I'm sick of people saying that WWE needs to be more like TNA. TNA needs to be more like WWE. WWE hasn't had a PPV as bad as Victory Road in literally years. It was an awful awful PPV and TNA needs to take some notes from WWE.
I have been watching TNA lately and to me TNA is becoming very exciting even if they have crappy wrestlers like Scott Steiner and Samoa Joe. Recently TNA has been throwing us all off lately by completely doing the unthinkable like for instance having Samoa Joe turn heel and join the Main Event Mafia. Nobody predicted that would happen at Slammiversary 2009. WWE used to do that kind of stuff what happened to that. TNA as of right now to me more interesting than WWE and everytime Raw is on I'm not that excited about it, but still watch it, but when TNA is about to come on I get excited like I would back in the day minutes before Raw would be on.
The reason people didn't see the "swerve" was because it made no sense!!! Why would Nash and Steiner and the others allow themselves to be beaten to a bloody pulp just so someone else could win the world title without anyone knowing what was going on. Very few people are that selfless in real life, so are we really meant to believe that Nash and co. are that selflessin in the wrestling world? And yet Taz is still the mentor somehow? It makes absolutely no sense.
WWE's swerves are infinitely better. The Edge/Elimination Chamber swerve was awesome. Sure, it was confusing at first, but the Raw after No Way Out all the loose ends were tied up in a way that made sense.
We are 1 month since the Samoa Joe turn and there's still some parts of it that make no sense.
Does Raw have some problems in terms of freshness? Yes, every program does at some point in it's life. But WWE are trying to push new stars. They're trying to push Mark Henry on Raw, as well as Jack Swagger. But these things take time. And come on, the Cena/Orton/Trips match won't be bad. It certainly won't be as bad as Victory Road's main event.
And WWE are trying to shake things up in ways other than pushing talent too. I know the guest host idea doesn't appeal to everyone. But that's why they're throwing out so many different guest hosts. They Batista for the younger fans, Dibiase for the older fans. Seth Green for movie fans, ZZ top for music fans and Shaq for sports fans. They are trying to make a show that everyone will like. It's impossible, but they're trying. Recently, there has been nothing in TNA that has made me go "Hmmm, *insert friend who's not a wrestling fan here* might like this." TNA is getting stale too, look at the X Division. It's now more boring than it's ever been.
And sure TNA's main event isn't stale, but the matches are just bad. We might see the same WWE main event 20 times, but the matches will always be at least decent.
I think that WWE is right now in a very tough spot that is hard to get out of most of the time. With the economy the way that it is and how the internet spoils alot of what is gonna happen on the show for that night. And I know Raw isn't taped before hand like SmackDown or ECW, but Raw is the same old thing with Randy Orton and Triple H or Triple H and Randy Orton. But I must say that Raw being given a special guest host is pretty entertaining, it still has Randy Orton and Triple H shown most of the time and I am a fan of Randy Orton too.
While the draft may have been disappointing, WWE are trying to push new stars into the main event. Mark Henry is being made to look unstoppable right now, he's pinned the WWE champion!
It's hard to make stars now. I mean if WWE pushes a new face, and the crowd rejects them, you can't blame WWE. Wrestling fans are never happy. I mean, look at Orton. People were begging for him to be WWE champion in February. Now people are sick of him already? Come on.
And I agree that Triple H does need to step down from the main event for a while. But he does put on consistantly good matches. Seriously, when was the last time you saw a genuinely bad Triple H match?.... I mean, apart from Wrestlemania 25. That was just bad booking.
WWE needs to switch some big names between Raw, ECW, and SmackDown, but more Raw and SmackDown. They need to switch Randy Orton or Triple H over to SmackDown for like The Undertaker or Jeff Hardy.
If Orton and Triple H went to SD, we'd see even more of them. And guys like CM Punk and John Morrison would have trouble getting to the top with a huge star there stopping their progress. Just like if Hardy went to Raw, he'd have to take a step down from the main event cause of Trips, Orton, Cena and Batista all on Raw.
They shouldn't though switch both of them at the same time. They could also combine the Heart Dynasty and Legacy together to form a major stable with Randy Orton still as the leader.
Orton is having enough trouble at the moment with 2 other guys in his stable, do you really think he needs 3 more?
It could be like how the younger stars don't care about the older stars like The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Goldust, and Jerry Lawler. I know it sounds like how they did the feud in ECW with the New Breed and ECW Originals, but this would be better played out. It could also be somewhat like how the Main Event Mafia is, but switch it around. I know I am stealing something from TNA, but it sounds like it could work in WWE as well.
It might work in WWE. It's not working in TNA, but it might in WWE. The problem there is the brand split. Are you gonna have the young guys of SD take on the older guys of Raw? Or is there going to be the same angle on two different shows with two different rosters. It's just too complicated to try and work out.
Another thing is swerve something big with a big main event star. Like have John Cena turn heel or Rey Mysterio turn heel. Or even have Shawn Michaels or The Undertaker turn heel and work with that.
Well they're not gonna turn Cena or Mysterio heel cause they want to capitalise on the big child fanbase.
And no matter how hard WWE try, I don't think you could make people boo Taker or HBK. Look at Sting in TNA.
WWE have been trying to make significant turns. John Morrison turned face, Punk is in the middle of his heel turn, and Edge is practically face. Granted we won't see Edge for months, but he'll be a heel when he returns. You just can't expect turns every few months. Especially when wrestlers are working in their respective allignments. I mean, Cena is quite possibly the best face in years. Why would they wanna mess that up?
The last thing I suggest is my favorite and that is have Triple H off of television for a long time. I know it won't ever happen, but I am tired of always seeing Triple H in the lime light even if he is a good wrestler. He is probably pissed that he got traded to SmackDown last year and I could just picture how pissed he would be if he got traded to ECW. If not taking him off television, just get him out of the title hunt for awhile and give other superstars a chance to shine in the limelight in the World Title picture.
Well Triple H did take two months off just recently. But the ratings did fall without him. Triple H does in fact draw. The IWC may be pissed off with him, but he does have an enormous fanbase. Probably as big as Jeff Hardy's, or even John Cena. And those of us in the IWC who aren't a bit dim like him sheerly out of respect. He's done alot for the WWE. So really there's no choice but to keep him on TV until he gets too old.
In closing, I'm going to say that WWE doesn't need to learn anything from TNA. WWE has been around much longer and been successful much longer. After watching the Victory Road PPV, people should be asking what does TNA need to learn from WWE.