What would you do to boost the ratings? [Archive]

Audioslave

04-16-2008, 08:40 PM

Raw:
- I'd keep Cena where he is. He's a good, old school type of champion in that he can pretty much face off against anyone. Faces or heels. I don't know if I'd put the belt on him yet, but I would definitely do it once I have a clear idea of who I want to be his new rival.
- Force Triple H to go into semi-retirement. I think some of the best programming WWE had was when Triple H was away and on the shelf for a while. The Hardy/Orton program was over like gangbusters and there was some other quality programming during that period. Cutting Trips' involvement in the show would open up the door for other fresh faces to be pushed.
- Bring CM Punk over to Raw. Program him with Jericho and Kennedy. Let them all cut loose on the mic. All three guys could be HUGE assets if they were used right. Throw in Cade and Murdoch, who will probably be splitting soon, and you've got yourself a good IC title division. Don't be afraid to let the title change hands.
- Start utilizing the tag team division. You have Cryme Tyme, London/Kendrick, Holly/Rhodes, the Highlanders and I'm sure you could pair Harry Smith up with someone. Tag teams can be a draw or, at the very least, a showcase division.
- Women's division is fine, so keep on doing what they're doing.

Smackdown / ECW:
- Utilize the brand cooperation stuff more.
- Utilize Armando Alejandro Estrada better. That guy could be awesome.
- PUSH ELIJAH BURKE ALREADY. This guy is a total package. He can get it done in the ring, on the mic, he's got character and charisma. God damn. Form a stable with him, Miz & Morrison, and maybe throw in Ken Doane when he gets back. And don't make them look second rate and get squashed by everyone that faces them.
- Put Kofi, Matt Hardy, Shelton Benjamin, Steven Richards and Kane on the opposing good guy side. A good heel stable versus a loose alliance of babyfaces would be awesome.
- Start pushing MVP to the world title. Him ending Taker's streak and winning the belt is the ideal goal.
- Fill out the Smackdown roster more.

WWE, as a whole - Start making your midcard titles mean more.

Derf

04-16-2008, 11:07 PM

It's simple. Put on a better show. Don't have 3-4 pointless promos all involving the same guy/s. Keep it to 2 appearences a night at the most (one in a match, and maybe one to set it up)

Also, don't only push one guy in the main event. Before Angle in TNA, they were ALWAYS puting different people in the ME, and alot of people loved the changing. No one person should ME 6 PPVs in a row, champion or not.

Another thing, and this might not gain new viewers, but it will keep the ones you have. Title belts! Their there for a reason! Use them! have at least one title match every show, or at least some mention of a title excluding the Heavyweight titles.

Finally, get the shows on better hours/channels. Here in Canada, RAW is constantly being postponed due to other sports, and it's also played on a 15 minute delay, and that 15mins is a LONG time to some. Plus, on a non ratings note, it makes the LDs quite hard to follow, expesially as everything is spoiler mere minutes before you see it.

Cage917r

04-16-2008, 11:22 PM

If I had total control and money was not the issue, I would have to unify the brands, that is the quickest fix in my opinion. During WWE's hayday, when they were achieving there highest ratings, they had one solid roster. Instead of having all of this pointless lower card matches on the show, you could have a show full of stars and young up and coming stars.

Unifying the rosters would fix a number of things:

1. The quality of matches up and down each show: Currently on a normal Raw or Smackdown, you usually get at least one pointless match, imagine with one unified show that the worst match on the card would feature guys like Kennedy, MVP, Hardy's, CM Punk, Kane, guys like that. While you would have stars like HHH, HBK, Cena, Taker, Orton, Edge, ect. all participating on the show in one way or another, this would make the shows much more interesting.

2. The Tag Team Division-Many people ask what is wrong with the tag team division, well with the talent split, many good tag teams, or possible good tag teams are split into singles stars because they need enough singles stars for each show. The unification of the shows would open up the tag division to having better stars in it, not too mention put all the good teams on one show.

3. Better ratings-Its pretty simple, pretty much everybodies favorite wrestler would be found on each show. If you are a Taker mark, you would watch Raw, ECW and Smackdown because of the possibility of him being on all three, or if you are a HHH mark, you would watch to see HHH, he would be on every show, so you would watch every show instead of just Raw, or for Taker just Smackdown.

The unification of the brands/shows would create for a much more entertaining product, it would create a much better card and more than likely lead to the most direct increase in ratings, that would be the best fix. Will this ever happen, unlikely because Vince makes more money with the brands seperated, but if I had control that is what I would do.

mcflyboy

04-17-2008, 12:21 PM

I have a few miscellaneous suggestions, in no particular order.

1. More storylines. Nowadays, we have feuds but not really stories to go along with them. Many moons ago, wrestlers from both the top and midcard levels almost always had a story to go along with their feuds. Some were lame, sure. But these days we have feuds that just seem like they were slapped together and there's no real reason to care. Stories make us like the faces more, and hate the heels more. I'm not saying bombard us with storylines for every match, but don't forget that wrestling is at its core, a soap opera that ends in fights.

Having more storylines would also help in getting people more behind midcarders. In general, unless they are extraordinarily talented, is there really any reason to care about the midcard matches?

2. Stop redoing the same matches over and over. This seems to happen a lot. In most recent memory, did we really need to see 5 or so punk vs. morrison matches? Same for punk vs. chavo. It seems like we keep seeing the same matches, both on regular shows and pay per views, with minor twists (e.g., the triple threat raw championship from wrestlemania now is the same but bradshaw is in the mix too).

People get tired of the same matches, they take on this "been there, done that" mentality, especially since they tend to end the same way. so what's the point in watching or caring after already seeing this match before?

3. no more supermen. Nothing is more annoying than someone who just cannot lose. Obviously cena comes to mind there...for the longest time, no matter what type of match was thrown at him and no matter who it was against, the matches went the same. he'd spend the majority of the time getting wailed on, then he'd bust out a few power moves, get wailed on some more, then somehow miraculously win. i got bored of cena matches and didn't care because i knew he'd always win.

cena is not the only example, but probably the most blatant. HHH also falls into that category. in a 1 on 1, straight match, he cannot ever lose. i think it would make matches more interesting in general if there was at least a reasonable chance that someone could always lose in a match.

also somewhat related to this, it is also kind of ridiculous what people can get up from these days. a while back, someone taking a DDT to the floor on the outside of the ring would create a story that would lay someone out for weeks only to come back with a vengeance later. these days, someone can take a ddt through an announce table, play possum for a little while, then somehow miraculously jump up at the right moment to land a finishing move on the opponent and score a win.

i think that making some of these guys "more mortal" would make matches more interesting to watch, and more unpredictable. unpredictability in wrestling is a good thing!

JPK

04-17-2008, 01:32 PM

Firstly , I’d axe Khali and Mark Henry. The don’t make good telly whoever they wrestle.

Next I’d reshuffle the brands. They need to distribute the talent much better. I won’t do a complete list. But here’s are some of the major changes I’d make to for the big guys.

Raw

Undertaker – Like to see him on Raw , I think he’d light that place up.
Batista – Been on Smackdown for too long.
Elijah Burke - Not given the push he’s need on ECW. Raw would suit him better.

Smackdown

Triple H – I know he wouldn’t like it. But the only way to give Smackdown! Some credibility is to put the flagship guy on there.
CM Punk – This guy is on a crest of wave at the moment , push him while the momentum is with him.
Jeff Hardy – I think he’d work better on Smackdown , its more congested on Raw , so have him on Smackdown as one of the big guys.

ECW

Chris Jericho – Have him as your head man on ECW. I wouldn’t keep him there for longer than a year , but it gives him something to go with , and it help push some of the younger guys. Give it some credibility.
Matt Hardy – Seems to be lost in the past couple of years. Needs a move from Smackdown , and I think he could do well on ECW.

Anyway enough of the brand extention.

Other things –

Cut the diva crap – Wasting time that could be filled properly. Particularly on ECW where its featured more.

Cruserweight Title – Defend it on each show. Have 3 and 4 way matches each show. Change the title regularly. Get the high flyers out , and entertain people. Don’t take it too seriously , just get the crowd going. Just like this sort of thing at No Way Out last year. - http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/No%2BWay%2BOut%2B2007/video/x18z1b_nwo-07-cruiserweight-open_sport Or the 2006 one - http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/No%2BWay%2BOut%2B2006%2BCruiserweight/video/x2ia5u_cruiserweight-championship-no-way-o_extreme

Women’s wrestling – Like the Cruiserweight , get it on all 3 shows. Defend it regularly , and mix it up a little. And stop developing the storylines so much. Give things a month or so and change it around. We don’t need these things taken so seriously.

Tag team belt(s) – Get it to one. Defend them on all three shows. They’ve got a few decent tag teams know. Although they’ve manufactured most of them , there still pretty effective. The likes of Cody and Bob Holly , Cantino and Miz and Morrison.

Why can’t they have some matches that aren’t related to any storyline. Rather than trying to develop cruddy feuds , just give the guys airtime to show off their skills. I wanna see Kofi Kingston take on Shelton Benjamin in a 20 minute match. No storyline attached. I reckon done correctly it’d be a match of the year contender.

morrisonc66

04-17-2008, 01:47 PM

For one, I would totally get rid of that broken record style of Mike Adamle. Combine all rosters again and make RAW, Smackdown, and ECW be the top shows. But, the biggest ratings booster could possibly come to pass if they brought back the old style of ECW, instead of the current "watered-down" version currently. They need to bring back the hardcore division and get Tommy Dreamer and Raven to revamp their infamous feud.

That's what I think would boost the ratings. What also could work, would be to stop focusing so much on the world title and focus more on the tag team and women's titles.

mynettv

04-17-2008, 04:16 PM

Wwe Does Not Want To Focus On Hardcore Wrestling Because Too Many Wrestlers Could Get Hurt.

Wwe Has A New Concussion Program In Place So Wwe Does Not Want The Doctors Putting Guys On The Injured/inactive List Due To Injuries From Hardcore Wrestling.

I Still Don't Believe Benoit's Alleged Concussions Caused His Actions, But Wwe Should Not Put Guys In A Position To Purposefully Suffer Concussions Like The Old Ecw Promotion In The 1990's.

AnthonyMango/NoFate007

04-17-2008, 05:13 PM

While I agree with you for the most part, NoFate007, I do not agree with this part of your post.

How are you going to push feuds farther if you can't have promos? Sure, they might not need the DVD, Shirt, or Website plugs, but how else are people going to know they're out there? DVD's they might show a preview of on TV, but not a shirt or website.

Well that's why I said less promos, not "no promos". I wouldn't mind a tiny little graphic on the bottom of the screen for 10 seconds saying "check out the new CM Punk t-shirt on WWE.com" if it goes away in 10 seconds. The feud promos though, have more original things. I don't mind mic segments and backstage interviews and such, but I get so sick of seeing the same recaps. If its a major feud especially, they run it on all 3 programs. When Edge came back and screwed the Undertaker at Survivor Series, we had the same exact recap video on all 3 shows for like 4 weeks. How many times do I have to see the same exact footage, you know? That's what I'm talking about with "less promos". Show me once a week or make the videos really short, like 20 seconds so it isn't that much of a burden.

ABS

04-17-2008, 05:33 PM

Look the brand extension is NOT the problem , and ratings are not a problem. You guys expect like the AE era Rating ? These were Ratings and this was a time were WWE reached so high its so hard to get back to it. 3's and 4's are good but your still looking at the AE era ratings wich were a one time thing.

But Yea I think Rating can go up , first of all push the young lads with TALENT , not just huge bodies. example Mr Kennedy.

Less promos , seriolsy I do enjoy promos so its not a problem for me but its for the most part.

How about WWE starts thinking Out the box these days , name me one fued that is intresting. We got JBL vs Cena vs Orton vs Trips. These ar alwyas feuding inside the ring , either wrestling each other or just talking crap to each other. And for Smackdown lol how about you make your most feud with potential more Intresting ( Edge and Taker ) and not the same shit week in week out, Edge puts taker in a match to egt him hurt then Taker wins. Wow

As someone metnion lets see more title matches , not alot of people notice but more IC , Tag Team , Even womens champion Boosts rating alot. Lets have more title matches and more title changes on a Episode. O and for the Tagteam just unify it and you will have on hell of a Tag divison.

Have a proper GM , like the days of Bishoff on Raw. He was amazing.

Have more Factions.

And people might not like this but More Macmahon , if he uses him self right like he used to he would def boost ratings and add heat towards the show.

O and please Balance out the roster. Trips or Michelas should def go to Smackdown , Jericho to ECW just so that he makes it more intresting , Taker of Raw and let the Feud and Ratings rumble.

And for SD , it should go Live.

mynettv

04-17-2008, 05:52 PM

wwe does not wanted the wasted expense of smackdown going live.

THE ONLY WAY TO RAISE SMACKDOWN RATINGS ARE TO MOVE IT TO THURSDAYS BECAUSE FRIDAY NIGHTS SUCK FOR SHOWS TARGETING 18 TO 49 YR OLDS WHO GO OUT ON FRIDAYS AND SMACKDOWN IS OFTEN PREREMPTED FOR SPORTS IN SOME MARKETS.

AnimeFan#7

04-17-2008, 06:20 PM

I think the best way to get ratings higher up is to simply revamp the product. Wrestling needs to take a big risk. WWE has already proven itself to be the top dog and trend setter in professional wrestling. WWE needs to present wrestling in a new light. They need to reestablish themselves with the wrestling fan base they lost during the end of the attitude era. Most of them, like me, quit watching wrestling because the product had gotten stale. The only reason I started watching wrestling again is because I started getting an itch for it again. WWE needs to clean up (fire) all of their writers (at least the ones producing less results) and start from scratch. Hire new writers, those who have a vast knowledge of wresting, that are willing to tell good stories. Get better bookers who are willing to book individuals who actually have great in-ring talent. Last but not least...fire every last single member in creative because they have been a thorn in the WWE's side for these past few years. Especially HHH. Maybe then will the WWE see some results in ratings? Maybe.

TomSmithUK

04-19-2008, 10:41 AM

Raw
Orton stays as champion, with Jeff taking it off him at some point, Jeff is hugely over, but for the love of god, no ladder match. Jeff wins clean at a big PPV or in North Carolina. I would have a monster finish booked. Ref goes down, Twist of Fate, no ref. Hardy tries to stir ref, takes RKO. 1-2-kick out. Ref still down, Orton goes for the punt, hardy gets up quick and launches Orton who's face bounces off the turnbuckle (not the pads, needs to hit the actual post). Swanton, 1-2-3, huge, high action ending

Triple H turns heel, and has a feud with Cena. They've both been pushed as major players, keep them away from the title picture for a while. But Cena, while nowhere near close to The Rock in terms of mic ability, would work as well with HHH as The Rock did. Triple H gets a dirty win at the PPV, Cena loses by DQ at the next PPV, wins a Street fight at the next one (Rock vs Austin Wrestlemania 17 style).

Jericho and Kennedy feud, both given ring time against quality opposition. Colour commentary by them both in the others matches. Bring back the spotlight promo for Kennedy. Feud ends in two out of three falls match, ideally.

Santino & Carlito win the tag belts, and Kendrick and London feud with them, eventually take the titles off them. K & L take the titles in a four team, tornado rules anything goes match. Push the weaponry and have some high spots for the mid PPV card.

Use the IC title as a mid card title again, Ron Killings in the picture with the likes of Cody Rhodes

ECW

Shelton Benjamin wins the ECW title from Kane, feud with CM Punk (Who else is gonna take it?)

Elijah Burke in a program with Kofi Kingston, a back and forth feud, I think these two will work really well together.

Smackdown
Edge dumps Vickie, quite nastily and publically, gets subjected to some monster stipulations against him, Big Show in particularly be heavy used. Edge dodges all these bullets though. Wins match with Vickie's job on the line, Teddy Long reinstated.

MVP moves up to main event level and takes on Undertaker. Similar push to Kennedy's smackdown push.

Matt Hardy US title, feud with Morrison, who bails on The Miz.

Colt Cabana and two other FCW competitors called up to roster as a three man group, and a combination of two will eventually take the titles. Give them some mic time for some funny promos.

Call up Ted DiBiase Junior

Batista heel turn, into a bully character, taking out faces randomly (Rey Mysterio, and the like).

PPV Card Structure (with some examples from my above ideas to help explain)

WWE Title
World Heavyweight Title
Main Event Feud (HHH/Cena)
ECW Title
Raw Tag Title
Main Event Feud (The Edge/Vickie issue)
US Title/IC Title (A face win to open the show if thats how booking will go)
Smackdown Tag Title
Main Event Feud (Jericho/Kennedy)
US Title/IC Title

Attempt to sign

Motor City Machine Guns - keep very quiet about it, and have them appear have a face-face feud with London and Kendrick. At a PPV, London and Kendrick to face a TBC team, MCMG music hits, tornado rules.

Christian Cade - Good tweener, is not in a good position on TNA at the minute, Edge's status plus Jericho's return give WWE more appeal. Placed on Smackdown.

AJ Styles - Very unlikely, but I would offer big money (WWE has the budget) and get him on Smackdown initially to compete for the title as a tweener.

Other Notes

Match specific promos

Improve Theme tunes for big names, Kenndy's new one is awful, create a sense of grandeur (generally improve product).

Less No contest finishes

Divas that can't wrestle learn, the ones that are in because they are hot should be Valets or backstage interviewers. Any contests like Bikini etc for the live crowd only, not taking my air time.

Goldenstandard67

04-19-2008, 11:22 AM

1.I would get even amount of wrestlers on my shows (yes i would keep all three shows)
2. Go back to the *good* wrestling not this waterd down style of wrestling

3.Tag team division needs to be way better

4.Cruiserweight title brought back to smackdown

5.ECW needs to go EXTREME again (that will never happen)

6.Bring back Joey Styles for ECW Announce Team

7.Have Cena never win the WWE Title again lol

8.Give wrestlers that need a push like Shelton Benjamin, Santino Marella, CArlito, For god sake even Jericho

9.Bring back ROck and Austin lol

kylexxx

04-19-2008, 01:52 PM

There has been a lot of good ideas put forth so I'm not going to rehash them but I'd like to see a return to submission based wrestling and stop the restricted movelists. I understand injuries cost wwe money as the guys still get paid but aren't drawing and that's the reason why movesets are restricted (no pepsi plunge, no 450 splashs etc) and hardcore style matchs are few and far between. Also more gimmick matches off ppv's like they used too

Frankie

04-19-2008, 02:20 PM

ABS

04-19-2008, 02:42 PM

Monday Night RAW
To boost ratings on RAW I would first bring back the Hardcore Championship by giving it to Jeff Hardy then secondly have Maria have a run with the Womens title third give Cryme Tyme a title run and also give John Cena another long title run.
ECW
Have Colin Delaney win the ECW title and give him a run with him and Tommy battle for it also add another championship to ECW

Smackdown
Give Matt Hardy a world title run with Big Show as US champ Jimmy Wang Yang and Shannon Moore tag titles then add a womens title to smackdown with cherry and michelle battle for it.

:blink::blink::blink::headscratch: sorry man but that looks pretty crappy to me. First of all yes I agree with the Hardcore title retruning but to ECW and you want it to give it to Jeff hardy ? The guy before he scrwed up was the hottest wreslter at that time. Thats pretty stupid to me.

Yes Cena added so much credibilty back to WWE champion with his long Reign and yes he made a shit load of money for the WWE at that time , but another long title reign would piss the fans off. Maybe a 2-4 months ok but a whole year NOP.

BigShow competing for the US title and MAtt hardy for the WHC ? Not now maybe in 2009.

And LOL have Colin win the ECW title , they guy who is competing week in week out for a contract and he keeps on losing. Do you want to finish off the ECW title to a worthless crap more than it is now.

Anywyas Imo I know I stated my opinion about this topic many times but do you know what I relized. Combined with my other post , AE was succefull due to there new 2 top stars competing against each other wich were Austin and Rock. In the mid 90's it was HBK and Hart , in the 80's it was Hogan and warrior but today we will never see the top 2 dogs competing agaisnt each other wich are Cena and Batista . I know some people think theyre crap but these will Def do Wonders for todays Rating becuase theyre the 2 new Top Dogs for this Era of Wrestling.

As long as the Brandspplit is happening , one Brand will take the TOP TOP dog and the other wil take the TOP dog.

fox619

04-19-2008, 03:25 PM

Some good points being made, but I would get away from this new idea of aiming the product at kids its just a joke!

The wwe is more interested in selling merch than getting ratings at mo anyway.

I turn cena heal if done right this could be like hogan joining nWo and give him a faction to lead maybe even with Vince, it would show a new side to his character and the shows need a faction a cena heal group taking on Taker would sell!

Dont join the brands too many stars would get lost in the mix and having the likes of Michaels and taker on 3 shows a week would shortern their careers.

More Vince and the Mcmahon clan for me they add cred to storylines and fueds.

spinarooni

04-19-2008, 05:29 PM

WWE is in desperate need of a faction. Take evolution for example Batista and Randy Orton got their big break. Evolution brought spark to the show as oppose to your more traditional good guy, bad guy interference style matches.Theres nothing like the unstoppable bad guys and the saviour good guys. Talent such as Umaga (with a gimmick change),snitsky, cody rhodes, kennedy, carlito, santino, cade and murdoch would really benefit to work with some big names in a faction of some sort. I agree with upping up the tag team divisions.

hunter-ere

04-20-2008, 09:09 AM

have a draft and send a lot of dudes over to smackdown because they need it and ecw can use sd superstars

bring back the cruiserweights championship and sign up some crazy mexicans

get rid of the pathetic squash matches come on who wants to see umaga vs the highlanders

make the rivarlies more personal

use the usa title and the i.c more in have some gimmick matches for them e.g matt hardy vs mvp in a steel cage

sort out the tag team division you have got london and kendrick cryme time and youve got rhodes and bob holly as champs holly is boring

get rid of some of the chat shows and give santino a chat show

like u sed sue vince more come on the dx vince fued was quality

PsxMeUP

04-21-2008, 05:06 PM

I wouldn't unite the brands. If you do, you'll have the same 4-5 guys fighting for the heavyweight championship week in week out, usually in triple threats and fatal-fourways. Here's what I'd do:

1 - Make a clearer distinction that Smackdown is the kid-friendly show and RAW is the mature one.

2 - Having said that, a roster change would be in order. Move the "normal" divas (the wrestlers) to Smackdown and the "models" to RAW. This would mean the women's title would go to Smackdown. Batista would have to go to RAW. He's way over with women (as in, not girls). Cena to Smackdown, among other changes.

3 - Shorten the in-ring skits. They drag on too long. Perfect example of how they should be told just look at anything involving Santino Marella. He goes in, says a few lines, gets booed or beat up, match set up.

4 - Stop always putting the top cards in the main event, usually at the same time. I know it's hard NOT keeping guys like Triple H or Cena in the title run, but find something else for them to fight over while they wait for their title shot. Invent something, like a monthly Jackpot Tournament. 4-5 guy enter this tournament where each win ads money into a collective jackpot. Their matches are normal, just that each time they win, money is deposited into a jackpot, which is then fought over at a PPV.

5 - Have a title change from time to time on Smackdown or RAW. Doesn't have to happen all the time, but every two, three months have a Intercontinental or TagTeam title change.

6 - Have clean wins from time to time. It's gotten so bad even PPV matches don't have clean wins!

7 - Bring back Joe Styles! I like my play-by-play announcers actually calling the moves and knowing their proper name - can't believe Mike Adamley doesn't know what a drop-kick is...

8 - Have a faction on each brand at any given time. I like La Familia.

TheJazzyOne

04-21-2008, 05:11 PM

I was going to mention something similar to what was said a few posts back....

Turn Cena heel, align him with Vince McMahon along with Batista, who will be brought over to Raw. The two of them plow through any faces that McMahon doesn't like. No funny stuff, no trying to act cool... just tough and quiet. They could go after HHH for a while, which could even lead to a couple more DX matches (which are insanely over with the live crowds)... except Cena and Batista are put over. Everyone will be wondering who can stand up to these two. Maybe after a couple months there can be a surpise addition to this duo... Someone that no one would expect (Not HHH, though). Someone along the lines of a Matt Hardy. Maybe after a couple more months, even add a fourth guy. They would seem unbeatable... like the nWo or Evolution... they would be made up of former fan favorites (like Hogan in the original nWo), and they could be used to elevate the status of the 3rd and 4th guys added (like evolution did for Batista and Orton). It would be re-using some ideas from former factions, but it would shake up the product, shake up the top names, and get McMahon involved... and if they pushed it right, Cena would still sell tons of merchandise (who DIDN'T have an nWo shirt in the late 90s?)

Imagine fueds with DX, the Brothers of Destruction, the Hardyz (which would be a perfect time for Matt to turn), etc...

AND... after a year or two, this would be the PERFECT way to elevate the next huge star (remember when Goldberg was going after Hogan and the nWo?)

If played out right, this could be a story line that lasted a couple of years without getting too stale.

In the meantime, bring back cruiserweights and the cruiserweight title.... except make it non brand specific. Let it be known that on every ECW show, two non-champ cruiserweights will have a match. On every Smackdown and every Raw, open the show with a cruiserweight match, and have an additional cruiserweight match (this one for the championship) before the main event. No promos or story-lines needed... the ONLY purpose for cruiserweight matches would be to pump up the crowd. 4 or 5 minutes of extremely high paced action would be plenty for each match. The 3 non-title matches each week could determine who was in line for title shots. Don't even use the cruiserweights on PPVs... make them TV only.

Finally... bring back the heavy use of managers and minor stables. Think back to the 80s and 90s.... Heenan had his "family"... they didn't act like the stables of today, but it was logical if they needed to team up. Fuji had several wrestlers he managed... so did Slick. They could come out and do the talking for people who weren't good on the mic, and they often added a new dimension to mid-card storylines. Some of the biggest heels in the 80s and 90s were people that didn't even have to fight.... Heenan, Fuji, Slick, Jimmy Hart, Paul Bearer.... bring that aspect back!

DoomCrewRatedRKO

04-21-2008, 06:42 PM

Heres a few things I would do, I like Orton as champion but I think the whole unstoppable gimmick is gettin a tad bit old and Triple H or HBK should get it. Im completely biased when I say Defenitely dont give it to Cena but I think that might help for a while but would hurt them in the long run. Defenitely scrap the whole 8-12 demographic plan because I really think wrestling story lines should get increasingly creative and realistic as time goes on. They could really push for a BIG name to return for summerslam and build heat on Raw/Smackdown.

mcflyboy

04-22-2008, 01:01 PM

Not to be nitpicky, but it seems like a lot of posts are just ideas that people have come up with that they would like to see happen, often without any reason or explanation. But that's not really the same thing as the topic of this post...things that would boost ratings. There's some good quality ideas in there, but i'm kind of interested (and I may just be speaking for myself here) in why you think it would boost ratings, instead of just why you'd like to see it happen.

The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh

04-22-2008, 01:09 PM

1. Less talk, more wrestling!
2. Have Smackdown vs Raw more frequently, not to a stupid level like every month but you've got the Rumble, Mania, Survivor Series and KOTR (which shud b a yearly event which actually means something, not every other year where the winner MIGHT get a push)
3. A title match every week, and i don't mean the Women's title every week, chop and change, and more titles, bring back the cruiserweight belt, and the european AND DEFINITELY the hardcore belt. More titles = more divisions = more talent get tv time and a semi push, less titles mean we may see a new contender once a month, or we'll see the same guys scrapping over the same titles like we do now. I can remember loving D'Lo Brown having the European belt and having a few decent rivalries with Jeff Jarrett and Mark Henry (that's right i said Mark Henry), and Crash's 24/7 rule for the HArdcore belt? G-E-N-I-U-S!! And don't be afraid to have a tag team guy with a singles title.

Those are the first ideas that come to me

wwesince2004

04-22-2008, 11:35 PM

First of all, i would put the world title back on edge, get a set of tag belts on edges minions, move chavo down the card, put chavos body guard as edges body guard. After doing that I would put randy orton back as edge (both world champs). Put Morrison/Miz into the stable. Put umaga in it as another body guard. Vickie woulsd still be getting used. Kennedy or MVP would join (1 joins, other rebels), elijah burke, shelton. All have them join (Ill think of a use for them).cm punk with his mitb. Also estrada. (2 gm's running smackdown and ecw bias lol)

Pretty simple. They will try and get all the titles. They already would have both world titles, both tag titles (probaly) maybe ic. and would be gunning for the ecw/us title

So this large group, edge/orton order all of them to take out there opponents such as taker, kane, hhh, hbk, cena, big show etc. Maybe have the faction take down hhh, kane for a while

Then this would turn into a big fued with more title changes (I would like to see the world titles change more then once a year i most say, maybe every 2-3 months).

Have it go for a while. Eventually the mid carders in the edge/orton's minions break out and win the title for themselfs (kennedy takes the mitb from cm punk, becomes #1 enemy and #1 fan favourite against the rated rko faction)

Then lets say kennedy vs edge vs cm punk no dq match (example, cm punk gets in for his contract being taken, kennedy face, punk tweener, edge heel) at survivor series with the mitb contract. Edge has everyone with him (besides orton because he is defending the title later on tonight). During the match everyone jumps in, takes cm punk/kennedy down. Edge has the win but suddenly triple h music plays. He rushes down, takes out 5-6 people on the way down. Gets in the ring, pedigrees edge then pulls kennedy over for the win. 1 2 3 new champ. (doesnt make much sence sicnes its a triple threast but ohh well)

later on in the night. orton vs cena vs hbk vs taker. During the match the minions rush down and start beating down cena/hbk/taker. Then hhh + kane come back and take everyone out. Then during the fuss cena turns heel and pins hbk after a unseen chairshot.

Some shit like that could bring in lots of opportunitys. (I just posted the story line i would start lol)

also besides all that ^^^^

NO MORE SQUASH MATCHS, they are boring.

Theres lots more i can think of doing but i cbf typing anymore then this and my ideas probaly would bore other people.

PsxMeUP

04-23-2008, 07:33 AM

There's some good quality ideas in there, but i'm kind of interested (and I may just be speaking for myself here) in why you think it would boost ratings, instead of just why you'd like to see it happen.

Boosting ratings is complicate business. What kind of ratings are we talking about? From regular wrestling fans or from people surfing the channels? You wanna boost ratings? Fine, have a wrestler dress up as a religious figure with a bomb on his turban. I guarantee you you'll have ratings up the ass within the next show (among other things). But if want steady ratings you can always rely on - ratings you can backup with demographics, statistics and precedent that you can show your TV channel - you better start culturing your fan base.

I know some of you might not like the WWE targeting children, but it's smart business from their part. A lot of wrestling fans who followed the show in the 80's and 90's are now grown up and can't find the time to regularly watch wrestling. We stop and gaze from time to time when things seem interesting but the steady decline isn't related to the product. It's the same thing it's always been. The main thing that has changed is us regular fans. The worst thing the WWE could do is listen to us bored fans all the time. They could permanently ruin their product by turning it into something that would disappear with us jaded fans, or by giving us bigger and wilder stunts until the most decent wrestling match gets "boring" chants (something the WCW/WWE war has taught us). The WWE knows what it's doing. Trust me, it's not just the McMahons running the show there. This is a legit business that follows legit business trends. They'll bounce back.

Italian MVP

04-23-2008, 08:05 AM

Well What i am about to say wouldnt exactly boost ratings, cause i do not think nothing with change the ratings big time at the moment, not with what the WWE is working with. This is unless Stone Cold and The Rock make a come back lol.

What i would do is simply, change the stupid decisions WWE is making to make the product look bad. Just look at the damn KOTR, it was such a disaster, i dont know where to begin.

See To try to boost ratings or at least not make any stupid decisions and make the KOTR WORTHY of tv, i would put all the young talent in, that would help them be better known, guys like Kennedy, who is struggiling to get momentum, MVP who is ever growing, Morrision, man has this guy got some talent, Elijah, Benjamin even Umaga would fit being in their. I would make the KOTR actually mean something, with the winner getting a title shot at The Great American Bash, so the WWE can see what they got.

What im trying to say is, i would establish these young stars more, make the audience take not of them, cause face it, these guys are the future not damn HHH. I wouldnt keep putting HHH, Cena and Batista in the spotlight, they dont need it. HHH should be helping pushing younger stars and Cena and Batista have had their time to shine, let other people have their turn.

Next i would push my Heel Champs, like Edge and Orton, like REAL champions and dont make them look like girls. Im not saying make them look unstopple, im saying make them look credible, yes i would make them cheat to win, but not every single time and i wouldnt make them get DQ every bloody time, so at least they look like champions and they can win.

I would give more time to Wrestling, make Matches longer and more exciting, and get rid of DQ finishes and Squashes, there is a time and place for that, but the WWE over does it for godness sake.

And finally i would try to make the product unpredictable. Face it, WWE is very predictable and no suprises happen anymore, i would make it more like no one noes whats going to happen, and Matches seem like they could go other way.

These are the sought of stuff i would do to try to boost ratings, but more improtantly, Make the WWE an actual wrestling product, better than the crap they try to show every week. If they imporve like this, then there is a good chance the ratings would increase, it wouldnt increase dramaticly or straight away, but with time it will. All i got to say is I wouldnt do any stupid stuff the WWE does, like put midgets and Khali into the KOTR, and make stupid angles, there is no need for it, and no one likes it. These are my thoughts anyway.

Derf

04-23-2008, 09:52 PM

Ok, so I know I'm not a Mod, but thats pretty bad spam in the above two posts... And as I said before, with the current programing on TV, the WWE will NEVER have better ratings again. They could have all the old guys come back, they could have Rock and Austin as weekly regulars, and the ratings will stay at about the same. It's because we have so much more to choose from. Unless all those reality shows/action shows/whatever House is go off the air, RAW will have competition. THATS why ratings have gone/stayed down.

Evan Snow-Wolf

04-23-2008, 11:05 PM

I think they get rid of certain talent too fast.

That, and an utter lack of consistency in their "rules" about how the kayfabe enviorment is supposed to work. When Eric Bischoff's job was at stake the first time, they had all kinds of ideas about who was going to run RAW as the General Manager. It was a big deal. Then what do they do? They fire him some time later and then do not fill in the GM space. You had the Coach for a bit, and then Vince was here and there, but now all the sudden the GM job was pointless and unwanted. Eric Bischoff was the best GM, and I really wished the character hadn't left.

How do you boost ratings? Stop using quick shot returns with no longevity. Stop bringing Hogan back for an outrageous paycheck to do ONE show. Stop having Foley show up just to do one Fatal Four Way and vanish. Create stable concepts and ideas and run with them full bore. Ressurect the tag division. Ressurect the women's division. Ressurect competition for the titles. Use the IC belt more. Fuck man, they've gotten lazy about everything except two things: Cena main eventing and scaring off talent.

Crippler4ever

04-24-2008, 04:51 AM

Well the ratings are pretty good for what Vince shells out. The WWE fan base basically feeds off of anything Vince feeds them. Now if your asking me what i would do to improve the ratings? Ok this is my take hehe. First off i would scrap everything that is going on in the WWE right now. I would push all the wrestlers who actually deserve it. And i would bring in more title belts so that there is more going on and focus on everything equally and not just focus on just the World Title. Put on great matches and the WWE does have the talent to do this it's just they don't push the right people. Put Regal in the World title hunt and make him an awesome monster heel who would hold on to the world title most of the time. Downgrade Cena to what he used to be on smackdown which was a comedy routine. Which i liked him as that cause he was funny and i was fine with him as a mid carder because he can't really wrestle well anyways. Make the IC belt awesome again with really cool ladder matches going on with it and cage matches. Make a cruiserweight type belt known again and bring in good luchadors and X division guys to compete for this. Also scrap a lot of the WWE talent to make room for Samoa Joe, RVD, Ultimo Dragon, Sting, Angle, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Shelly, Sabin, Williams. I would have Daniels wrestling for both Raw as The fallen Angel and Smackdown as curry man! lol.

Also bring Heyman back and let him do what he wants with ECW because it is his!

Hey i can dream right? lol i just miss the old days of wrestling ya know? When they used to wrestle... and you had alternatives like WCW and the original ECW.

the_phenomenal1

04-25-2008, 12:28 PM

1. Balance out the rosters.

2. Less promos. I personally can't stand watching a 2 hour program when half of it is a plug for a dvd, new shirt, the website, rewinds of past weeks, etc.

3. Less DQ endings. Everyone around here agrees that its annoying to see. When you piss off your audience, they tune out.

4. If someone is popular, I'd push them...not necessarily "automatic main event", but I'd give them a nice program. If someone isn't getting a response (ala Snitsky), I wouldn't cram them down the audience's throats. If someone is (ala Jeff), I'd put him in a good feud.

5. No more childish, stupid, slapstick humor. Its insulting to the intelligence of the audience. Yes, there are probably a lot of people watching wrestling that are complete morons, but its a lot easier to entertain an idiot than someone with some wit in their minds. When we saw those Road Runner-esque skits with Hornswoggle a while back, I changed the channel and watched something else.

Thread over, i completely agree. However i don't mind promo's if they are for a reason. For example to build somehting up or to further enhance a feud, but not promo's that are a useless waste of time and the merchandising stuff etc.

Point 5 is a definate for me and is one of the biggest problems IMO. I don't mind humour and i understand it's supposed to be a bit of a get away from realisty but i don't like my intelligence to be insulted.

As an extra point i would just add,

Every so often do something a bit extravagent, regardless of cost etc. Such as I would have loved for Sting to appear at Flair's farewell, they were in Florida and now WWE puts TNA results on WWE.com they must not see them how they used to see WCW as a major threat, so they should have just kept offering more & more money until TNA allowed Sting to appear that night.

incrediblesim

04-27-2008, 12:21 PM

Well I didn't answer the question when I started the thread so I'll do it now.

1. Balance the Rosters- It's been said before but surely you want all your shows to do well and not just make RAW look good. Have as many Main- Event calibre superstars on SmackDown/ECW as you have on RAW. Keep the Talent Exchange going- therefore you can move Main-Event guys around on SD/ECW.

2. More stories- I know everyone harps back to the Attitude Era but at that time no matter how stupid the reasons for starting the feud were- the feud was always good. Instead of just feuds over championships make the feuds more personal. Take Bad Blood 2003 for an example. The first RAW exclusive PPV I think and every match had good build-up. They weren't all over championships. So if John Cena isn't in the Main-Event don't thrust him into the Championship match just because you need him on the card- pepper him into a feud. The kids are going to buy the merch whether or not he's got the belt around him.

3. Freedom on the mic- At the moment when a guy is cutting a promo it all looks too scripted and if the crowd doesn't react the way they should the guy cutting the promo gets more uncomfortable and the promo qulity decreases massively.

4- Less DQ finishes- I think we can all admit we are annoyed by this. Its so annoying when your watching a match and then Randy Orton slaps the ref and gets DQ'ed. Just makes the match seem like a waste.

5. Defend the Championships on the show- The top belt should be defended more on the TV shows. I'm not saying make sure the belt is thrown around like confetti but you watch any of the shows and know nothing major is going to happen. The advantage of Brand-Exclusive PPV's was that the Brand who didn't get a PPV would have to change champs on TV if they wanted a champ change.

These are just a few things they could do.

buddy_z34

05-07-2008, 10:47 PM

as people have mentioned before the unification of all the brands. when the WWE had its time in the sun and all those 5.0 ratings when the Rock and Austin were at full force it was because of the different fueds that were possible. combine RAW, SD and ECW rosters.

with that the tag team divisions would be up and running again. no more split talent and possibly new tag teams could flourish. there would be better fueds going around with different superstars. not repeats of the same fued just lagging on.

and the last thing is the chance to form two new stables. stables as we have seen go hand in hand with wrestling. 4 HM, D-X, NWO, Hart foundation and Evolution. creating two new stables with an on going fued will generate excitement with us fans.

then we could just stick with a few commentators, no Adamle or Coach. just the King, Jim Ross and possibly Tazz.

Bentista

05-08-2008, 02:27 PM

well i think the most important, realistic thing to do is a huge draft roster skake-up involving changes with mid-carders, tag teams, and a few main eventers getting dull on their respective brands. here is what i would do.

From Raw to Smackdown:

Jeff Hardy - Always has been on raw since the first draft like 5 years ago. Going to Smackdown would open up exciting new feuds and give him a bigger push he needs and deserves.

Randy Orton - trade batista for orton since orton no longer holds the title. batista is boring as the top dawg on SD and could make a bigger impact on raw. meanwhile orton is better for storylines which would be great for SD. would like to see undertaker/ orton fued for title again.

Super Crazy- high flyer doing nothing on raw. his talent would be needed and apprciated on SD. i'd like to see him form a tag team with mysterio.

Chris Jericho - Another guy whose only been on raw. one the best wrestlers wwe has and he hasnt been doing shit on raw cuz he's dryed up there.

Shawn Michaels - he's been feuding with every mutha fuck on raw and he needs new fights. bringing him to the SD mix would bring back some of the attitude era to the show.

Hardcore Holly - split on that little loser cody rhodes and go to smackdown to return to hardcore/badass ways. also adding a little more attitude added to smackdown. i see him having sweet hardcore battles with finlay or something?

From Smackdown/ECW to RAW

Batista - traded for orton. boring on smackdown. needs big push. would be better on raw.

CM Punk - works the best on raw since winning MITB.

MVP - ready for a bigger push.

Bobby Lashley - would tough main event competition lost with HBK and Y2J going to SD!

Chuck Palumbo- no point on SD! Form a tag team on Raw

Big Daddy V - Replacing Umaga on Raw

ECW gets...

Mr. Kennedy - needs a little push and would have ECW at his mercy.

Khali - failure on SD! and Raw. Ecw is the only fit cuz the freaks work good over there.

Umaga - Needs to get off raw. big push on ECW for him while helping the young talent develop.

Jamie Noble - Light up cruiserweight division

Shannon Moore - Cruiserweight Division

Funaki - Crusierweight divison

* These are the big name changes i would make. I would also switch up the tag team divisons, move the cruiserweight division to ecw to make it more extreme, and the women's champion should appear on all shows to ignite the diva competion. most importantly, get some of the big names the fuck out of raw so there are new feuds that we havent seen. jeff hardy, hbk, and y2j are like the only superstars to never switch shows!

Here are the ways i would shake up the tag team divison i would move....

To Smackdown:

Cryme Tyme
Shelton Benjamin and Haas (reform tag team)

also i'd....

Reform hardy boyz
Have Super Crazy and Rey Mysterio tag together
Have Chavo and Edge tag
Give Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins a push when the time comes

To ECW:

Brian Kendrick and Paul London
Jesse and Festus
Colin Delhany and Cody Rhodes

To Raw:

Deuce and Domino
John Morrison and Miz
Matt Striker and Mike Knox (give them a better push on raw)

So after my extreme wwe draft shake-up for 2008, here are the new rosters:

Main Raw Superstars Goal to maintain A brand status)

Batista
Big Daddy V
Bobby Lashley
Carlito
Chuck Palumbo
CM Punk
DH Smith
Deuce
Domino
Jim Duggan
JBL
Jerry the King
John Cena
John Morrison
J.R.
Matt Striker
Mike KNox
The Miz
MVP
Paul Burchill
Robby Mcallister
Ron Simmons
Rory mCallister
Santino Marella
Snitsky
Triple H
Val Venis
Vince
WIlliam Regal

Main Smackdown! superstars (goal to achieve attitude era feel again)

Big Show
Charlie Haas
Chavo Guerrero
Chris Jericho
Curt Hawkins
Edge
Finlay
Hardcore Holly
Jeff Hardy
JTG
Mark Henry
Matt Hardy
Mick Foley
Michael Cole
Randy Orton
Rey Mysterio
Shad
Shawn Michaels
Shelton Benjamin
Super Crazy
Theodore Long
Undertaker
Zack Ryder

main ECW superstars (goal to get push and get a little extreme again)

Armando Estrada
Bam Neely
Boogeyman
Brian Kendrik
Chody Rodes
Colin Delhaney
Elijah Burke
Festus
Funaki
Jamie Noble
Jesse
Kane
Khali
Kofi Kingston
Mr. kennedy
Nunzio
Paul London
Shannon Moore
Steven Richards
Taz
Tommy Dreamer
Umaga

that's how i'd fix the ratings

FoleyIsGod

05-08-2008, 02:37 PM

Satrt off by turning Cena heel, with him using newer, more dangerous looking moves. He is bland and his offense is a joke. His excuse would be, well, you booed me so I became a badass, learning moves that will legitimately hurt the wrestlers you like.

Get rid of the diva shit on Raw. I would rather see Cruiserweight matches than crap diva tags.

Push the tag division. Londrick are itching to be champs, Cody Rhodes is a future superstar but please, get rid of Holly. He is way past his cool factor. Have JBL loose some weight(wont help ratings, but im sick of his huge mantits that Pemela Anderson would be jealous of).

Have CM come over full time for sick matches with guys like Hardy, Kennedy and even Shawn Michaels. Or mvoe Shawn Michaels to Smackdown in exchange for Batista. The whole Raw main event is stale, with the addition of Jbl, it hasnt changed since 2005.

king5000

05-08-2008, 04:35 PM

The WWE needs to be more real. Not many people act the same way has most WWE superstars. Move away from promo's and have day in the life of ...
This would make the wrestler seem like a person and not just some actor. Also using things like fake blogs. Edge could write something like 'That damn taker he stole the world title from me, I am going to make his life a living hell'. Also act outside the ring to, on the street you should see Edge and Taker beating the living sh*t out of each other. No camera it could be something just for the fans. It would create a buss about it in local the area.

Limit TV time. RAW should be every two weeks and so should Smackdown. ECW can get away with being on every week. Too much can destroy your fans

wzf2

05-09-2008, 12:50 AM

I would bring back factions. I would get the right to censor in on this and have them come out meaner bader bigger and more cult like than ever before. I would also change there music from an alarm to a siren. But that's just one idea. It isn't to save the show but it would be to help it.

Let the flaming begin.

jjgp1112

05-09-2008, 10:00 PM

1. Kill the brand extension. As people have mentioned, the ratings went down after the extension. I'd also get rid of ECW. Why? Because one of the problems in wrestling today is oversaturated. Wrestling comes on 4 out of the 5 days of the main part of the week, and there's too much wrestling on. Also, all of the big stars will be on both shows. People who like Undertaker will watch Raw as well as those who like HHH or Randy Orton. SmackDown won't have that B-show stigma since all of the stars will be on it

2. Stop marketing towards kids and women. Let's face it, while a few kids will stick with wrestling (me included, as I started watching when I was seven back in 1999), kids are fickle and will stop watching when it's not "cool." It's worse for women, because they usually only watch the show for one guy who they think is hot. When he's gone, they stop watching. They're unreliable. What's worse is that if they market towards kids, they're opening themselves up for scandals and controversy. Wrestling constantly finds itself being the scapegoat for shitty parenting, so if a kid kills their sibling using a wrestling move, people will blame WWE and possibly sue for marketing that type of product towards children. Wrestling is meant for the 14-34 audience, and if you target exclusively to them, they won't feel embarrassed for watching it.

3. Stop Being Formulaic. WWE right now is terribly predictable. They need to return to the shades of grade formula where characters are more realistic. Things were more fun when everybody was feuding with each other regardless of character alignment, such as late 1996-1997, where HBK and Bret Hart were babyfaces who hated each other (late '96), Steve Austin hated Owen Hart and British Bulldog despite them all being heels, Steve Austin beating up Brian Pillman, and Undertaker was constantly trying to screw Bret Hart over. Also, the superhuman-like babyfaces need to end. The ratings and buyrates show that the fans are tired of Cena and HHH being unstoppable because their matches are so predictable. You can clearly see the direction feuds are headed these days - they have a match against each other where the heel wins, they have a rematch that leads to a DQ, and the face wins in a big stipulation match. What happened to plot twists, different PPV endings?

4. Use the damn Mid-Card. You're not gonna build up the future by having long mid-card title reigns for main eventers that rarely defend it and having the actual mid-card talent do nothing.

5. The Current Main Eventers Won't Be Here Forever. This goes with the last two points. The fans aren't interested in seeing Randy Orton vs. HHH part 9000.

jarose24

05-13-2008, 08:20 PM

What I would do to improve ratings is this.

1.) With the plethora of talent the big money match ups dont have to be rushed and can be spread out so they'll be desired more. With more talent guys can have free TV matches with lots of guys and I can also test the crowd reactions for future programs down the line. I would also announce those big matches on TV the week or 2 prior so people will have a reason to tune in.

2.) Balance out rosters and elminate ECW. Lots of roster cuts and demotions to FCW as well as guys being regulars on Heat and Velocity along with being available as extras when needed.

3.) Big roster moves: Only top names mentioned

a.)Triple H to Smackdown: I would make Triple H a heel but make sure he doesnt over shadow Edge as the top heel on the brand. Let Triple H work semi-main event programs with guys upper mid-card guys to give them the final rub they'll need before getting to the main event. He'll also have his presence in the World Title scene but programs with Rey and Taker are in line and eventually Edge when the time is right.

b.) HBK to Smackdown: HBK would serve more on the blue brand putting over young talent being either playing a babyface or a heel depending on who he's up against. HBK is more of a draw now than when he was in his prime and the right build up with any young guy can draw a decent buck as a semi main event and can help buff up under cards on a PPV.

c.) CM Punk to Smackdown: Pretty explanatory, Punk will be the top face on the Smackdown roster and in the World Title scene on a consistent basis. Guys like Taker and Rey Mysterio will do high profile matches with other guys like Triple H, HBK, and Jeff Hardy and be thrown into that scene when it can make sense.

d.) Trade: Hardy for Hardy: Matt is begining to gain a lot of traction as a popular main player in the WWE and a switch over to Raw would be fresh for him as well as Jeff going to Smackdown. Taking Jeff off the flagship show is somewhat of a demotion due to his suspension but there will be a new crop of guys for him on Smackdown that he can go against and if he doesn't fuck up a top babyface spot is in line for him. Matt to Raw is deserved as he's walked the company line and the fans are really behind him and deserving of a top baby face spot on Raw.

e.) Mark Henry to Raw: He's done everything with everyone on Smackdown and after his clash with Michael Hayes this is a much needed tune-up for Henry and could revitalize his career. I'd book him a muscle for hire type guy and get him over eventually as a montster heel who could go against a top babyface.

f.) Batista to Raw: Batista needs fresh challengers and he doesn't have to be the top guy or focal point of the brand on Raw that title goes to Cena who have proven he's up to the challenge. Batista can what they pretty much expected from Bobby Lashley when he was drafted to Raw. He can have big matches with a lot of guys, eventually Cena. But there's Orton, MVP (more on that), Y2J, Mark Henry (with new and different meaning), Kane, Mr. Kennedy, Finlay. A program that I'd have my sites on sometime down the line is Batista working with Mr. McMahon that would certainly elevate The Animal.

g.) MVP to Raw: MVP over to the flagship show is necessary as he is ready to be a prime time player and he would be my number 2 heel. MVP and Cena could draw money. MVP-Matt Hardy on the A brand would be bigger and better if the WWE Championship is at stake.

h.) Big Show to Raw: At this point I would have Show as the number 2 baby face but he would certainly have oppurtunities to make a turn and do things with other guys to make things fresh. Show's presence on Raw would be to get up and coming heels over and as well as having his involvment in the WWE Championship scene. Big Show's credibilitly as dominating force needs to be established as the only way he can lose is being cheated or in multi-man matches where he doesn't get the cover. When the time comes to turn him heel a big money match with Cena will take place as well as Batista. Big Show needs to be a big draw on Raw.

i.) Finlay to Raw: Since a lot of established top guys will be going to Smackdown to work with younger talent, I'll be giving Finlay the job of getting younger talent over on Raw. He's going to have a lot to work with because much of the lower card and some of the mid card have very little exposure to TV. Finlay will also be responsible for getting guys ready to face the top baby faces like Cena and Batista. A lot of his exposure will be with Hornswoggle and there will be some comedic relief along with that on the part of Horny.

j.) Umaga to Smackdown: We all know it's going to happen and we all know why. Umaga is as over as he can be on Raw he needs fresh meat and he can be a major player on the blue brand

Those are the major changes that will be affecting the two brands that are worth mentioning although lots of other guys will be moving around due to the end of ECW.

4.) William Regal relinquishes his GM duties to Teddy Long and Regal becomes a full time competitor: Regal will be one of the top heels along with Orton, MVP, Mark Henry and the tweeners who will make their turns. He will be doing very much the same thing that Finlay is doing. Although Finlay will be putting over mostly the young heels, Regal will be giving the rub to the baby faces so they can get credibility and establish drawing power for when they get shots at Orton and the other top heels.

5.) Smackdown moves to Thursdays: Wrestling on Fridays is a terrible idea as is TV on Fridays. Thursday is a big TV night as it will gain more viewers and very well hurt our competition: TNA.

6.) Huge emphasis on wrestling. In the same way TNA is trying to incorporate the MMA style I want to incorporate that as well. Throw a little bit of the "Stampede style" in there as well.

7.) Womens divison, Unified Tag Titles and the Cruiserweight division on both brands: There's too many women, lets focus on the divas who can actually wrestle. The rest can be valets, hostesses, backstage interviewers, and anything else that fits there strengths. For those you don't fit in any of those roles can go down to FCW or can be kicked to the curb. The tag titles need to be unified and there needs to be an attempt at creating a new era of tag team wrestling and establishing the tag titles as meaningful. The Cruiserweight division and it's title will come back and fill a role very much similar to that of the luchadors in the Nitro days, get the crowd going.

8.) IC and US Titles need to be established and cared about.:I'll have guys who clearly are not ready for the main event and can work fight it out for these belts. If that passion comes across that they'll do anything to win either mid card belt that makes the heavyweight titles that much more important. I will book good "work horse" type of matches and make those two prestigous belts mean something again and have the titles defended frequently enough to give special meaning when they are put on the line.

I wont put a ratings number on what I could do but I can certainly guarantee and improvement to Mr. McMahon with these booking decisions.

kieran_devlin

05-14-2008, 11:22 AM

1.Fix the Tag Team Divisions. Have the World Tag Team belt be the top belt and the WWE the lower card Tag Belt. You could have new teams go for the WWE tag team belt or ones who need experience.

2.Bring back the cruiserweight division.

3.Rosters would be-

Smackdown

Main Event - Big Show, Undertaker, Edge, Shawn Michaels, Umaga, Cena and Rey Mysterio.

Mic Card - Greggory Helms, Matt Hardy, CM Punk, Chavo Guerrero, Koffi Kingston, Chuck Palumbo, DH Smith, Elijah Burke

Low Card - Collin Deleaney, Matt Striker, Snitsky, Funaki, Bam Neeley, Big V with a suit on or a Shirt

Tag Teams - Jesse and Festus, Morrison and Miz, Santino and Carltio, Wang Yang and Moore, Highlanders

RAW

Main Event - Chris Jericho, Batista, HHH, Orton, Kane, Khali, Finlay, Regal, Mark Henry and JBL

Mid Card - Mr Kennedy, Shelton Benjamin, Jeff Hardy, MVP, Kozolof, Noble, Tommy Dreamer, Mike Knox, Stevie Richards

Low Card - Val Venis, Super Crazy, Ron Simmons, Jim Duggan, Dykstra, Nunzio

Tag Teams - Cryme Time, Paul London Brian Kendrick, Cade and Murdoch, Rhodes and Holly, Deuce and Domino, Hawkins and Rider

K Kwik Ron Killings to Smackdown and Chris Harris to RAW.
I never made any new teams or changed gimmicks but id really give the guys a push.

4.Id either get rid of ECW altogether or make it Heat make it mulitbrand. They could tape one half of heat at Raw and the other at Smackdown. This leaves room for all those idiot Low Carders miss out Tag teams and time for other feuds to expand.

5. PUSH THE HELL OUTTA THE MID CARDERS!!!

6.Annual matches would be
Money in the bank 6 man with qualifiers.
Armageddon hell in a cell 6 man world heavyweight title. At Armageddon.
6 man elimination chamber for the WWE title at Summerslam
King of the ring annual at RAW on a 3 hour special
royal rumble with qualifiers
a tag team tournament for the world tag team titles
beat the clock would be a Smackdown specific
bring back the annual smackdown vs raw survivor series match
and wm inter promotional match smackdown vs raw

7.you could have wrestlers feud with one from the other brand but it would be in a limited capacity im looking at travel issues and work load as a reason

EDIT: IM proud of my changes
some of the other peoples changes are what theyd want to see this is what i feel would work its not half bad either
Combining brand wouldnt work because of the size of the company

CENA Heel would work also

bigfan0508

05-20-2008, 03:36 PM

stop making EVERYTHING so predictable. i mean cmon. at every "celebration", somebody interrupts. that gets kind of old.

take away one of the tag team belts. make them defend on all brands.

bring back the cruiserweight belt!!! make it mean something!!!

more stables

RAW-

1. Give Umaga a WWE Title run
2. Throw IC title on Kennedy
3. Less Diva tag matches (i mean cmon, they could have their own title for that with the way they keep having them)
4. Give JBL something to work with

SD!-

1. Put different ppl in the ME (i'm tired of only being UT, Batista, and Edge)
2. Push Hardy more
3. Make use of cruiserweights
4. Hell, make use of the talent

ECW-

1. Make less predictable, more interesting
2. Throw CM Punk on some other brand, also Burke
3. Put more experienced superstars on the brand (Jericho, Cena, something)
4. Bring up a MC title (ECW TV Title?)

SeriphinX

05-20-2008, 07:17 PM

As someone mentioned earlier and I agree with:

1. REVAMP AND PUSH The Tag Team division. Since we only have so few tagteams to go around these days (more on this rant in a sec) I would have just one set of WWE Tag Titles and do the "undisputed" thing with them..allowing the title holders to go back and forth between shows.

<Continued Rant regarding the Tag Teams in general> What in the world has happened to this section of the WWE??? It's practically non existent and no one really cares. I mean, what further proof do you need when they have a DARK MATCH at the JD-PPV for the titles?!?! A DARK MATCH?!?! These shananagins have to go!

What we need for the tag team division is another set of bruisers..Legion of Doom style bruisers that could even give the Brothers a run for their money. Make that 2 sets, a Demolition type for Smackdown! and LoD type for RAW.

2. All the "DIVAS" would be brought to the back except for Victoria and Glamazon, and explain to them that the playboy days are over, if you can wrestle you are on TV if you can not..we'll put you on a DIVA DVD but thats about it. We need another oldschool "Chyna" type character in there..hell go to TNA and get Awesome Kong, that would be cool to see her squash some these puny girls in the ring, Umaga style. I'd have one Diva, someone with a quick finisher get a push, start showing up on all shows and running in and nailing other Diva's with it to set up a for a mini-Royal Rumble for the women. Think of a female Stone Cold, and you have my idea down.

3. Quit letting Triple-H get all the "mic 1-ups". Apparently he used to hate feuding in storylines with Austin for the fact that if he said something smart, Austin usually had something even nastier to say back to him and made him look inferior. Since then, if you have noticed, he almost always makes sure he gets in the last word, whether its his night to job or not.

4. On that note, I'd get away from this formula they use for the wrestlers of "trump me one week, I trump you the next week" back and forth all the way up to the PPV because 9 times out of 10..the person that gets trumped last the week of the PPV....is the one that wins their match on the PPV lol. Too predictable.

DeadmanInc.

05-20-2008, 11:15 PM

Unify the Brands - Once the brands were separated, ratings went downwards. Unifying all brands opens up many new feuds and would make shows like Smackdown/ECW worth watching. Also, they should only have one WWE championship. Having 2 (or 3 if you consider ECW) makes the top belt seem less prestigious. A few years ago, having the WWE Title meant you were the best in the business. Now it means you're tied for the best in the business with the WHC.

Unpredictability - They did a good job earlier this year with the Royal Rumble but the rest of the year has been very bland. We've seen Edge/Taker and Orton/HHH many times, and it's getting a little old especially when the outcome is always predictable.

Credible Tag Team/Mid-Card Titles - The Tag Team division is dead. In the days of Edge/Christian, Dudleyz and Hardyz, the Tag Titles actually meant something. They had epic battles for the belts in TLC matches, Ladder matches and Table matches. Nowadays, the Tag Titles aren't even worthy of being defended on PPV's. The same can be said for the US/Intercontinental titles. Before, these belts were the stepping stones for mid-carders transitioning into main event status, but nowadays I don't even know or care who has the belt.

Push younger talent/Cut the politics, Triple H - The main eventers are really setting up a glass ceiling for the younger talent, much like the WCW days. On Smackdown, if you aren't Edge/Batista/Undertaker, you can pretty much forget about getting a WHC title shot. Raw's title scene is constantly filled with HHH/Cena/Orton. It's really getting stale. Create fresh feuds instead of recycling the same matches over and over.

Make the women's division based on the Women's Championship, not Playboy - Since Trish and Lita left, the women's division has become about nothing more than Playboy. Awesome wrestlers like Beth and Mickie have to take a backseat to Playboy models that can't tell the difference between a Wrist Lock and a Wrist Watch.

matt the squid

05-21-2008, 09:42 AM

If WWE are going to keep it, MAKE ECW MORE EXTREME!
These are all storyline suggestions.

Turn Cena heel:
Return to his pre world heavyweight gimmick,put him in a stable with wrestlers such as mark henry, cryme tyme,chuck palumbo,and ron killings to create a thug/ganster stable. Have Cena take the title from triple h in a heel manner. Ron Killings rivalry with Shawn Michaels, ending with Killings running down HBK. QUE DX RETURN, but with X-PAC and a new face to DGeneration X. Add in a scoop of attitude era attitude, throw in a Shane Mchmahon twist somewhere and you got yourself a half decent rivalry!

Rated RKo vs Undertaker and Kane for WWE tag team championships prompting such meaning needed back to the tag team titles

Umaga vs Undertaker

A possible hardy vs hardy fued would be interesting, a heel matt hardy jealous of jeff always being in the limelight storyline would work. Possible legendary TLC matches could happen

Ken Kennedy vs JBl(both decent brawlers)
Ken Kennedy vs Randy Orton
and eventually Kennedy vs Mchmahon (but don't milk it too soon)

RVD vs Kane fued for ECW title:
Make kane a heel as i feel that without his mask is when he is most entertaining. Rob Van Dam wins prompting kane to move back to smackdown in to a serious World Heavyweight contender situation where he belongs

ECW fueds such as
John morrison vs RVD
Tommy Dreamer vs a drafted Finlay
Big Daddy V vs a returning Sabu
Gangrel vs Kevin Thorn (vampire gimmick),
would all be sweet so long as there are plenty of extreme rules matches thrown in along the way

More rivalry suggestions i know but i think these kind of matches and rivalries would really boast ratings and get true wrestling fans on better terms with the WWE. Impressive for a first post or what? :D

DaLegendary

06-04-2008, 05:49 PM

Less promos: Less Adversting of DVDS And T-Shirts and WWE Shop Zone and flashback of Rewinds of the Last week show and all of that.

Better Storylines: Let it betters storyline I dont think the WWE Fans wanna see the same thing after week after week like for example Randy Orton comes out talking about he needs an shot at the Title in Triple H comes out in they talk crap and blah blah in it be an match at the ppv. I wanna see some betters like the WWF Days Stone Cold got run over who did it? and lots of stuff that entertaing to watch. not to come out talk trash then an shot for the title some fun to watch every week.

Superstars Push: I start to push somes mid-carders and upcomeing new superstars to Main Event or so. some people like Umaga or so lets see Val Venis as an IC Champion or day and also Jericho.

Rosters Cut: I`ll try to fried some superstars that dont need to be needed like Lance Cade and Cody Rhodes and more stuperstars that unless to be needed.

Main Eventers: I`ll keep Cena,Triple H,Randy Orton and the other wrestlers as Main Eventers in try to get more WWE Superstars in turn them to an Main Eventers in help to boost the ratings in more fans audience.

Others: I say Segments because I think it can help the feud out in be more fun to watch. and lit bit more match it be about 5 match in WWE in very segments I think they should got to 7 matches and make more segements and more longer for entertaing to watch and longer lastling.

deadmaninc2007

06-05-2008, 11:50 AM

In my opinion, the Mcmahon's Million Dollar Mania is just a one time thing. Yeah it may attract more viewers to watch the show just for the million dollars, but after the whole promotion is over, Raw will be back to the original state.

Davi323

06-05-2008, 12:11 PM

What would I do to make the ratings improve? This is an easy question to answer. Longer matches, period. Wrestlers getting 20 minute matches regularly on TV will work harder, will try harder, will be able to actually tell a story in the ring, rather than just get from spot to spot. Longer matches draw viewers in. Bring the wrestling back into the wrestling shows.

emp

06-07-2008, 12:21 AM

If I was to do changes conservatively, then this is what I'd do...

-Balance Rosters.

For Raw:
-I'd make Mr Kennedy finally jump to main event (winning the gold) and have him going over Triple H after a series of matches where Triple H emerges victorious over him.
-Turn Cena heel, he has potential not to suck so much now that he's not champion. Hell maybe even turn Cryme Tyme into a SERIOUS guys and have them be the equivalent of the Edgeheads.
-Make the IC Belt meaningful, Have HBK win it and defend it, keep Y2J, Cena, JBL, and top guys in the picture, along with midcards like CM Punk, umaga, and burchill. In short, attempt to make it a near world title-like value, but accessible to midcards.
-Make GOOD use of Ted Dibiase, cody rhodes, and DH Smith.

For Smackdown:
-Same as IC belt for the US belt.
-Push MVP to main event. NEEDED BAD.
-Have Finlay fill in a few main event storylines if needed, not necessarily winning the belt though.
-Bring Chris Harris in and push him hard and fast, but properly. He's needed badly.

And more importantly... I'd stop repeating the same matches on PPV over and over again, if needed be more than one draft lottery per year to spice things up, maybe one every 4-6 months.

If above fails and I have to do aggressive changes to the product, then merge all rosters, have three televised shows a week (keeping the same names if they wish), unify world title belts, midcard belts, and Tagteam belts and we might actually have a quality show for a change!

Mr.Grevas

06-07-2008, 05:26 AM

1] Unify the two tag titles and have the champs go to all 3 brands to defend the gold. Also, have the women's champion travel to all 3 brands to defend the title.

2] Turn ECW into a ROH knockoff. The current ECW roster for the most part can really wrestle and with Matt Sydel looking like he's getting the call up he could be the new centerpiece the brand is looking for. Colt Cabana is another guy just waiting to get the call up who can really wrestle. Make this a serious wrestling show and gain love from indy geeks while stealing steam and fans from Ring of Honor.

3] Give Smackdown an 80's wrestling feel. Let your road agents/producers who were stars in that area help out a lot in laying out angles and matches. Let angles and matches go longer than the modern fan is used to. Most importantly, this would give Smackdown an identity of its own.

4] With Smackdown and ECW taking different approaches, Raw seems that much more unique. Raw will always be host to over the top McMahon wrestling - but it should be contained to Raw. Every member of the Raw roster should be a personality, with the more bland workers on the other two shows. Get all of the divas on Raw. Pair some of them up with wrestlers as valets, use some for trashy Springer angles, have some wrestle. Raw should feature skits out of the arena, highlighting whatever city they're in.

5] Better debuts for new talent are a must. This is something that WWE at times has done well. Video packages should be shown for weeks before a new arrival's debut. Have the announcers hype them way in advance. Make it seem like the brand had to outbid the other two.

6] Creating competition between the brands for talent would be a nice change. Having GM's show up on other shows to court talent or having the talent go to other shows to get a feeler for things would make for good tv.

Alan Quartermaine

06-09-2008, 05:45 PM

Cant really think of much that hasnt been covered, apart from giving the heels more credibility. seriously when Austin/Rock/Angle were top heels they had credibility, you tuned in to see if they could be beat (although cheating occasionally), not if they were gonna cheat/get DQ again. Look at Edge and Orton, fantastic wrestlers, but no one takes them seriously or thinks of them as real world champions because of the wins they dont get.
I would turn Cena heel, he has been made to look dominant, turn him heel and have him lead a faction called Thuganomicz or something = Top Heel with real credibility

extreme22

06-09-2008, 06:35 PM

Raw needs new story lines... stop pushing HHH first off he is old news even though i like him he is old news...
Have a cryme time and DiBiase together with HBK and Chris Jericho running the stable have new with old... then throw in a 7ft over stable.. the show kane Khali and mark henry all working together..
then have like a edge with randy and batista try to end the careers of
HHH shawn and taker but mix it up a bit but have like shawn turn on hhh and hhh turn on taker and vis versa.. just to mess with the views heads..

there is so much u can do but wwe does the same thing over and over again..
look take the undertake as old as he is have him start up the ministery with umaga Carlito Gregory Helms and have Lance Cade throw in MVP as with crime time and Dibiase's just new talent...

vince appoint randy as the rock type try to brink back the rock if u can to fued with randy saying that he is the peoples champ have austin show up more but have new talent do his dirty work.... but make it like austin has nothing to do with it...

maybe i am nuts

Deus1138

06-09-2008, 08:14 PM

Am I the only one who thinks the brand expansion was a bad idea? I watch RAW, but not Smackdown. There is no reason for me to watch Smackdown. All I have to watch to keep up with RAW is RAW! To get me to watch Smackdown, you'd have to make stuff happen on Smackdown relevant to RAW story lines. Of course, the exact opposite could be argued for someone who only watches Smackdown. If WWE wants to boost their ratings of all their shows, they need to give up this stupid brand expansion plan. Everyone wrestling both nights worked in the past. It worked for WWF, it worked for WCW. And get rid of ECW. WWE needs to have everyone wrestling on monday and friday night. Of course, there isn't enough time for everyone, so this is how people will get breaks. Using the whole roster on both shows will allow for better story telling, more stables, etc...

Golden Standard

06-09-2008, 08:24 PM

Have better matches each and every show. Seriously nobody wants to see the same boring old matches all the damn time. I would have better storylines, the ones they have now are stupid, pointless and corny. And i would make the tag team and ic title great again and bring back the cruiserweight championship and make that belt great again aswell.

Y 2 Jake

06-09-2008, 08:42 PM

If I was booking WWE I'd use this idea that I've been brewing for quite some time. It's called the Million Dollar Give Away. It's awesome. What it is besically is somebody on stage, ringing people up(Very slowly, to build tension you see, not because I can't dial), and giving away money. Like live charity. It's really awesome. It's a sure fire ratings winner. Nobody is intrested in that wrestling stuff anymore.

tehblogger

06-10-2008, 06:26 AM

1. Scrap the monsters. Henry, Snitsky, BDV, Khali. Retain Umaga and Big Show.
2. The guys at the top of RAW are dead stale. Cena, HHH, JBL (but not Orton, who's grown on me). Start pushing the midcard to the top who seem to have much more passion and entertainment value at the moment (Hardy, Jericho, Kennedy, maybe even Burchill).
3. Rebuild the tag-team divisions. Work out who's doing jack shit on the rosters and put them into tag-teams.
4. Stop giving people titles in their first week. It completely devalues the belts. Start people off low, probably in a tag-team, and slowly build them up. This works (Edge).
5. Give Smackdown more star power via the draft.
6. Fix the women's division. Either make them all eye candy and have bras and panties matches galore, or start hiring reasonably attractive but above all competent female wrestlers. Stop trying to have it both ways by making out that the eye candy can wrestle when they can't. That's dangerous and makes no one happy.
7. Stop confusing a "push" with squashing jobbers (Burchill, Koslov). If you want to push someone have them beat credible people.
8. No crappy "monay" gimmicks, please. We want to watch wrestling, not mobile phone convos.
9. Either put the "extreme" back into ECW or scrap that show.
10. Stop marketing at kids and women and start aiming for the adolescent market. More big-money stunts, more violence, more sex. It pays.

That will do nicely for starters...

Mr-excitement

06-10-2008, 01:42 PM

The answer is simple go back to four PPVs a year. More than half the PPvs are throwaways and there is NO build up to any of the major events save Wrestlemania. PPVs usually to be special like SNME.

Now, as soon as one PPV is over they have about three weeks to plan for the next and it is usually just a rehash of what fans JUST paid for.

Start thinking, I mean was there a plan for Chris Jericho's return or was the idea just the viral campaign??

Cena is a failed campaign, time to turn him heel or move away from him.

Trust me they are gonna probably start a stable of second generation guys like Deuce, Dibiase Jr., Carlito and Rhodes ... sounds great on paper, but within three weeks Cena or Triple H will squash them all and ruin it.

Vince needs someone else writing this stuff, maybe Heyman, but right now I dont wven watch the entire show anymore.

wrestlingcrazy

06-11-2008, 07:19 PM

i would make ECW like it used to be straight up XTREME every match and ad some belts
to the brand such as Hardcore title and cruiserweight title.Add a little more wrestlers with more talent like Rey Mysterio,The Great Khali,JBL,Hardcore Holly,Bring back some old extreme wrestlers mabey Jerry Lyn,Stone Cold,Sandman,sabu,
You could bring some old wwf wrestlers to like Rikishi,Bull Buchanon,x pac,Albert,essa rios even shane mcmahon

benmaney

06-13-2008, 05:51 PM

Here are some of the things that I think would help:

1. Bring back some of the more popular stars that can actually wrestle- I would do everything that I could to get stars like RVD back. This would help by creating more fued posibilities. This could also help by having some of the younger talent fued with older talent which would help them get to higher status (upper mid-card high-card).

2. Make more enjoyable storylines- I for one am sick of seeing these boring storylines. How many times have we seen Cena use the "I deserve a Title Shot" storyline. I am fine with this being the beggining of the fued, but it just tends to stay like that. The fueds need to be more personal. I loved it when Cena was fueding with Edge for the title and Edge attacked Cena's dad. This made it more than a title fued, but a personal one that people could connect with.

3. Hire new creative writers- I'm not saying fire the current staff, but bring in new writers. This would bring in some fresh ideas, which is just what WWE needs.

4. Switch titles on t.v.- This would give people who can't afford to buy ppvs a chance to see a title change, and it would make tv title matches unpredictable. Now we know who will win these matches.

Please comment on my ideas.

proweeks

06-13-2008, 10:23 PM

Ive been saying this ever since they concieved the draft, they need to get rid of the draft and just have everybody on both Smackdown and Raw, like they did from 1999-2002

some people say story lines would get stale quickly if this were to happen, i disagree, matches that people have been wanting to see would be finally taking place and the possibilities would just be a lot more open

If they combined rosters, then its time to get rid of the World title, the U.S title and the WWE tag team titles, and just have the WWE Championship, Intercontinental Championship and the World Tag Team Championship, in the olden days titles were supposed to mean something, it totally downgrades the titles, and the champions by having 2 sets of every title in the same company

bring back the Hardcore title, lets have some fun

bring McMahon into more storylines, i remember when he 1st brought in the general managers and then proceeded to disappear for a year, its much more fun with the evil owner around, and by around i mean in Austin/McMahon style storylines, not McMahon trying to give his money away, all that does is show his obvious want of bringing in more viewers and the only viewers it even brings in are temporary viewers who arent even wrestling fans

get rid of ECW, its even worse than Sunday Night Heat, the stars on ECW could easily apply there talents mixed in with the Raw and Smackdown bunch

get rid of Cyber Sunday and One Night Stand, have just 12 pay per views a year, its hard for them to come up with great ideas and matches when theres 14 pay per views a year

try and bring some honor to the divas, dont make it look like your bringing them in to satisfy sexual urges, what ever happend to woman WRESTLERS instead of DIVAS, remember the Fabulous Moolah

have some good quality pay per view worthy matches on Raw and Smackdown, its gotten to a point where you know the matches on tv will suck because they feel they need to hold out for pay per view

no more authority figures (other than McMahon) that are involved in storylines and featured more than the wrestlers themselves, letWRESTLERS double cross other WRESTLERS or their evil managers help them win, not the general manager of the company

lot more wrestling, less talking, hey i enjoy kick ass promos. those are fine to keep in, but cut out all the stupid ceremonies and weddings and all that other crap, WRESTLING, PROMOS, and rival histories will do just fine

no more, im a bad guy, im a good guy, im a bad guy, in the good ol days if you chose to be heel or you chose to be a face you were there for life
it becomes unbelievable after a while

go for quality over quantity (Great Khali), and under quantity(Hornswoggle), you look at any pros biography(Ric Flair etc.) and they say companys would shelve out tons of money to a guy just because he was huge or a midget even though they had no talent at all.

if your gonna bring in a new character, bring him in to wrestle or be a manager, dont just bring them in for some stupid pointless storyline. once again ill say hornswoggle is an example of this crap

J.R and the King are excellent, and bringing in Mick Foley was good, but what happened to Michael Cole, he used to be a very good announcer but now it seems like he trys way too hard to get his point across-for example, he calls matches that are probably the most horrible matches ive ever seen, the best and most hard fought matches in the companys history, and hell pull out the ol' "That is the 1st time anyone has ever kicked out of that move," when you clearly saw someone kick out of it 2 weeks earlier

make Wrestlemania into WRESTLEMANIA again, the last couple seemed like regular pay per views, come on this is the World Series of wrestling here

and my last rule dont have the same matches over and over, John Cena, Triple H and Randy Orton have fought each Other so many times now, that you can predict the finish, sure series of matches are awesome under the right circumstances(Austin/Rock, Triple H/Foley, Flair/Steamboat) but lately i wouldnt call what two wrestlers have a series, id call it a cluster fuck of events

i think if these steps were taken, ratings would slowly and shurely improve

:flair:

Hogans Ego

06-14-2008, 12:14 AM

klunderbunker

06-14-2008, 12:29 AM

First thing I would do...

get rid of the fucking squash matches. RAW this week was nothing but squash matches. That is no way to build characters and does little for the guy going over. Quit signing body builders and get some real talent in there that can give you quality matches.

I have to disagree. Back in the 80, all you'd get on tv were squashes and the occasional mid card vs. upper card match. It was the interviews and promos that built up the feuds. When you'd see two guys stay away from each other for weeks and months at a time, and all you'd hear on commentary was that they were having problems, it made you think that a good feud/match could be coming. By seeing these guys beat up on lower talent, it builds them up well. A long streak of wins can build up someone to high levels, much like goldberg. At the same time, you can use it to build a midcard wrestler or two.

As for fixing the ratings, I think the main issue is that there are no actual stories going on. All you have are number one contenders matches, then a match, then a rematch, then a gimmick match. That's not a feud. What makes fans care about a feud is when the characters do something interesting. Take for example the Austin McMahon feud. While the core of the feud was Austin taking on everyone McMahon threw at him, it was the ways this happend that made it interesting. It wasn't just Vince announcing an opponent then Austin would fight them. One of the first feuds Austin had as champion was against Foley. Foley had "quit", then came back as corporate Dude Love to fight Austin for McMahon. The key thing was, it was kept fresh. They feuded for about two months, then moved into a mega feud with Undertaker and Kane, but it was all part of Vince's plan to destroy Austin. It was the same, but at the same time different. Now it's all the same all the time, and it's just dull.

mcflyboy

06-14-2008, 03:32 AM

Just thought I'd remark on some of the most recent comments. This is only meant to express my gut reaction and should not be taken personally.

If they combined rosters, then its time to get rid of the World title, the U.S title and the WWE tag team titles, and just have the WWE Championship, Intercontinental Championship and the World Tag Team Championship, in the olden days titles were supposed to mean something, it totally downgrades the titles, and the champions by having 2 sets of every title in the same company

I can see your point, but I don't see how this would boost ratings. It just seems more like something that you personally would like to see happen.

The answer is simple go back to four PPVs a year. More than half the PPvs are throwaways and there is NO build up to any of the major events save Wrestlemania. PPVs usually to be special like SNME.

A good idea. I would say 8 pay per views, because if you keep it to 4 there is a pretty long spell between them. Have the 4 majors, and 4 minors just to keep our interest going. And even though this is a great idea, I don't see how it would boost ratings for the regular television programs.

1. Bring back some of the more popular stars that can actually wrestle- I would do everything that I could to get stars like RVD back. This would help by creating more fued posibilities. This could also help by having some of the younger talent fued with older talent which would help them get to higher status (upper mid-card high-card).

2. Make more enjoyable storylines- I for one am sick of seeing these boring storylines. How many times have we seen Cena use the "I deserve a Title Shot" storyline. I am fine with this being the beggining of the fued, but it just tends to stay like that. The fueds need to be more personal. I loved it when Cena was fueding with Edge for the title and Edge attacked Cena's dad. This made it more than a title fued, but a personal one that people could connect with.

3. Hire new creative writers- I'm not saying fire the current staff, but bring in new writers. This would bring in some fresh ideas, which is just what WWE needs.

4. Switch titles on t.v.- This would give people who can't afford to buy ppvs a chance to see a title change, and it would make tv title matches unpredictable. Now we know who will win these matches.

I agree 100% with all of these. I believe these would really help pique interest in the actual television programs and improve ratings.

bring McMahon into more storylines, i remember when he 1st brought in the general managers and then proceeded to disappear for a year, its much more fun with the evil owner around, and by around i mean in Austin/McMahon style storylines, not McMahon trying to give his money away, all that does is show his obvious want of bringing in more viewers and the only viewers it even brings in are temporary viewers who arent even wrestling fans

McMahon seems like he's in a ton of storylines, and usually they involve him making life miserable for some face wrestler. I don't think making it even more of a plotline is going to make ratings skyrocket.

get rid of ECW, its even worse than Sunday Night Heat, the stars on ECW could easily apply there talents mixed in with the Raw and Smackdown bunch

I'm not sure I understand. Either you watch ECW or you don't. Getting rid of the show completely is not going to boost its ratings...

have some good quality pay per view worthy matches on Raw and Smackdown, its gotten to a point where you know the matches on tv will suck because they feel they need to hold out for pay per view

Agreed. But you can't go overboard either, or there is nothing special about the PPVs. But definitely it would be nice to see more title matches and title changes on the television programs themselves that aren't prompted by a legitimate injury or failed drug test or some sort of "real world" circumstances that made a quick title change necessary.

no more authority figures (other than McMahon) that are involved in storylines and featured more than the wrestlers themselves, letWRESTLERS double cross other WRESTLERS or their evil managers help them win, not the general manager of the company

This sounds more to me like a complaint about the vickie storyline than a ratings fixer. Before vickie, teddy long was the general manager, his reign lasted for a long time and he didn't screw the wrestlers out of titles.

cut out all the stupid ceremonies and weddings and all that other crap, WRESTLING, PROMOS, and rival histories will do just fine

I couldn't agree more. Weddings, contract signings, arm wrestling contests...they are done waaay too often, and end up slow and predictable. I would really hate to pay good money for a wrestling ticket only to find out that 1/4 of the time it is sitting through a stupid fake wedding.

no more, im a bad guy, im a good guy, im a bad guy, in the good ol days if you chose to be heel or you chose to be a face you were there for life
it becomes unbelievable after a while

I completely disagree. Switching from face to heel and back again keeps wrestling personas fresh, and gives the wrestlers something new to try for a while, and opens up new feuds with the other wrestlers. I'm not quite sure who you're thinking of with the "there for life" comment, just about anyone who has wrestled for any significant length of time has gone back and forth between face to heel multiple times. If wrestlers were stuck in the same role, things would get stale and boring much more quickly, and I would argue that not allowing them to switch would hurt ratings way more than help.

Now your thinking thats a Huge Roster for Two Shows, so why not
have a B-Grade show such as Heat so superstars that miss out get some in ring action and TV time, and lets face it theres always going to be injured superstars. Also have the two major shows but dont constantly show the same guys on both shows that way the matches are fresh and it reduces injury and the workload for superstars.

Isn't this already accomplished by having the brand split?

TomSmithUK

06-14-2008, 06:31 AM

I put a longer response on here a while back, but I noticed something recently that I think has affected the ratings.

The modern Faces are just too lame. Head to youtube or dailymotion, and search the Rock sacrifices Undertaker. The Rock was hugely over yes, but when have you ever seen Cena or Batista work a promo with as much energy as him. Or even curse. The faces never convince me that they are actually fired up. Orton did some truly dastardly acts to Cena in their feud last year. But at no point did I feel any extra need to tune into Raw to see him get his hands on Orton.

Wrestlemania 16, Vince screws the Rock. The Rock's revenge on the Vince, chair shot, on the stage on Smackdown. Standing over his fallen enemy, celebrating, rather than stood on the corner letting him skulk off.

Wrestlemania 15, HHH turns on X-pac, I was 9 at the time, didn't have sky, but I got a friend to tape that Raw to see his response.

We don't need faces that are clean cut, we need faces that are every bit as cocky and arrogant as the Heels. Cena and HHH commentary, "Oh i respect him so much"...Please. The Rock and Mankind, this is your life, the Rock (face) is incredibly disrespectful to all these guests, and is a complete git, but the fans respond to it.

Get the faces back to Attitude era style arrogance, being a Heel hasn't changed, just the faces suck

proweeks

06-14-2008, 09:29 PM

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to mcflyboy, i hope you get on and read this, sometimes in my posts of rants i go off the deep end, especially with my comment about good guy, bad guy, mcflyboy you are correct, it totally refreshes storylines to do this, i was wrong, i just hate how theyve been doing it LATELY with people going from heel to face then from face to heel with only 6 month transitions in there- but I did go a little extreme with that comment

and a quick shout out to tomsmithuk, i hope you read this, i agree and disagree with you at the same time, it really just depends who the characters are, with Austin and Rock i can't even picture them without there badass attitudes, but you also have to go back to the olden day(which is what where trying to do anyway to boost ratings), you had great champs like Hogan and Bob Backlund who where total good guys and not a bit of bad attitude in their persona

i also forgot to add one thing to my original post, they also need to make champions stick for a while, the gold means so much more when climbing to the top to get it is a much more rockier road, you look at the good ol' days when champs held the gold from anywhere from 1-7 years, thats right, SEVEN years(Bruno Sammartino from 1963-1971), now yeas 7 years would get to be too long and stale, but look at guys like Hogan who held the belt for over 3 years, and those times during the 80's where some of the best years in WWE history, so quite simply MAKE THE BELTS MEAN SOMETHING again:flair:

tehblogger

06-15-2008, 07:11 AM

Make ALL the belts mean something again. One crap belt diminishes all the others.

Oh, and one more thing I forgot earlier: get Steph and HHH divorced (somehow or other). The obvious corruption of Triple H's current title reign is, I'm sure, turning a lot of people off. Whatever he's done in the past, at the moment he's an uber-bland face whose matches are boring as fuck and who doesn't draw. The Age of Orton, which was getting really good and had the potential to become something really awesome, was killed off prematurely just to Trips could become champ, for no very good reason.

rawfan93

06-16-2008, 02:20 AM

i would do one thing and that is a six man hell in a cell match for the wwe title so if u like my idea help me make it a reality by emailing wwe telling them that it is a good idea if a lot of people email them with that idea it is more likely to happen another thing i would do is bring trish stratus back part of the hell in the cell match is people should be able to vote online for the contestants in the match

johnpauliii

06-16-2008, 11:07 AM

I would take the opportunity presented by the upcoming draft and really shake up the rosters. My idea would be to get rid of the notion of Raw being the 'A' show and Smackdown being the 'B' show. I would balance out the rosters almost exactly so that each show has the same amount of star power. I mean, why watch Raw but not Smackdown? Sure, make sure that each show has its own identity but keep them on a level so BOTH have their own share of star power, wrestling and fully-developed story lines. To this end, I would also split up the current announcing teams. To me, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler are considered the 'A' announce team, simply because they are on Raw. So how about have Jim Ross and Mick Foley on Raw and The King & Tazz on Smackdown.

Each week, have at least one good 25-30 minute wrestling match on each show. This could be useful for the lower or mid card guys to really show their stuff and entertain the crowd, especially if their isn't room for them on the PPVs each month.

More unpredictable story lines, more attitude-era story lines. Also have background stories and charachter development for as many wrestlers/belts as possible, rather than samey and predictable sagas each week for the main-eventers and nothing for the rest of the roster. Give everybody a reason for being there.

I don't mind racy/comedy/holy shit/near the knuckle story lines and backstage skits provided they don't intefere with, and replace the WRESTLING. Wrestling MATCHES should be the focal point of each broadcast.

proweeks

06-17-2008, 12:47 AM

I saw the new WWE magazine out today with Hornswoggle on the cover and i was reminded of how much I absolutely hate him, i wish so bad they would get rid of his stupid character, hes only there for storylines, not to wrestle, and the storyline is absolutely horrible, is there any sense in having someone in WRESTLING who doesnt even WRESTLE, Vince seems to be stuck in his early to mid nineties rut of pushing for nothing but giants and midgets

(reminder, the time period of early to mid nineties was still way better than the time period of now)

Wrestling_No-logicX

06-17-2008, 03:14 PM

First off i would increase the tagteam divisons i would take burchill and regal and set them as a tag team, second i would make sure titles switched hands and not just on a ppc\v, the womens title is doing quite well, i would push jeff hardy mr kennedy carlito into a ladder match for the ic title with chris jericho, with the wwe title i would take HHH Jeff Hardy John Cena and JBL put them in a fatal four way, I would bring back the crusier weight and get ray jr and chavo cm punk and couple other new guys, with ecw i would create extreme rules and regulations and put awesome matches together, WWE has the talent they just need better writers, better ideas and seriously better promo's advertising sells and makes money.. When i played raw vs smackdown 2006 i was on the top with my gm mode. so i recently sent a resume to wwe asking to be on the creative team..I got called back 1 week ago and was told they will keep me informed..so that is my ideas

Golden Standard

06-18-2008, 07:19 PM

Now here is an thought on how wwe can become big again and get everyone watching all over again. I think wwe should do the samething mma has done. MMA has that hardcore, edgier, attitude that wwe use to have right. But how mma became really hugh in the first place was large in part because of espn. Now i know we all heard of espn before right. They are the biggest sporting news in the world. And alot of people watch espn so when they starting taling mma stuff and advertising it mma became hugh. Alot of people got into it and said oh shit i need to see this. So i think wwe should do the same and have espn advertise their stuff.

It can be done trust me wwe is sport entertainment but it is still a pro sport so espn can advertise it. And you know with also wwe improving, people who watch espn see them advertising wwe they can say oh shit wwe i have not seen them in awhile i should watch.

Also people would consider wwe to be good again since its being talked about on espn and they never done that before. So if wwe can get advertising on espn then they could get viewers and if they imrpove wwe will be hugh again. Not like what they were in the attitude era but you know what i mean. Thoughts and opinions on this.

AnthonyMango/NoFate007

06-19-2008, 02:45 AM

If MMA is really drawing massive bucks, I think its more than worth a shot for the WWE to try to get their product advertised as more of a sport than, as they've referred to it many times, "a sometimes comedic soap opera, featuring wrestling".

Sure, some "humor" and some stupid bullshit like Hornswoggle might draw some kids, but if the big thing right now is SERIOUS competition, why not capitalize? I highly doubt that anybody that really wants to see the best MMA fights are going to see a midget with a squirt gun and go "eh, same thing". Keep a minimal amount for the little kids, but don't try to present your product as "fun for the whole family", as EVERYTHING...and I mean EVERYTHING that is marketed as such ends up being a bore to mostly everyone. If MMA people see what the likes of Benjamin, Morrison, Hardy, etc are able to do, they hear about a "serious WWE 2008 Draft", etc...they might flip the channel on to check it out. And seeing as how ESPN typically acts as a magnet channel for this type of audience, it would make perfect sense to seek their endorsements....as opposed to running ads for Smackdown during "Gossip Girl".

Golden Standard

06-19-2008, 12:55 PM

So u like my idea Nofate007? Yeah thats what i think WWE should do cause everybody watches espn and thats mainly how mma got their thing out to the whole world by espn and thats how they blew up cause people starrting watching them. If wwe does the same and cut out the kiddy kiddy shit like u sai show some of it but also some hardcore shit too not that hardcore but to the standards were it would look tough like mma then they should really do it thats how they will get ratings and viewers better then this million dollar giveaway and the gossip girls shit.

TheGreatSPAMbino

07-07-2008, 11:44 PM

Ok ive said this before but ill say it again becuz its a really good idea. Make a very very cutting edge DX/ NWO style of faction based around the rated r superstar edge. They would be called the Rated R Revolution because they are changing the face of the wrestling world by bringing more attitude into the wwe. The faction would consist of edge, john morrison, the edgeheads, and a heel Shawn Michaels who has returned to his controversial ways. All of these guys would work well together. A wwe diva could be thrown in to add some blatant sex appeal. They could take over the company like the NWO did and they would travel to both shows because they are badass and do what they want whenever they want. The new slogan for the company could be wwe-Its rated R ( similar to wwf attitude).
This faction would control titles on both shows and would become a dominant force as they continue to push the envelope each week.
Also, new stars must be pushed. call up colt cabana, jake hager, tyrone jones and others. Mr. Kennedy should become a main eventer, as should jeff hardy and MVP(with a new finisher).
Make it trash tv once again and do all you can to shock. Going for realistic technical wrestling wont secure the mainstream audience(everyone knows its fake and quite frankly that would be just boring) so you need to make it over the top in terms of storylines.
Batista should turn into a monster heel and John Cena should go back to busting rhymes.

rookie

07-08-2008, 08:30 AM

what i would do is let the main eventers go back for original titles instead of waiting for there time. remembe when hhh and stone cold were the tag champs . or when the rock was interconintal champion . it would be like batista or maybe a cena going for ic titles. or having rey and kane team up as a tag team for the titles. taht would be great.

smackdown27

07-08-2008, 04:08 PM

It's funny how WWE has been going with their traditional Face/Heel characters for a long time which might be a reason for low ratings.

To boost the ratings, I would bring in a couple of crazy characters in, who are neither Face nor Heel but a bit of both like Stone Cold Steve Austin for example.

From the current lot, I would probably pick John Cena and Kane along with a couple of younger guys to play those sort of gimmicks.

Also, I would bring back the Tag Team of The Hardys.

One other thing I would do is to bring back Eric Bischof as in charge of RAW and bring him back with a massive storyline angle. When he was the GM of RAW, the ratings were exactly where WWE wanted.

EdgeHead38

07-08-2008, 05:25 PM

smackdown27

07-08-2008, 05:52 PM

I'd have the Tag Team Titles and Women's Title be defended on Smackdown and Raw, no sense in having two of the EXACT same titles and it would give us a chance to see some intersting matches (Miz/Morrison vs. Ted Jr./CodyRhodes) Move the Cruiserweight title and its wrestlers to ECW instead of using the show and wrestlers as jobbers.

Only use promos that can further a great rivarly; Edge/TripleH, ShawnMichaels/ChrisJericho, Edge&Vickie/Undertaker & The World Heavyweight Contenders. Vickie is generating some of the greatest hate I've ever seen, besides Cena.

Get rid of Adamle completely and bring Joey Styles to either Smackdown with Mick Foley, move JR back to Raw and Michael Cole to ECW with Tazz.

Mix up the rosters a little bit more, the Draft was a great idea but we still are seeing the same people on the Raw.

Create new rivarlies; KofiKingston/CodyRhodes, CMPunk/Batstia, Kane/Cena, Edge/Kennedy, Triple H, or Umaga.

Create heels with the viciousness of Randy Orton, Triple H and Edge. I'd like to see either Batstia or Cena as heels.

Eliminate some of the unneeded PPVs; Cyber Sunday, New Year's Resolution, Judgement Day.

One thing is for sure that if your suggestions are heard and still don't deliver the ratings, you would be back with a whole new and completely different line-up the next day.

While changing everything isn't the answer, changing announcers wasn't the answer either. Michael Cole moving to RAW may not have damaged RAW (as Cole and Lawler make a very good and enthusiastic team anyway), but having Foley and J.R. together may hurt SMACKDOWN (as both are pretty slow and unenthusiastic in their commentary). Moving Tazz to SMACKDOWN with J.R. might be the best thing to do from here on.