them with DX and that right there would cause me to watch just to see what kinda shit would happen off the cuff.

 

 

 

to be honest, they are overextended roster wise. They need to take the back to basics approach, knock off all the hatred, soap opera based stuff, and push the competition aspect more. They have all those veterans like Dusty, Flair, Steamboat, Arn, etc. etc. They have Bischoff on the payroll. They have Heyman on the payroll, and you're telling me you need a 20 man creative team who didn't know that wrestling was something other then Hulk Hogan before they walked in for the job interview?

[Vern Gagne 0]

I'd love to see the Ultimate Warrior play his real life self.

[Guest Sho Funaki]

1. Combine the Smackdown and Raw brands. To me it makes no sense to have two seperate brands. What I enjoyed back in the day was the anticipation of seeing my favorite superstars show up and be on TV . Sometimes I'd have to wait a week or two to see who I liked. I think this anticipation needs to be back. Now we see every wrestler every week and they are being over exposed. For example...If your favorite wrestler is Edge and he wasn't on RAw he may be on Smackdown and that would entice someone to tune into the show and increase ratings. Having a tease each week and have wrestlers and angles go from show to show would also increase ratings.

 

2. Have one world champion instead of two. This immediately increases the prestige of being the WWE world champion. Does anyone take Booker T seriously as a world champion? They would if their was just one title.

 

4. Build angles over multiple months and not just month to month. You can still build up towards a PPV every month or every other month but have their be a long term goal for a big angle. It looks like angles are now short term goals and nobody has any clue what matches will headline cards six months from now.

 

5. Find a replacement for JR. His announcing has gone down hill

 

6. Build up ECW to what it was 10 years ago. Make the product look and feel totally different from Raw and Smackdown. Have it be grittier and put it in smaller arenas again. ECW can work but it has to be completely different.

 

7. More managers! I miss the days of Heenan, Hart, Fuji etc...Establish some new managers to create heat and build up characters who may not be as good on the mic.

 

8. Decrease the amount of title changes. The titles are changing hands way way too many times a year. Have someone keep the belt and establish their supperiority over the fed. This increases the status of their reign and make the chase by other wrestlers more interesting.

 

9. I like seeing the old superstars show up on Raw . Have this happen more often. It not only helps angles but it gets newer fans to understand who these people were and what they have meant to the business.

 

10. two words..Missing Link. Whatever happened to this guy? He was the best! haha but seriously. more characters. I don't want it to turn into the early 90's where we have a garbage man, a plummer and a race car driver but make characters that have depth. Sometimes a wrestler can work and get over on their name and skills alone...Benoit, RVD etc...but others need some help and I think establishing characters is what has made wrestling interesting for a long time. I think they have gotten away from this too much.

[razazteca 0]

I'd love to see the Ultimate Warrior play his real life self.

Remember back in the day when WWF brought back Bob Backland and gave him the politician gimmick...well all I have to say is MR. WARRIOR FOR PRESIDENT!

[Vern Gagne 0]

He'd be the Ultimate choice in 2008.

[Chazz 0]

Reassign and/or fire Stephanie McMahon from The Creative Team. Try to keep her and her hubby as far away from the writing on the t.v. shows as possible.

[Masked Man of Mystery 0]

The fact of the matter is Steph and Trips will take over the business when Vince dies, they need to know what they're doing, because I don't think Vince has a Konnan type who knows what he's doing who was that close ala Pena. They need the experience writing shows, even though Steph undeniably sucks at it. I'd wonder what would happen if Trips had the book on a show he and HBK wasn't on though, he may have it in him to run a cool, old school show

[Hasbeen1 0]

How about just less bullshit. You can tell I watched Raw tonight.