If You Were the CEO of WWE...

[King Patrick Star]

I would:

• Make myself CEO, not COO. Executive > Operating. It just sounds better.

• Solidify and enforce the Brand Split and keep Red SuperStars out of Smackdown and Blue SuperStars out of Raw.

• Switch the Mid-Card Titles, moving the IC Title to Raw and the US Title to Smackdown

• Reinstate the Women’s Title to Raw and the World Tag Team Titles to Smackdown

• 12 PPVs per year, no more, no less.

• Keep PPVs open to both shows, and have every Title defended on every PPV, thus eliminating Night Of Champions and replacing it with King Of The Ring.

• Get rid of PPVs named after Specialty Match Stipulations and replace them with the names used before. For example, Elimination Chamber should be No Way Out.

• Initiate my WWE Elite 8 idea. http://forums.wrestlezone.com/showthread.php?t=126223

• Send TNA / IW and ROH an invitation to WWE Network.

• Assuming TNA and ROH accept the invite, I’d make every show live and set the weekly schedule as follows:
Monday – Raw
Tuesday – Smackdown
Wednesday – SuperStars (revamped format, featuring yesterday’s Legends and tomorrows SuperStars)
Thursday – Total Non-stop Action Impact Wrestling
Friday – Ring Of Honor

That’s about all I can think of for now, but I’m sure more ideas will pop up in my head as soon as I hit “Submit Reply”.

 

[saintsrlfc95]

Keep raw and smack down superstars on their respective shows
Make the divas division more about wrestling ability rather than looks
Introduce some new tag teams into the wwe instead of just having single guys paired together
Get rid of the following ppvs; money in the bank, over the limit, capital punishment and hell in a cell
Bring back; Armageddon, judgement day, no mercy and unforgiven
Change the name of elimination chamber back to no way out
Have the raw announce team to be : Justin Roberts, Jim Ross, Jerry lawyer and Matt striker
Smackdown announce team : lilian Garcia, Michael cole, tazz and josh Matthews and Todd Grisham

 

[whoever]

I would...

1. Sell RAW and Smackdown as separate brands in competition with one another. I would give each show a strong GM trying to create a product that is better than the other show (A heel general manager could do so by trying to rig results to have a preferred superstar as their world champion ie; John Cena = ratings, therefore I’m going to do whatever I can to make him the World Champion. A face general manager could do so by playing up the sports element, perhaps using a league system to put together competitive matches, etc

Only the women’s champion and the tag team champions would regularly appear on both shows. Hopefully these titles would then be elevated as the show which was home to the champion could use it as a bragging right.

With the big names divided equally between both brands it would give more TV time to up and comers with potential rather than having the same stars main eventing and cutting promos on both shows.

This could also be used to increase the significance of the yearly draft (which I would have shortly after Wrestlemania). As well as having the usual wrestle a match, the winning show gets a random draft pick; I would have the general manager’s trade talent. Disgruntled employees could actively pursue transfers to the other brand. General managers could actively woo wrestlers who were nearing the end of their contracts. You could also have promising talent who don’t have a strong gimmick bought up via the draft.

And I kind of went on a bit about the separate brand thing.

2. I’d have a brutal clear out. Kind of like when you clean your wardrobe out once a year – you ask yourself “regardless of how much I like this am I actually going to wear it again.” If the answer is no you get rid of it and make space for new clothes. I’d look at the roster and ask myself a) are we ever going to push this wrestler (not necessarily a main event push), and b) does this wrestler get a reaction. If the answer is no to both then bye bye.

3. Use the house shows and dark matches to test out, and break in new tag teams. By the time they appear on television they should already be able to work as a cohesive unit with a decent amount of chemistry and one or two double-team moves.

4. Have the bad guys win more often. You need jeopardy to sell a story – generally it’s more exciting if the face is the underdog.

5. As a perk, just for me I’d replace TLC with Extreme Rules. I don’t really get chair matches and I don’t really like table matches.

6. Put a stop to all of the burying. Michael Cole is the main culprit but the wrestlers and creative are also to blame. They need to be selling each other as legitimate threats. Generally when wrestlers cut promos they highlight their opponent’s weaknesses rather than what makes them dangerous. Look at how Mark Henry legitimized both Daniel Bryan and The Big Show while on commentary a couple of weeks ago. He didn’t break character, or make himself look weak. Look at some of Jon Moxley’s promos on YouTube, he often follows a simple formulae. He sells his opponent then he sells himself. This wrestler is this, but I’ll beat them because…

7. Increase the realism. Tag team specialists should more often than not beat thrown together tag teams regardless of their position on the singles roster. When a face is put in a handicap match against 2, 3, 4 other wrestlers they can put up a good fight but they should more often than not loose.

Really long post. Apologies.

 

[amazing_blue]

^But a really good post! I agree with everything you said, although I do feel like the up-and-comers are getting more than enough airtime on SmackDown right now.

 

[Dave_Kub_9]

-Bring JR to commentate with a heel Lawler on RAW

-Move Cole over to Smackdown with Booker T

-Get rid of the brand divisions

-Scrap GM's and bring back commisioner role. Funkman would be fine for now

-Redesign that WWE title belt already

-Bring back the hardcore and cruiserweight division

-More US and IC title defenses. For me Cody and recently Dolph held those belts for too long

-MITB match once a year, one match only

 

[Roskell]

Some ideas;

- Define RAW as a more 'Adult' focused product and Smackdown as a 'Child Friendly' product, splitting the roster to best fit wrestlers styles/gimmicks to each brand/product. Will increase the average age of viewers and will give the product a better longevity age wise of fans.

- Cancel all legends contracts unless they are still active wrestlers. Wasted money unless they can draw or play an active roll.

- Redesign & Rename all title belts and removing words such as Heavyweight, Intercontinental, US (As they have no relevance to the owner; e.g Non-US Wrestlers can win the US, and Non-Heavyweights can win the Heavyweight Title). Titles to be defended at PPV's only, not on the weekly shows. But all titles will be defended at all PPVs.

- Have a clear structure/ranking for the 3 title belts, lower, middle and upper workers. So wrestlers will have to earn title shots and not just be handed them. League format? Points? Makes the Champions and Belts more prestigious knowing they had to earn them.

- 12 PPV's a year. All Both brands. All champions will appear and also best performers get to appear based on promo, in-ring performance & crowd reaction (HEEL or FACE). Will help improve overall quality of the PPV's.

- Redesign 3rd Brand (Superstars) and use as a developmental product, trying different match concepts and gimmicks. Using new talent sourced from indie companies & through a worldwide scouting network. Can be used as a drafting pool for RAW & Smackdown, GM's try to prize away the best talent (Once a year Draft).

Can think of more but in regards to structure changes those are the main ones...

 

[Why Always Me]

I would do quite a few things differently

1. Offer the World Wildlife Fund 20 million to buy the WWF name from them. Thus changing the name back to the World Wrestling Federation.

I like this one - I would to be able to go back to the WWF, but it's unlikely.

My changes would be as following

1) - Brand split ended and titles unififed. TBH it looks like this could happen soon anyway with the Supershows, the titles would be as follows

WWE Title (new design)
IC Title
Tag Titles (new design as well)
Women's Title (not divas title)

And in time bring in a lower mid-card title, maybe the TV Title.

2) Sack off PG, but not be QUITE as crude as the Attitude Era. Once again this looks like it may happen, more swear words and more voilence is starting to creep back in, for PPV's it should be anything goes, Raw and Smackdown a little less but still more than we have at the moment. Head cahirshots (and head shots in general should come back, but only if wrestlers use their hand to deflect some of the impact away (Rock, Undertaker, HBK etc all did that so it's not a problem). Blood should be used every now and again, but sparingly.

3) Change PPV schedule to something like.....

Jan - Royal Rumble
Feb- No Way Out
Mar - Wrestlemania (with the MITB ladder match)
Apr - Backlash
May - Judgement Day
June - King Of The Ring
July - Vengeance
Aug - Summerslam
Sep - Unforgiven
Oct - Bad Blood
Nov - Survivor Series
Dec - Armageddon

No more gimmicky PPV's like Elimination Chamber, Hell In A Cell or even MITB. KOTR can be used to elevate new stars rather than giving the titles they are not ready for.

4) Make Smackdown live on a Thursday.

Easy enough, live shows are better, and people go out on a Friday.

5) More focus on the B shows.

Sunday Night Heat used to draw bigger ratings than Raw does now. However Sunday Night Heat should only be used in the hour before a PPV IMO. Instead have Tuesday night Superstars and Friday nioght Velocity. 4 matches on each show with little to no recaps of raw and Smackdown.

6) Have Raw and Smackdown in 2 and a half hour slots.

Give them a little extra time if needed with the rosters coming together. Along with Superstars and Velocity that more than ebough time for main eventers to have their time, and lower card wrestlers to be gievn a chance.

7) Stop having cameras in locker-rooms and backstage aeras where wrestlers 'pretend' they are not there.

Instead just have camera crews backstage in general and catch Wrestler A storm into Wrestler B's locker room and follow him rather than have the camera in the lockeroom. Think of more realistic ways to show backstage events. And sometimes have it as happening a few moments ago or during the break rather than always happening straight after a match, these things could happen during a match, so that it doesn't give the impression that wrestlers wait until a match has finished before talking to someone.

Just a few things there

 

[theBec2101]

*make lawler and Jr an announce team
*make Styles and Hayman another announce team ( announce teams only work together on PPV but seperate tables)
*Fire Cole
*Make the Womens championship relevant again, get divias that can wrestle
*get rid of the divas belt
*new design for tag team championship
*new design for WWE championship
*bring back the managers. you remember mr. Fugi, Bobby Heenan, and Harvy Wippleman(ha, cole could be the new harvy wippleman, butthen I couldnt fire him...oh what a dilemma)
*get rid of TLC(not every match is a TLC), Braging Rights(its survivor series)Elimination Chamber(not every match is a Elimination chamber match), Hell In A Cell(not all of them are HITC),and MITB goes to Wrestlemania
*Bring back Armageddon and the armageddon hell in the cell, all the extem matches would be a fit for this ppv
*push Cena, Kane, CM Punk, Jericho, Orton to the IC and US titles to make them relevant again. ( not permanent)
*make more tag teams and stables
*fueds that actually mean something so people are interested
*Cut back of the PPV a little
*never mind Dilemma solved........Cole Your Fired!!!

 

[BaconBits]

If I were CEO of WWE...

I wouldn't go about any wild roster changes or anything, except for maybe suggesting creative go about updating rather stale characters (i.e. The Undertaker would go in a different direction, Cena needs to go heel, etc...).

A total redesign of the logos and colors.

I would take a decided turn towards more of a "reality" based approach, in hopes of maybe regenerating interest in what has become a society obsessed with all things reality. Maybe a quasi-mma kinda thing with "camps" would be something to consider. Make the promos less about theatrics and more about actual trash talking.

BUT

I'd pay huge money hire the crazy lady from PRIDE to be my in ring announcer. (YouTube some old PRIDE entrances if you don't know what I am talking about) She is able to get you hyped about anything. I'd consider going to the Japanese MMA style of ring entrances too.

I'd put on less shows. One of the reasons interest is waning is overexposure. For sure I'd go to bi-monthly PPVS. It gives more time to build believable, fleshed out storylines leading into the events, making them much easier to hype, hopefully leading to bigger buy rates. Less house shows.

No more biased commentary. Let the viewer make their own decisions on who is good and who sucks.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

-Raw Supershow (With SD stars appearing stays)
-But RAW/SD go back to having indvidual PPVS.

I feel like these two things don't help each other out. If you want to build up two strong rosters enough to have separate PPVs, keep them separate and re-distribute the wealth of talent. I liked when the four big PPVs (Mania, Slam, Series, Rumble) were joint events with both shows appearing, and the rest were alternating. It made talent step up and compete for their brand so that every show could get decent ratings and PPV buys. In my opinion, let the Big 4 be Supershow events, and let the other 8 be exclusive. Keep the brands exclusive so things like the Draft, Survivor Series, and the Rumble are more important. It's not longer a big deal when Orton shows up on Raw - I don't think that should necessarily be the case.

-Less Gimmick Match Themed PPV's (TLC and MITB stay) but do away with HITC and change the name of EC back to No Way Out.

Agreed. Use those gimmick matches on the other PPV's to end big rivalries. Make them means something again!

-More importance of the midcard division (Both titles should always be defended and the prestige should be brought back e.g Dolph/Cody)

Agreed. There used to be such a thing as an excellent mid-card talent. Guys like Steamboat are legendary, but stayed in the midcard the majority of their WWE career. He had some great main event matches, but he was famous for being an IC champion, and a solid performer to help other guys over. Not everyone needs to be World Champion all the time. Rhodes is a perfect example of what an IC Champion should look like. I wouldn't mind if he did hold the belt until November and break HTM's record.

-More importance of tag team division (It's not impossible to do)
-More importance of Divas Division

Agreed. This is something that isn't happening in today's Supershow style of WWE wrestling. They have too many things going on, so none of them but the main event gets a real focus. I liked when the divas were on Raw, the cruiserweights were on SD, and that rarely fluctuated. It made sure they had proper time to build both divisions. In this case, send all the tag team guys to Smackdown. Make it a roster of tag team wrestling, keep the World title, and kick the Divas out. There are so many good talents ont he roster that could make killer tag teams, but not enough time to focus on any of them.

-Go back to slowly building future top guys (Not throwing a MITB cash in e.g Swagger)
-Unpredictable events occuring (Like CM Punk Summer 2011) but they need to make sense
-Attitude Era like promos (Attitude Era was the best era for promos) but the match quality of these last years stays the same.
- More edginess like the Attitude Era but the same ideas of PG era stays the same (No headchairshots, blood a little but reduced)
-More interesting gimmicks but not overly exaggerated (The 80's)
- Switch Cole/Jerry lawler's heel/face roles
-JR back on TV Raw (3 Man group again Lawler, COle and JR)

I don't really disagree with you, but you're basically just saying everything that's already been said a thousand times. We all know what we don't like about today's product. This thread has been over-done. You hit on a couple of things I was interested in, but for the most part none of the above ideas are original, and what most people are bitching about on a daily basis. For the sake of conversation and just casually talking about a few things I would change, sure. But I want to note that I do enjoy the product from time to time, and I'm not one of those guys that NEEDS these changes or thinks we need to go back to another Attitude Era.

 

[ravssss]

I dont know how true it is about others ... but i know a lot of people who started watching a bit of rock vs cena and cm punk mainly because The Rock made a Comeback and WWE was gonna change for better ... i have been watching WWF from 96-05 .. from 03 to be exact till BROCK left ... The shock value today was regular back then ... but in the long run i dont think WWE is gonna be with PG like they are now ... the main reason why they went for ATTITUDE back then was coz they knew that the product can be improved .. so probably it can happen again ... not through TNA .. but i really doubt after this Wrestlemania ... things are gonna improve ... like BROCK joining .. the timing would be perfect for it