How can WWE draw more viewers?

[Tequila Dave]

On these forums, a lot of ideas are thrown around that would 'improve' WWE's current product (the most common ones being spend more time on tag teams or turn someone heel etc.). However, while some of these ideas may spark interest amongst current viewers, they do very little in terms of attracting new people to watch. The idea of this thread is simple: how can WWE attract more viewers?

Try and be specific. If you think WWE should merge more with pop culture, how so? If you believe WWE should work harder to appeal to foreign markets, how so? If you believe WWE should market themselves more, how so? And so on.

NOTE: I am not implying that WWE shouldn't be satisfied with the current numbers they draw, I am simply speculating how could they draw in even more.

 

[SarahGavins]

TV-14. I stopped watching when it went to PG and picked it back up in the last few months hoping it goes back. Also, improve the tag team division, and STOP breaking up tag teams. STOP signing women who are just beautiful and can't do squat in the ring (bellas). Cut the fat from the company (alicia fox, ryder, primo, tyson kidd, just to name a few). Bring back the hardcore and cruiserweight titles.

stop with the anonymous GM crap and name a HUGE name (piper, rock, stephanie, heyman, austin, anybody besides a dumb computer). have an all new draft done sort of the same way it was done in 2002 with the GM's making individual draft picks, assigning as even as you can talent wise for each show. move orton or cena to SD.

Have smackdown go live like Raw and get it out of the death slot that is friday night.

 

[DeathClutch]

Quit the bullshit.

Maybe once every 2 month have a RAW Special like KOTR, Slammy's, COMMERCIAL FREE, DRAFT etc etc aka the 3 hour raw shows.

UNIFY the Belts two world champions defeats the purpose IMO have the wrestlers go between shows.

Bring back a lower card belt like the Hardcore title that can have the lighter guys bid for and the bigger guys along with different styles of wrestlers.

Have LHW belt for the lighter guys as well, WWE should take a leaf out of WCW Nitro's book (1997-1998) where they show catered to everyone, the cruisers for wrestling, Nitro girls (divas) main eventers.


The PPV's have sucked lately these gimmick PPV's as a whole are naff concepts, do we really need Fatal Four Way? or Over The Limit?? how about Hell In A Cell or Elimination Chamber?
The answer is NO WE DON'T.

WWE needs to tap back into the Attitude Era for their PPV name changes month-to-month and tie them in with storylines rather then tie storylines in with gimmick PPV's.

I love some kinds of concept matches but having any more then the same match more then once a PPV just kills the concept. Which in turn brings me to the more viewers, there is only so much you can do in Elimination Chambers or HIAC or even Fatal Four Ways before you've seen them all, which in turn gets WWE LESS viewers.

Maybe next year have the Rumble winner cash in on Undertakers undefeated streak (If he's ready by then) and have the Elimination Chamber matches for the winners to go to Mania27 just to keep things fresh.

REVAMP PPV's and bring back KOTR & Survivor Series CONCEPT matches.
Keep up with building new stars, and KILL MITB PPV have it as a Mania ONLY match and maybe to keep things fresh have the stip that ANYONE who wins CAN'T cash in after a match it's got to be a proper one on one contest.

AND ANNOUNCE WHO THE GM IS, fans are loosing major interest and just booing now because it's been running since June and still no further forward on the storyline.

the current product is lacking and needs change, that change is taking a step back to the era before current with less titles & more choice for the fans. And create a new superstar in the sense of ROCK/Austin maybe it's time for HHH to return, get his revenge on Sheamus then face Miz @ Mania and JOB to Miz to get him over.
Give Morrision a run with the belt at some point maybe have him go to Smackdown and become World HW champion and him and Miz unify the belts, I could easily wait till SummerSlam for a unification match, maybe even Mania.

Main thing is WWE NEEDS to create a belt for the lighter guys.
re-debut the HARDCORE/EXTREME championship (Minus 24/7 rule)
Unify WWE/WORLD & IC/US Title belts.
Get SMACKDOWN on Thursdays and LIVE or at least LIVE on Fridays
Bring back some PPV's
Cut the gimmick PPV's (or use them at the right time, not an annual event.
Bring in some fresh PPV's (Old school PPV ie Old IN YOUR HOUSE)
Freshing up the concepts they have.
WRESTLEMANIA 27 coming up, maybe bring back Rock or/and Austin for a match against Cena/Miz.
Use Nexus as a team on the show rather then singles match, maybe have Rock/Austin return to join the team and have them put someone over in the passing the torch moment.
HHH/Undetaker II @ Mania 27 is the only logical match for Undertaker at the moment if he's ready to go.

I'm sure a lot of these changes would/could bring back old fans, who loved some points of the attitude era that are being re-hashed.

My 2 cents/

 

[Wrestling Free Thinker]

TV-14. I stopped watching when it went to PG and picked it back up in the last few months hoping it goes back. Also, improve the tag team division, and STOP breaking up tag teams. STOP signing women who are just beautiful and can't do squat in the ring (bellas). Cut the fat from the company (alicia fox, ryder, primo, tyson kidd, just to name a few). Bring back the hardcore and cruiserweight titles.

stop with the anonymous GM crap and name a HUGE name (piper, rock, stephanie, heyman, austin, anybody besides a dumb computer). have an all new draft done sort of the same way it was done in 2002 with the GM's making individual draft picks, assigning as even as you can talent wise for each show. move orton or cena to SD.

Have smackdown go live like Raw and get it out of the death slot that is friday night.

You can be TV PG and have a good product. People cursing, blood, and women in thongs doesn't make it good. If that's all you care about wrestling, that is incredibly sad.

The hardcore and cruiserweight titles were a total JOKE. After 03 the Cruiser title didn't do anything, nor did it get any time. Hardcore title was idiotic and served no purpose. They don't care about small wrestlers anyway.

 

[ROCKnSOCK55]

WWE NEEDS:

Someone with "The Big Fight Atmosphere." They could gain a lot more fans, like the ones that watch UFC. Tazz was a main reason that ECW survived. If WWE finds someone like that, that can just demolish people in the ring, WWE's numbers can jump up.

They can draw more viewers from turning Cena heel. I think that a lot of viewers turned away from the WWE because of Cena being a face for so long. John Cena is a great face but he can't stay face forever. No one can. I could see Cena being the leader of a heel group, like the nWo.

 

[Maestro48239]

maybe merging WWE with pop culture like the OP stated. (for an example, have Randy Orton punt justin bieber's melon head)

but definitely clean out the roster of dead weight. and start recruiting some Indy stars. let them use a more diverse move set then what they have now. another example. Daniel Bryan should be allowed to do more then they let him. watch some of his top ten moves on youtube. he doesnt do many of them at all anymore in the kiddie-friendly WWE.

I find watching matches on Raw or smackdown sometimes quite boring, compared to lets say Ring of Honor. I'm not gonna say TNA, because they have a lot of work to do on their product also.

 

[nasteeinc]

monday night raw and nxt=tv-14
smackdown and superstars=tv-pg
rumble, mania, summerslam, and survivor series=tv-14

smackdown doesnt have to go live, even when raw is taped its better than smackdown
the reason smackdown is taped is because there is alot of new superstars who are really green in the ring and on the mic so when they mess up in front of the live audience they can edit, or reshoot any mistakes. its also taped show to give certain superstars a lighter schedule.

the wwe really needs to even out star power on each show, i understand smackdown is used to establish new main eventers but if you dont have any true main eventers to put the new guys over then whats the point? the only person in my eyes to really get the push on smackdown was cm punk with taker.i mighbe over looking a few but u get my idea

also wwe needs to shake up their creative team which im pretty sure they are doing with the firings of a few writers recently.
thats my 2 cents

 

[DeathClutch]

WWE NEEDS:

Someone with "The Big Fight Atmosphere." They could gain a lot more fans, like the ones that watch UFC. Tazz was a main reason that ECW survived. If WWE finds someone like that, that can just demolish people in the ring, WWE's numbers can jump up.

They can draw more viewers from turning Cena heel. I think that a lot of viewers turned away from the WWE because of Cena being a face for so long. John Cena is a great face but he can't stay face forever. No one can. I could see Cena being the leader of a heel group, like the nWo.

Cena should of been turned heel in late 2005 when the fans turned against him when he was feuding with Kurt Angle.
Cena nowadays is just a tweener, kids love him and women adore him and the guys loath him, turning him heel at this point might be redundant, kids and women might still cheer him unless they turned Cena into the biggest heel in wrestling history and I mean bigger then Hogan/NWO heel turn which I don't think WWE could pull off.

Personally I'd turn Undertaker heel & have him return to his lucifer gimmick, might be to much for PG but still that Undertaker IS the best Undertaker gimmick WWE ever ran with, and an Undertaker heel turn could be fun and it would be fresh.

 

[#hamler]

The only thing I suggest would be allowing wrestlers to do whatever the hell they want in the ring. I'm saying, give two guys a match, a time slot, and who will win. That's it. No holding back on the matches. No banned piledrivers, no banned DDTs just let guys like Daniel Bryan, CM Punk or Chris Jericho do whatever the hell they want in the ring. I get the whole argument against this but this is a sure fire way to gain back viewers that they've lost.

My next suggestion is probably a little out there. But what if they were to rename WWE Superstars on WGN, WWE Divas? Give the divas their own show to keep them off of RAW or Smackdown but yet keep them happy. It would probably get low ratings but could it really get lower than WWE Superstars on WGN right now? Probably not.

Other than that, I say the WWE are doing great right now, other than what I suggested, I wouldn't change much to gain viewers.

 

[WWTNA]

They can draw more viewers if they just keep on pushing the young talent they have and try not to go too PG because PeeWee Herman as guest host is as PG as Nick Jr! I'm too old to look at Justin Biber run Raw. Really WWE? (Miz voice)

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

While I can't think up any specific ideas myself, the WWE needs to come up with something that can appeal new fans, while staying true to who they care as a company. And that's being a wrestling company. Bringing in random celebrities who don't know anything about wrestling in order to "appeal new fans" was basically the equivalent of getting cheap pops/heat by either complementing or insulting the city you're in.

Otherwise, up the consistency of the storylines, make them more relatable, and give everyone some professional acting lessons, even if they don't necessarily need it.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

The regular 9-11pm hours for Raw this past Monday drew well over 5 million viewers. That's something that hasn't happened for a while and one reason why is because The Miz is now WWE Champion. The Miz is a completely fresh face in the Raw main event scene and viewers, at least for now, seem to be curious as to what's happening with him. A good number tuned in at the top of the hour for his first promo as champ and more tuned in for the next hour to watch is match with Lawler. Fresh faces elevated to high profile spots could potentially work. Let's be honest, we've seen Randy Orton & John Cena in the main event scene for half a decade now and lots of people are tired of it. They still like seeing them on the program, but they're consistently in the main event and it's just gotten stale.

As far as the suggestion of crossing over with pop culture, the WWE has been doing that with the Guest Host concept for Raw that the IWC's been bitching and bellyaching about for nearly a year and a half. One thing that might potentially work, however, could be to bring in MMA stars to the company. Several pretty well known guys in the MMA world have reportedly expressed a lot of interest in being brought in. There's always the possibility that could draw in MMA fans that also do like wrestling, especially the male 18-49 demographic.

As for the TV-14 suggestions, it ain't gonna do shit and we all know it. Raw has been drawing firmly in the 3s in the ratings since WCW died and looooooong before it went PG. The Attitude Era is gone, it was fun but wasn't nearly as wonderful as some want to remember it being, so it's time to get the fuck over it and accent that it's not coming back.

As far as broadening its appeal to foreign markets, it seems that the WWE has made great strides in that already from what I understand. They have offices in China now and went over there this past summer. They're spreading into South America next year, or at least were the last time I read anything about that, they just closed a which will make them available to view in some 24 million homes in Russia, they're big in Australia and most of Western Europe. I don't know how many viewers Raw & SmackDown! does on a worldwide basis, but the international audience must be enough for Vince to go through the expense of putting on all these overseas tours that they do each year.

There's also the possibility that there's just simply not much of anything they can do to increase viewers to the staggering levels we saw during the Monday Night Wars. They have no true competition from a different company, there's a lot more competition to go up against now for Raw on Mondays than there was 10 years back and some people just don't see wrestling as cool anymore. There'll be another boom period in the future, but probably not anytime soon.

 

[DiscipleofWrestling]

For puppet master WWE to gain a larger audience, I've got three words to start with: Cut the strings.

To draw more viewers, WWE needs to look at what worked in the past. It was a lot more than the lewdness, the crudeness, and the other crap. It was the dynamic character that people actually gave a crap about. My 72 year old step-grandmother who always hated wrestling with a passion called me from a hospital bed to ask me what happened to The Rock at the end of Raw after Judgment Day 2000. This woman who pretty much thumbed her nose up at me every time I had the TV on wrestling actually called me after 11pm to her what happened to Rock that night. People like Austin, Rock, Triple H, Mick Foley, and the McMahons brought the audiences in because people were interested about what they were doing from week to week. The fans bought into the product because the wrestlers were allowed to entertain without a net put over them. Wrestling today feels so robotic: everything feels so choreographed, so scripted, so artificial. And it comes across on the screen. There's no impression that these people in front of our screen are anything but a script and choreography. There's a reason why This is Your Life was the highest segment in Raw's history and why WWE as a whole can't get over 3.3 today.

I'm not saying WWF/E was perfect back in the Attitude Era. There were a lot of hits and a lot of misses. However, you look at the audience reaction Cena gets today and compare that to the heyday of wrestlers like The Rock or Austin. There's a difference. Cena's over with a portion of the crowd, but he doesn't get that insane electrifying ovation guys like The Rock received on a night to night basis. Right now, WWE is trying to hotshot people left and right to the World Championships, like throwing something on a wall trying to see what sticks. But the hard truth is no one is over with a mainstream audience right now except the big name wrestlers who were in the Attitude Era and John Cena (love him or hate him). Cena makes Nexus and Wade Barrett work as an angle. Take him out of the equation, and it's about as dead as a rock. Throw Orton into Cena's spot in the feud. It wouldn't work that well. No one other than those people I mentioned is truly that over. Randy Orton could show up unadvertised on any random talk show, and he would get a dead reaction. That's not his fault. It's the business he finds himself in today.

WWE doesn't have that allotment of major superstars to really sell their product to the masses. You can have all the drafts, all the General Managers, all the random rookie groups put together in the world. It will mean jack until WWE develops big names to showcase on their shows and gives the audience a reason to CARE about the product.

Watching an old episode of Smackdown from 2000, The Rock teamed with the APA to face Triple H, Big Bossman, and Bull Buchanan. A pretty generic six man tag when you come to think about it. Yet, the audience was red hot for this match. They cared about the match because they CARED about The Rock. They wanted The Rock to avenge the beat down he had gotten that week on Raw. They wanted Rock to Lay The Smack Down on the McMahon-Helmsley Faction. It didn't matter that 4/6 of the match were made up of two tag teams embroiled in a lackluster feud. The Rock and Triple H were involved, and those big superstars carried the electricity for that match. That's what WWE's missing to connect with the audience: those solid, developed characters that could gain empathy and emotions in a scripted event.

 

[Mr_billy]

Honestly, I think less pay per views would increase ratings, because that would give more time to build feuds, which in turn would create better stories, which people would care more about it. Also bring in a few managers to ad to the hype of superstars. The reason why people do not watch isn't because of less blood, or less T and A, it's just the WWE doesn't really let most feuds develop. Titles are props, so adding more props would clutter things and cause a distraction instead of fixing problems.

 

[Jackal960]

The highest ratings of wrestling were during the Attitude Era, it was an average of 5 for WWE and 3 for WCW. Add them together and you will find out wrestling was drewing 8 as rating (sometimes WWE was drawing this number by itself). You can't explain it by saying that all those people were 18+ males. So that means: Everyone was watching. For myself, i was just over 18 and most of the guys here might not be even 18. So, turning to TV-14 won't reduce the number of spectators, if not inrease it.

Seeing blood, girls, swearing etc is not the point. But sometimes you will need them as well. Think of the best HIAC matches, how many of them were on PG rating? If there is any, you don't need a cell for that. We are having a PPV named HIAC but there can't be any blood? And there are some cases where SCSA's "sign language" would be the best reaction to whats happening. The highest rating of raw ever is a segment with Foley and Rock and not a single sentence of that segment would pass PG. I'm not saying use these everyday, but just don't limit the wrestlers for the sake of being PG, add more flexibility.

Another thing is to make new storylines, fresh new ones like Nexus vs Cena, the ones that we haven't seen before. Unifying the titles will make innovative storylines easier because by that way you can have any combination of feuds with your current roster. By that way there will be a possibility for Mr Raw Cena and Mr Smackdown Taker to be in a feud, or any other possibilities for that matter. It will make easier to bring new storylines that hasn't been seen.

 

[GangstaPriest15]

4 things IMO

#1: Better creative angles. Obviously most of us have been pretty angry with the current lack of creativity in the WWE with story lines, and a lot of people on here have attributed that to this PG era. I don't think that's the case at all. There are plenty of storylines that could be done to make a viewer want to pay attention weekly to see whats going to happen that fall in the whole PG thing.

#2: The belts need more prestige. Back in the day the belts were the holy grail of wrestling. Everybody was hoping to one day get a shot at it. Build ups to the belt however were believable and title reins were usually a little bit longer. Belts were usually defended more often too it seemed adding to the credibility of the belt. RAW did this last Monday with Miz vs. Lawler. By giving a title shot on TV more people got to see it being fought for, which makes it more interesting. By only having title shots once a month at a pay-per-view, many people don't get to see who won the belt cause they don't have the money and after a while they stop caring.

#3: More stables. By having stables you can have so many different storylines running at once. TNA is trying to do this right now with all of their stables, but they've done it quite poorly IMO. The E needs to have different stables that can help give some of the Mid-carders more tv time and give them a little bit more credibility. Nexus is a perfect example. I hate most of the members of Nexus, but if their in a match I at least know who they are. Guys like Yoshi tatsu, zack ryder, etc could definitely benefit from this. It helps build in so many ways.

#4: Bring back the Cruiserweight: If option number 3 doesn't happen, this is another way to get more mid carders on tv. Personally, I hate watching small guys wrestle the big guys becuz its usually a squash match. By bringing back the Cruiserweight you could have a decent current variety of superstars that could fit the bill and put on some pretty intense matches. Thes ematches would be highflying with a lot of moves i think. For ex: Daniel Bryan, Kaval, Evan Bourne, Yoshi Tatsu, justin gabriel, heath slater, zach ryder, ziggler, rhodes, mysterio, etc

 

[RicSpade]

I'll tell you right now what the main problem is and it was something that could've been capitalized with TNA if they had stayed live and that was hyping your main events. Do you remember during the great Monday Night Wars when they would hype something like Goldberg Vs Hogan a week in advance or for two weeks they would hype Stone Cold vs Mr. Mcmahon or something like that and you had a build before a ppv, it drew in the fan, I mean don't get me wrong I enjoyed getting a random Miz vs Lawler TLC match, but I would've enjoyed a little hype I mean you do it for PPVs so why not drop one and do another hype for a title match in 2 weeks between guy A and B? It just seems to me Wrestling would be less rushed if we just hyped our stuff a little more.

 

[lazeric]

i knw alot of you are going to hate this but its time for an invasion!!! i mean who remembers when sabu jumped off the raw sign or when DX showed up outside a WCW event? we all knw TNA is gnna eventually get sucked into WWE so why not have them either invade Raw or Smackdown or have WWE invade them. TNA has something WWE is missing rite now and thats tag teams MCMG vs a team like Gabriel and Bourne would be amazing plus who wouldnt want to see Angle vs Cena or Orton. as long as WWE dont screw it this could be huge for them

 

[CuddleBuns84]

What can the WWE do to draw more viewers?

Well let's start with changing your Pay-Per-View formats, and some gimmicks... For example Money In the Bank is at the wrong time of the year, and it's gimmick is dead.

1. Changing the Pay-per-view format. The first three of the year, work so sell. It's like a trilogy for movies. The Royal Rumble crowns and new antagonist or protagonist. The Elimination Chamber helps filter out the champ, and feuds prepare for Wrestlemania. The two pay-per-views build up for Wrestlemania. This idea needs to happen all the time. Use two pay-per-views to build up for that last one.
For Example here is my Pay-per-view schedule.
Jan: Royal Rumble
Feb: Elimination Chamber
Apr-Mar: Wrestlemania
May: King of the Ring
Jun: Night of Champions
July: Bragging Rights
Aug: Summerslam
Sep: Money in the Bank
Oct: TLC
Nov: Survivor Series
Dec: New Year's Revoultion (New Year's eve event, for FREE!!)

The first three work with each other perfectly, almost 3-4 months of promoting.

Now, I think the King of the Ring coming back to play is a good thing. Give the stipulation of the winner of the King of the Ring gets a shot at the title at Summerslam. Champion of his choice.

Night of Champions in June. This event should take place in China. Make it a yearly tradition. No gimmicks, just championships across the card.

Braggin Rights. This Pay-Per-view needs to be rebooted badly! First off, Both champions from both brands one-on-one! That's your main event. The 2nd main event, 5 on 5 tag match, no elimination! Just tag match. IC champ vs. US Champ. 3 cross promotional matches. One battle Royal. Need to have a Smackdown vs. Raw atmosphere. Need to have that feel for it.

Summerslam. The King of the Ring winner should of been promoting the hell of his title shot, making this a big deal. Huge event. Start from finish.

Money in the Bank: No more cashing it in, whenever you want. You win it, you get a shot at the title at Survivor series. 4 people from smackdown, 4 people from raw. That's the main event.

TLC: Carnage, tough matches, steel chairs, make sense to be in October around Halloween time. Thought it made a lot of sense.

Survivor Series: Need to stick with 2 traditional 4 on 4 matches. One from the Raw Brand, one from Smackdown. Smackdown Main event should be a fatal four way. Raw Main Event should be Hell in a Cell. You can lay of the blood in a hell in a cell, but people need to fall into tables, and go through the cage. The people need it.

New Year's Bash: Free on TV, on New Years' Eve. Good way to reach the fans. Good way to reach out to families.

2. We need to push the divisons. Tag Team division on SmackDown, gives SmackDown an extra niche. Divas division on Raw. Gives raw an extra niche. Cruiser Weight on Smackdown.

3. Put FCW on WWE.com, no more NXT. NXT is a boring way to get new talent going. FCW is a good developmental promotion. Might as well use it. Good way to promote "Free Agents."

That's my ideas, I hope someone enjoys them

 

[SuperstaRKO]

i'd say go back to the tv14 era.. PG is just Predictable Garbage..
maybe give the youth a bit more time to just cement their places..
stop the useless guest host thing cause now they cant even make decisions on the matches..
remove all the jobbers there are(primo,yoshi,chavo,etc.) and make room for more..

and most of all- TRY TO GET AJ STYLES!!!!!

 

[Why Always Me]

Ooooooh, for some sad reason I love threads like these.........anyway, here goes

1) Stretch the boundaries of PG

Back at the start of the Attitude Era, Raw was PG. I believe Smackdown was PG for the entire Attitude Era (not 100%). Even with a PG rating, we had blood, half naked chicks, bad language and violence (by violence I mean chair shots to the head, hardcore matches etc). I think the weekly shows of Raw, Smackdown etc should be kept at PG, but allow the odd curse word, occasional bit of excessive violence and blood in moderation. However.......

2) PPV's should be TV14

We pay for PPV's, therefore we expect more. PPV's should be where the shackles are off. Blood, chair shots, bad language and the occasional half naked chick should happen here (but once again in moderation). PPV's lead me onto point 3.........

3) PPV schedule

One PPV a month, simple. TLC, Elimination Chamber, Hell In A Cell & Bragging Rights are stupid and cheapen the match types. IMO, every PPV should be Night Of Champions in the sense that every belt should be defended (if possible). I would change the schedule to be as follows:

Jan - Royal Rumble
Feb - No Way Out
Mar - WrestleMania
Apr - Backlash
May - Judgement Day
June - King Of The Ring
July - Great American Bash
August - SummerSlam
Sept - Unforgiven
Oct - Halloween Havoc
Nov - Survivor Series (with traditional matches)
Dec - Armageddon

4) End roster split and unify titles

The roster split was served its purpose. Without it we would not of seen the rise of John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Batista or Randy Orton. Guys like Edge, CM Punk, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Jeff Hardy and JBL would never of been WWE/World Champion. But know the WWE is lacking major star power. Unify the rosters and the stars of now and the future (The Miz, Morrison, Sheamus, DiBiasie, Rhodes, Del Rio ets) get more exposure. Quite a lot of people only watch Raw OR Smackdown (me included). Unify the rosters, these fans will probably tune into both show. As for the titles, they should be as follows:

WWE Championship
Intercontinental Championship
Tag Team Championships
Television Championship (time limits on regular tv matches, at PPV's no time limit)
Crusierweight Championship (for guys 225 and under)
Womens Championship

5) Other little things

Smackdown needs to go live and go back to Thursday.

Superstars should be taped before Raw and then have Velocity (or a new name) taped before Smackdown. 4 matches for each and have them as their own show (like Sunday Night Heat used to be) with little to no recap of Raw and Smackdown and have up and comers, Cruiserweights, Tag Matches, IC/TV title matches and maybe even the odd big star (I remember once Triple H wrestled Perry Saturn on Heat, gives a big reason to tune in).

Sunday Night Heat should be used before each PPV as a built up.

With the split ending, have Raw and Smackdown as 2 and a half hours.

Reveal who the Raw GM is and have him as the WWE GM as a whole.

Bring JR back for PPV commentary only (along with the voice of the WWE Michael Cole and The King).

 

[eezy1]

Invent a time machine. Nah just kidding The current roster cant carry a wrestling company to the heights they wanna reach. Simple as that. WWE left it way to late and has dished out a pretty poor product for a longtime now, resulting in people losing interest. Most of the audience these days are pre-pubescent kids who id consider the hardcore fan and the casuals which will be their parents. How could the E get my attention to tune into RAW again....hmm i dunno if they could right now. Put it like this, I dont have a clue what they have to do to improve the product and attract the fans back. Its their fucking job to work it out and do something about it, not ours. So ill leave it up to the E to either suck me back in or continue to turn me away.

 

[AndyUK]

Well, they get around 5 million viewers in the US alone and millions more worldwide. Don't think they're doing too shabbily in that department. I couldn't care less about the PG rating changing and honestly, I really doubt that would help wrestling at all considering the amount of viewers hasn't changed from 2006 and 2007, although I agree that stretching the boundaries on PPV might be a good idea.

 

[TheMainMan32]

A few things could be done:

TV14- whoever says that TVPG doesn't hurt the product should be kicked in the nutsack. Wrestling is primarily a violent sport. The PG rating severely restricts what the wrestlers can do and say in the ring. Women in thongs don't make a good product? Are you gay? What man with a penis would say that besides someone that likes men?

Unify all the titles. There is no reason for there to be a United States Champion, or A World Heavyweight Champion. Those two titles are meaningless. Bring back the Light Heavyweight Title and restrict wrestlers under a certain weight to that title.

The Brand Extension needs to end. It served its purpose when there were a lot of great talent on the overall roster. Now, there are far too many garbage wrestlers on the
roster. Why? Because there are too many spots available. The guys that are having a
hard time getting over can go to Superstars.

Give every active member of the roster a storyline.

Stop announcing certain wrestlers before the WWE champion. I don't care if it is John Cena. It disrespects the championship. No matter who the champ is, he should come out second.... Because he's not the champ.


Get better talent scouts. In my world Jack Swagger would be a permanent mid carder

 

[silverwraith720]

All fantastic suggestions, but I have a much simpler one.

To boost WWE ratings, get TNA out of the Impact Zone and live on Monday nights.

WWF feared WCW in the 90's and it created some of the greatest moments in wrestling. If TNA threatens to draw Raw's audience, WWE is going to step its game up to draw audiences back.