Improve, in your opinion, the weakest part of the WWE

[OIL]

Now this could be anything, from the General Managers to how certain shows are booked. Basically state what's wrong with it, why, and explain how you would improve it, and the benefits to the WWE of this change. I'll give mine a go..

The Intercontinental Title - This is off the top of my head so obviously, there probably are weaker parts of the WWE but anyway. Within recent years the Intercontinental title has been treated like shit. The champions have just used it as an accesory to their attire, and haven't even acknolwged it as an accomplishment. Look to recently when Jeff Hardy won the title, there were no fueds surrounding the belt at all. It was barely mentioned and seemed insignificant to the WWE.

Fast-forward to now and a title tournement has taken place, which is a start to improving it, but it doesn't give the fans a long fued that they could get into, because the matches in a tournement are just a one off, no meaning behind them. So to improve this, I would have more storylines centre around the IC title, more meaningful fueds and make the belt seem more prestigious than it seems at the moment. I'd take a bunch of top, top mid-carders and have them all fight for the IC title at some point, while a certain few are already fueding for the title, have the others trying to work their way up to that belt. Wrestlers shouldn't jump from nothing to the WWE Champion just like that, except for rare times when it has worked, look at CM Punk for example, the ratings still haven't been matched. So to improve it, more wrestlers having more high quality matches that centre around the belt, and have the belt have more meaning than just a prop.

Anyway, you guys give your opinions on your choices..

 

[klunderbunker]

Very interesting idea indeed.

I would go with the tag team division. Simply put, it is awful. Right now, Punk and Kingston and the Colons are champions. I ask the question, who cares? Right now, those four people and their families. The tag championships mean nothing on either show, other than to say we have tag titles.

My solution would be simply to merge the tag titles into one, and actually form some gimmick teams. The idea of just throwing wrestler A and wrestler B together and have them beat a few tag teams, then hand them the belts. That can't work anymore. Bcak in the undisputed glory days of tag wrestling, which is the late 80s, every tag team had a theme, or at least a shared quality. Teams such as Demolition, the Harts, the Bulldogs, the Islanders, the Killer Bees etc. made the division a success because A, there were so many teams that you would forget some never won, and B, it wasn't Jim Brunzell and Brian Blair as a team. It was two guys in trunks that looked like bees, with that as their name. They never won much, but the gimmick worked to a degree. To sum it up, don't just throw people together and call them a team. Make real teams.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

I would improve the women's division, simply put, getting rid of the Diva's Championship.....The WWE Women's Championship can be defended on both brands and just think of all the interesting matchups you can have (Beth v. Natalya, Melina v. Victoria, etc.) RAW and Smackdown have both talented and nontalented divas so it would be a nice mix. If Miz and Morrison can be on three shows like every week, most divas can handle being on RAW and Smackdown.

The U.S. Championship needs to improve also. This is not on Shelton Benjamin but rather his opponents. He hasn't really been in a championship feud with anybody except R-Truth and I can see a U.S. division with Benjamin, R-Truth, MVP, Helms and I would even throw Kung Fu Naki in there. Smackdown always has one decent mid-card match and a main event match and lately the mid-card matches have been slacking. I believe this would be a way to improve it.

 

[OIL]

Very interesting idea indeed.

I would go with the tag team division. Simply put, it is awful. Right now, Punk and Kingston and the Colons are champions. I ask the question, who cares? Right now, those four people and their families. The tag championships mean nothing on either show, other than to say we have tag titles.

My solution would be simply to merge the tag titles into one, and actually form some gimmick teams. The idea of just throwing wrestler A and wrestler B together and have them beat a few tag teams, then hand them the belts. That can't work anymore. Bcak in the undisputed glory days of tag wrestling, which is the late 80s, every tag team had a theme, or at least a shared quality. Teams such as Demolition, the Harts, the Bulldogs, the Islanders, the Killer Bees etc. made the division a success because A, there were so many teams that you would forget some never won, and B, it wasn't Jim Brunzell and Brian Blair as a team. It was two guys in trunks that looked like bees, with that as their name. They never won much, but the gimmick worked to a degree. To sum it up, don't just throw people together and call them a team. Make real teams.

I agree with you completly here. The tag team division is awful at the moment. People are getting chucked together just for the sake of it doesn't work, because gimmicks are what make a wrestler popular. Look at Carlito and Primo, they work together as a team, firstly because they're related, and secondly because they have a gimmick, which the fans can get behind. The WWE needs to invest in more tag teams quickly before the entire division crumbles, which it may have already done. Tag team wrestling is an art form in itself, and is a nice change from the standard one on one way of wrestling as the in-ring work of a tag team can bring a match to life, through impecable teamwork and brilliant spots to keep fans entertained.

 

[George Michael]

I'll have to rip off 'Legend' and say the midcard titles; my choice being the US title.

I'd say it's been treated much better than the IC title, but it's use could still be improved. For the past few years or so there have always been interesting feuds with this title, but Shelton's reign has been lackluster. If they could shhift it into a good ol' best of seven series it may provide a captivating/important match for PPV undercards. A series between two exciting guys like Rtruth and The Brian Kendrick would capture my attention.

 

[jmt225]

WWE's biggest problem is that they're too worried about creating the next big singles star. What they don't get is that a majority of the guys they have working for them won't be stars. They'll be good company guys for a few years then get fired, quit, or just not resign. Not everyone is destined for great things; Steve Austin most will not be. So they really should put a focus on tag wrestling as it would at least give them something to do with some of the workers they wouldn't normally focus on in addition to helping give the show a change of pace. What I really wish they'd do is maybe build a PPV around a tag team tournament and sort of model it after the King of the Ring. Name it after a famous team, wrestler, manager, whoever. Hell, maybe dedicate it to the entire Hart Family for their contributions to the sport. Call it the Hart Cup, and use it to promote your tag division. Regularly hold it in Canada each year and what not.

 

[Shocky]

The Main Event Picture.

It's a real simple problem to get rid of. If HBK is feuding with JBL, then who for the future of this company benefits, no one. Why is the WWE wasting to guys like this that does nothign for eithers career, whent he potential of a Morrison vs. Michaels feud can do nothing but good things for both men?

I've said it on here for a long time, the main eventers have log jammed the company for nearly five years now. I'm talking about the Triple H's, the Kanes, the Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, JBL, Batista. All guys either near 40 or well above it, and that's just a few of them. The WWE is in desperate need of new, fresh blood, which in my opinion they have on the roster at this moment, to get more air time.

Simply put, the same old same old just isn't cutting it anymore. Get rid of the deadweight and the guys taht are holding spots for young, lower card guys to move up into. The company can thrive on guys like the Hardy's, Edge, Randy Orton, Jericho, Cena being at the top of the card, and that frees up so much room for others to grow and move up the ladder.

 

[klunderbunker]

The Main Event Picture.

It's a real simple problem to get rid of. If HBK is feuding with JBL, then who for the future of this company benefits, no one. Why is the WWE wasting to guys like this that does nothign for eithers career, whent he potential of a Morrison vs. Michaels feud can do nothing but good things for both men?

I've said it on here for a long time, the main eventers have log jammed the company for nearly five years now. I'm talking about the Triple H's, the Kanes, the Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, JBL, Batista. All guys either near 40 or well above it, and that's just a few of them. The WWE is in desperate need of new, fresh blood, which in my opinion they have on the roster at this moment, to get more air time.

Simply put, the same old same old just isn't cutting it anymore. Get rid of the deadweight and the guys taht are holding spots for young, lower card guys to move up into. The company can thrive on guys like the Hardy's, Edge, Randy Orton, Jericho, Cena being at the top of the card, and that frees up so much room for others to grow and move up the ladder.

Agree except for with the end. I wouldn't get rid of them, but transition them out. Getting rid of them is the reason that ECW now took so long to get the little bit off the ground that they have. When the show started, there were what, two big names there in Angle and RVD? Everyone else was either a rookie or an ECW guy that had done nothing in WWE. Use the verterans to put the new guys over. Like you said with Morrison and HBK, that's a great feud. Morrison has been called a younger Michales, why not capitalize on that? The combinations are almost endless. Edge and Taker was a great feud. What about Orton and Kane, Taker and either Hardy, Jericho (who is getting up there in years) vs. Taker. There's a ton of great matches that haven't even been looked at yet. The older generation still have a lot left in them. Let them pass it on. Great idea Shocky.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

The biggest problem with WWE, as I see it, is that none of their programming (save for, to some extent, ECW) has an identity. By identity, I mean something that can distinguish one WWE program from another. Currently, WWE programming exhibits the following paradox: although, when taken into account by themselves, Raw and Smackdown! offer variety in the form of men's singles competition, women's singles competition, and men's tag team competition, when taken together and compared with each other, Raw and Smackdown! offer the same thing. Think about it: although the faces and storylines may differ, the content in general is pretty much the same.

Hypothetically, if I were to fix the problem which I have just identified, I would do three things. First, I would keep ECW the same; as I see it, it is a testing ground for new talent and a place for either unsung (yet talented) or past-their-prime veterans. Second, I would aggregate the tag team and women's divisions and have them rove both Raw and Smackdown! (assuming that it is cost-effective for the WWE; however, I think this is a pretty safe assumption given that there are already plenty of wrestlers that show up on all three of WWE's weekly programs on a consistent basis). Third, I would group men's singles wrestling on Raw and Smackdown! according to particular attributes; for example, on Raw I would have mat technicians while on Smackdown! I would have "high-flyers" (I would like to remind the reader that this is meant to be a simple example; I am well aware that the classifications I have given aren't mutually exclusive or all-encompassing). By doing this, I think you would be able to appeal to certain wrestling fan demographics by offering a substantial portion of the type of wrestling style or wrestlers they are looking for. However, if one has fears of saturating one of WWE's programming with one type of wrestling style or wrestler, they can offset this with men's tag team or women's matches that are different with respect to either or both of the types I have just mentioned.

So, in conclusion, I would establish for Raw and Smackdown! an identity based on its men's singles competition. In order to counterbalance any viewer boredom that may potentially come about by typifying men's singles competition this way, I would also offer men's tag team competition (which could differ in wrestler type and/or wrestling style type) or women's singles competition (which would definitely differ in wrestler type, but which may or may not differ in wrestling style type, given that most of WWE's women are trained, or re-trained, by WWE itself).

 

[Harthan]

There's a lot of problems now, certainly, but when haven't there been. The biggest, glaring problem I see is the tag team division.

So, the basic problem boils down to lack of competition over the titles, and furthermore, you have two tag team titles for an already weak division, watering it down further. We're at the point where ECW's only tag team has to appear on all 3 shows just to supplant the division.

Breaking down the teams...

Raw contributes Priceless (Rhodes and Manu/DiBiase), Cryme Tyme, Punk and Kingston, and...seriously? That's it? Someone tell me I forgot someone. Losing the Highlanders and Kendrick and London is really showing. So Raw clocks in with a whopping 3, count 'em, 3. Over on SmackDown, you have Primo and Carlito, Hawkins and Ryder, Jesse and Festus, and...no? Really. 3 teams on each brand, for real? Add in Miz and Morrison from ECW/Raw/SD, and you have 7 teams total. Yeah. I don't think I'm missing anyone.

So first off, unify the titles. No questions. There is no reason whatsoever to have two tag titles in this already weak division. Let tag teams contribute in all 3 brands and feud over one single title. Instead of 3 teams on one brand and 3 on the other, with Miz and Morrison wherever they decide they want to be that particular night, you have 7 teams in one field. Much better.

But, even 7 teams isn't really enough, especially considering that Hawkins and Ryder barely count, being horrible champions and now jobbers. Jesse and Festus are actually good, but barely manage to get out being a comedy gimmick. Rhodes and Manu/DiBiase, either way, are great, Cryme Tyme is over as hell and not bad in the ring, Punk and Kingston are managing to get it together, and both are individually over, Primo and Carlito are both over and work well enough, and Miz and Morrison make great heels, good wrestlers both, entertaining, etc., etc. So I'm going to be honest and say I see only 5 real teams, with the other 2 having potential but needing a major push to stop them from being lost as jobbers/comedy acts.

So let's make more teams. We've already got one ready made, wrestler house shows, and with a gimmick that's sure to get over if they can hold it together in the ring, DH Smith and TJ Wilson, with Natalya as a valet. I can't honestly tell you I've seen a decent contest involving them, but somehow I doubt that members of the Hart family and trainees of Davey Boy Smith are terrible. Surely nothing great yet, but the starting skill and potential should be there. Putting them on SmackDown, likely as heels, should be a great move.

Furthermore, I am all for moving up the sons of legends from FCW. Isn't the other DiBiase running around out there? Sign him and pair him up with Hennig's kid. They could probably make it as faces, assuming they could get the gimmick right and work together. I'll give that that particular team could be a stretch, but pulled off it could work out well. Aside from those two, why not draw from the current stock? Get guys who aren't doing anything together, make 'em tag team wrestlers.

A list of guys who are not doing anything useful: Charlie Haas, D'Lo, Deuce, Hacksaw, Jamie Noble, Knox, Burchill, Santino (yeah, Santino), Snitsky, Wang Yang, Funaki, MVP, Ryan Braddock, Scotty Goldman (Colt Cabana, damn it), Bam Neely, Chavo Guerrero, Gavin Spears, Jack Swagger, Ricky Ortiz, and Tommy Dreamer. Now, assuming we could cleanly pair up everyone here, we'd get nine teams, but it'd be hard to make good pairings. One that sticks out thanks to last night's ECW is Yang Wang and Funaki - both are entertaining cruiserweights with fun gimmicks, who put on a good match with Miz and Morrison and could definitely entertain together. I see two big psychos in Knox and Snitsky, so why not? Perfect heel pairing. Haas and Noble seem like they'd have chemistry, and Haas is a damn good wrestler when allowed to work. I also fully support sending him back with Benjamin for the WGTT to reunite and save the division. But Haas and Noble works for now. Now it starts getting tricky, but I've got some ideas. First off, let's kill Dolph Ziggler. Not literally, but the gimmick. Let him go back to Nic Nemeth and pack him off with his FCW partner (and tag champion) Gavin Spears. I think Chavo deserves a good run, but is Neely the man for it? Somehow, I feel a team out of a face turn for Chavo and a pairing with Ricky Ortiz. Because they're not doing anything better, why not Hacksaw and Dreamer? Both "legends", and it's better than jobbing constantly. They'd probably still job out as a tag team, but whatever. Alright, I'm losing track of things. Who's left? D'Lo, Deuce, Burchill, Santino, MVP, Braddock, Goldman, and Swagger. Okay, watch what I'm going to do here. Return Goldman to Colt Cabana and match him up with old tag team partner CM Punk, letting Kingston either go on to return to singles competition (we do need to populate that division, after all) or pair him with R-Truth if he stops the semi program with Benjamin. I liked what little I've seen of Braddock, and think he'd match up well Burchill, so, there you are. A return to pirate gimmicks for both of them is highly recommended. Unfortunately I don't see a partner for Santino right now, so maybe he could get his act together in the singles division. Deuce and D'Lo are both pretty weak, so, meh.

Behold, I have constructed for you 9 new tag teams: DH Smith & TJ Wilson, Joe Hennig & Mike DiBiase, Jimmy Wang Yang & Funaki, Knox & Snitsky, Haas & Noble, Nic Nemeth & Gavin Spears, Chavo Guerrero & Ricky Ortiz, Hacksaw Jim Duggan & Tommy Dreamer, Colt Cabana & CM Punk (admittedly not new, but better), and Paul Burchill & Ryan Braddock. Will they all be hits? Probably not, but I think each could be tried out. Would some become jobbers? Yes, but they all have some potential. It couldn't hurt to give all these teams a shot and they could populate the division.

The final issue is simply making us care about the title again. The new unified title would need to be defended at every PPV, no excuses. Gimmick matches when appropriate to excite things, and frequent promos and build up on Raws, SmackDown, and ECWs to keep feuds interesting.

So basically - unify the titles, populate the division, and make the titles interesting. Done.

 

[thepoo62]

Harthan, you made a lot of good pairings here and I want to roll with these teams. It was mentioned that they need to have gimmicks and tag teams need to stop just being two singles guys slapped together to keep them in the public eye. What could these gimmicks be? Here's my shot at it but please give out more ideas everyone.

- DH Smith & TJ Wilson - new Hart Foundation obviously...cocky and technical

- Joe Hennig & Mike DiBiase - face version of Rhodes and Debiase probably (consider adding Ricky Steamboat Junior to make it a 6 man faction war.)

- Jimmy Wang Yang & Funaki - either steriotipical ninjas (Funaki's gimmick for both) or Asian Cowboys (Yang's gimmick for both). Just expand one and make it consistent

- Knox & Snitsky - Why not bring in an evil manager to be the mouth piece. Maybe make him an evil psychiatrist who has Snitsky and Knox brainwashed. They can be called The Dark Ward and come down in torn up stright jackets or something.

- Haas & Noble - Actually it might be really funny if these two carried Haas's parody thing forward together and reformed other classic tag teams in a parody fashion. Maybe the Hock and Jock Connection would be funny?

- Nic Nemeth & Gavin Spears - Probably something like ego-centric frat boys

- Chavo Guerrero & Ricky Ortiz - Fun loving Latin Americans

- Hacksaw Jim Duggan & Tommy Dreamer - I don't love this one and I might just cut Hacksaw and bring back someone from ECW that could help Dreamer carry the legacy on like Sandman (poor guy).

- Colt Cabana & CM Punk - Punk is a singles star and I doubt would be in a tag team permantently but Colt would be a great tag star and their are loads of indy / up and coming talent that he would fit with.

- Paul Burchill & Ryan Braddock - Burchill is a star in my eyes and if pushed properly can probably make it alone so I might drop this character and instead match up Braddock with Kizarny or whatever to make either two crazy carnival folks or something more like a new Raven's Flock.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

What is it going to take to get people to stop banging on and on about unifying the titles? It's NOT going to happen! Let it go already. After 5 years of split titles one would think that people would just accept that particular titles for particular brands is the way it is in WWE now.

If you want to have the mid card titles become more important you simply need to dedicate more television time to them. Both the Honk-a-meter and the current IC title tournament are excellent things to do to bost the relevance of the IC title. Similar things should be done with ALL the titles. Do you remember the days when people actually fueded for the mid-card titles and didn't just get thrown into matches at random.

The problem is, is that people keep cropping up out of nowhere, win a mid-card title, and then never defend the fuckin' thing, and then some other nobody comes along, wins the title in their first attempt and the cycle begins again!

Let's take Primo and Carlito. A prime example of what i'm talking about. Their second match together was a tag title shot and they won first time round. Have they defended those titles more than once since? I do believe they haven't have they? But they've been getting their asses handed to them by THE Brian Kendrick and his man Zeke near enough every week haven't they? Now if there was actually a fued going on here that centered around the titles then this would be good. Instead there's nothing. They simply wrestle each other over and over.

R-Truth has been repeatedly beating Shelton Benjamin since his debut. Has he had a title shot yet? Correct me if i'm wrong, but no he hasn't. Why the hell not? Because they don't bother with title fueds anymore unless it's for THE title.

Remember the days when the champions were proud to be the champs, and the contenders were desperate the take the titles away? Remember how much Crash Holly loved being the Hardcore champion and defended it 24/7 and if he lost it, was always there to take it back? Remember when William Regal was obsessed with being the European Champion and was sickened when a non-European held the belt? Remember the good 2 or so years that E&C, Hardy's and the Dudleys fueded over the tag team titles and dragged countless other teams and singes guys into their fueds with them? How there was no level too low for E&C to sink to to keep those tag titles?

Titles are nothing but portable spotlights to shine on talent who don't actually do a lot. It seems that the only time a champion is putting on a decent effort on TV is when they're competing for a shot at ANOTHER title. Punk is doing that right now. Jeff Hardy was doing it nearly a year ago, when he was IC champ and was challenging Orton for the WWE title. THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO USE MID-CARD CHAMPIONS.

You need to showcase the champions frequently, selling the idea that they are actually proud to be the champion, and they should have people getting in their faces doing whatever they can to gain those titles for themselves. Miz and Morrisson are the only example of champions in the last year that seemed to be proud to be the champions, the same can be said about MVPs US title reign (although he did spend a lot of time NOT defending it) and Matt Hardy (his challenger) is the only challenger i can think of that seemed passionate to win a mid-card title.

Have the talent sell the idea that they care about the mid-card titles and the fans should soon do the same.

..... But hey, what do i know?...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... APART FROM THE FACT THAT THE TITLES WON'T BE UNIFIED ANYTIME SOON!!!!!

 

[mcflyboy]

I'm going to speak in the minority here and say I don't have a problem with the tag team division. I will agree that there aren't much in the way of teams. But is that really a problem? Is WWE programming really suffering by not fleshing out more of a tag team division? I'd argue that no, it isn't. Of course tag team division could be better, but what would that really accomplish in the end?

First, most matches on regular programming already are tag teams. True, they aren't for titles and are more impromptu storyline driven pairings made for that particular show. So the problem can't be that we never see tag team wrestling.

Second, with the way things go now, if you have wrestlers that the WWE wants to keep on TV but there isn't any story or feud for them right now, they get paired up and work as a tag team for a while. Some folks in this thread complained about that, but I don't see why. It keeps them on TV, gets them to show off their skills. If we had a fully established tag team division, as some on here are clamoring for, then what do we do with the CM punks and kofi kingstons that the WWE wants to keep around but has no stories for?

Third, to have a fully established tag team division would require quite a few new tag teams to make it work, and would need to have a lot more television time devoted to pure tag team wrestling. That would leave less time for the singles competitors, and I'd argue that as of right now, the storylines and feuds that go on in the singles area are already pretty limited. The singles matches tend to be the ones that put people in the seats. So I guess this makes me wonder: would the hiring of new talent, the creation of tag team gimmicks, the devotion of time on the television and pay per views to tag teams only...would that really accomplish anything in the end? It would take a lot of time and effort, and is the WWE really going to make a significant amount of additional new fans and revenues by doing it? I don't know the answer to that question, but it does seem like a risky venture at best.

So to summarize, I don't think the tag team division is currently a problem. It accomplishes EXACTLY what it needs to at this point, and while it certainly could be made better, I'm not sure what the point would be or if it would be worth it in the long run.

However, if I were to make one suggestion for the tag teams, is that maybe it wouldn't hurt to make the tag team division more of a "developmental" division, similar to ECW. Give the newcomers a chance to show their stuff, and if they work well for a while, then graduate to the singles scene. Plenty of wrestlers began their careers as part of a tag team, and it worked out really well.

I do however agree with the statments that the intercontinental and US champion belts could use some more interesting stories/feuds to back them up. I remember back in the day when title matches for the intercontinental championship were as exciting (if not more so) than the heavyweight. I definitely agree that more attention and focus should be given to the midcard titles. They will always be overshadowed by the main titles--and probably rightfully so--but for those who personally aren't that interested in the players in the current main title scene, it would give a viable alternative and keep them watching.

Finally, in my opinion, if anything needs to be fixed it is the overall weak storylines and feuds. Both feuds and stories are recycled way too often.

 

[pewter02ws6]

IMO, there are three things and two of them relate to each other.
the first is back stage promos.
remember years ago, leading up to a PPV, they would show back stage promos of the wrestlers talking smack for a few minutes about their opponent??? there was a lot of fire put into them and it really got you anxious to see them unload their fury on their opponent. now you hardly see any of that unless it is for the heavyweight championship. even then, there isn't enough fire behind the promos to get you excited. today they come out and talk in a low tone on the mic like they were having a general conversation with someone. there is hardly any hatred or you hardly see the challenger act like he really wants it. he just acts like he is confident that he is going to win and that's it. years ago, i used to watch those hour long episodes that contained only back stage promos over and over again as it kept the excitement going until i got to see the PPV. now i could care less what they have to say the majority of the time because there just isn't any spunk put into them.

the second thing is how they basically killed off the intercontinental type and tag team titles.
how do i think they killed them off?? part of it leads back to back stage promos. tag titles and intercontinental title matches don't have enough build to them. some of these matches take place and you don't even see a promo from the champion(s) or the challenger(s) leading up to the title match. the challenger might come out and take a cheap shot or cost the champion(s) a match which will lead to a title feud but there isn't enough talk to build up the match to generate any excitement for the match.

another part is that these titles change hands way too damn much and they give it/them to guys who don't even deserve it. most of these titles get won in cheap ways as well. i am so sick of seeing the miz and morrison win by cheating. i am not saying titles haven't been won like this in the old days but it happens all too often anymore. it seems weekly with the miz and morrison.

lastly, i feel that the tag titles went to crap when they started pairing up guys who weren't even a team and have them end up winning the titles. honestly, how often had this happened over the years?? i can go on forever with singles wrestlers who were paired up and won the belts. what ever happened to actual tag teams like the rockers, demolition, LOD, the hardys, dudley boys, hart foundation, british bulldogs, head shrinkers, bushwhackers, new age outlaws and so on?? punk and kofi are great wrestlers but pairing them up giving them the tag belts are seriously destroying what they had established as singles wrestlers IMO.

today these "teams" each some out separately to their own entrance music and whoever scores the pinfall, their music plays after the victory. what ever happened to pairing up and designating a name for your "team" and coming up with an entrance theme for that "team" there are only a few in this day and age and i think that is the problem with tag team wrestling and the tag team titles. now they throw two guys together for a tag team challenge in a single night and they end up winning the belts that night. give me a break!! this is why i have trouble remembering who the current champions are because it is hard to keep track from week to week which just generates why i could care less about any of these titles anymore.

as for the mid card singles titles, remember when it actually meant that you accomplished something by winning the intercontinental title as the guy was great enough to hold it for a few months or even a year? now this belt gets tossed around more than a baseball in nine innings. when i see a guy winning the intercontinental championship i don't wonder how long he is going to be champion, i wonder who is going to win the belt off him next week on raw or the week after at the very latest.

another thing is a lack of stables
these have always been a big hit in the industry. the four horsemen, nwo, dx, evolution, raven's flock, the ministry of darkness, nation of domination,
million dollar corporation and the hart foundation just to name a few. stables generated a lot of excitement while giving each wrester the opportunity to fulfill their singles career. i see one forming with orton, rhodes and manu and i hope it grows into something great although i highly doubt dibiase will join when he returns as it appears he will feud with orton when he returns.


lastly, the lack of comedy
i enjoy ron simmons coming out every so often to give us a DAMN! and enjoy charlie hoss' gimmicks lately but that is about as much as we get. i remember when DX was running the game, i laughed regularly at their antics. i feel that there needs to be comedy in the mix because it is another thing that helps build character. the fact that DX could give you comedy, excitement, controversy and a good in ring show made them one of the best of all time. i laughed more in the 5 minutes of michaels and HHH going back and forth the last time than i did in a long time watching the show. remember how funny it was to watch the rock talk smack and make fun of people? remember some of the stuff stone cold pulled??? there is none of that anymore. there are many more great ones that were very comedic while putting on a good show. i feel it was a big part of the business that kept people interested and would love to see a bit more of it in the future.

 

[FromTheSouth]

I know that chaos already addressed the idea of combing the titles, and how it won't happen, but the biggest problem with the WWE is the split brands. ECW could be a televised developmental, which it already is, but without Matt Hardy, Finlay, Miz and Morrison and Mark Henry. These guys could go on to the other two shows and be fine in the midcard.

The first problem is that you know where the show is going next. JBL feuded with Cena and Batista already, so the only face on that level left is HBK. Everything on the show is so obviously building toward Cena vs. Orton 65 at Wrestlemania, and it's so obvious that people aren't going to feel the need to tune in every week. You can miss a week and not miss much, or at least not get too far behind.

With everyone on the same show, several story aspects can be improved.

1. Decreased predictability- Like I said, the Raw main event at WM 25 in Houston will be Cena vs. Orton for the WHC. SD! is less predictable, however HHH will be fighting someone for the WWE title. In a one brand system, there can be 15 different guys involved in the title picture. But.....

2. Improve all other divisions. The best way to improve the profile of the IC belt is to have HHH and The Undertaker in a blood feud for it. If Cena and Orton are battling for the big belt, then have the other guys fight for the other belt. Have them deliver promos stating that the IC title holder deserves a title shot before anyone else. Now you have guys going after the IC belt like it's a prize instead of a prop. Also, if Jeff Hardy isn't involved in the main event scene, suddenly, he might be able to find a partner. Same with Edge and Christian. HBK came from a tag team, and I suspect that that might find the WWE their next big star.

3. More available plot twists. I think the most stale part of the WWE is that NO ONE can turn. There is such a delicate balance with three faces and three heels being in the main event picture on both shows. The only reason Jericho could turn is because it was started during draft time. If HHH turns, then Jeff Hardy is on his own against HHH, Kozlov, and Edge. Without two brands, if HHH turns, then Cena and Hardy vs. Edge and HHH sounds like a great TV main event.

These three benefits greatly enhance the show.

Now, the reason they keep the brands split is because the house show division is the single most profitable sector of the company. But having the shows show up together on Monday and Friday (yes, Friday, live SD!) doesn't hurt too bad. You can have the "A" group go to Cincinnati for house shows, and the "B" group go to Tuscaloosa, only to meet up again on Friday in Nashville for the show. Group assignments are changed after feuds end and new one's start. Now instead of the same stale house show twice a year, you get a new one twice a year, which will in turn boost per show revenue.

And I don't believe that the top fifteen guys will monopolize every show. For one, it's not like there would be seven one on one matches on each show. You would get two or three tag matches a week featuring these guys. Furthermore, if HHH wrestles on Raw, he can promo on SD! and possibly make a save or join a beatdown. Undertaker wouldn't wrestles twice a week, neither wood HBK. Cena and Orton could be kept to three TV matches per two weeks. On Raw HHH will often be part of a fifteen minute promo and a 15 minute match on the same show. Put the match on SD! and the promo on RAW, and suddenly 15 minutes is opened up for R-Truth vs. Christian. Not a bad alternative.

One World Title makes it seem more important too. The idea of two world titles seems, well, lame. It's like the fake USC national football title from 2003. LSU is the champion, but USC uses it to inflate their numbers.

 

[Sparky]

Worst part of WWE?
The fueds and Storylines. Cant they come up with anything better? What happend then to the old Fueds and storylines that was interesting? Half the stuff we have now seems to me like it had been thought of by a 5 yearold.

Moves the Moves or lack of moves is annoying. All the moves it seems that people like doing are banned. Cut back on the restrictioin of moves. let them do what ever they are comfortable doing.

StableWe need more decent stables to make things interestng. people working together instead of all for all. with that being said its also the tag team devision that needs improving. there are fuck all decent tag teams.

Prolly more but thats all for now.

 

[Joker ' Ferreira]

Tag team matches in general. Let's be honest they are predictable and so... they suck.

Everytime a face team is behind on a match, the partner makes the tag and suddenly all changes and they win (almost everytime, I can only recall 2 or 3 times that didn't happen all of them were because of a RKO).

If they can more "surprises" victories to the heels by not even letting one of the faces making "the all mighty" tag, they can become doing it more interesting, for me tag team matches are bad, not because of the performers, almost every team besides Zack & Ryder are good as in-ring performers but the booking is worst than TNA booking.

Other thing I would change is that after Cena victory against Umaga, the "ass attack" on the corner as been countered every single time. Not only once Umaga hit that attack again, it's the same thing as "Twist of Fate" goes for Jeff Hardy.

Edit: And another thing they could change. Make Wrestlemania's matches interesting, don't put all together a month or less before the event itself, the good old times, Wrestlemania matches were announced two or three months and the feud could establish the match as even better than it actually was.

 

[MikePhotoGuy]

ECW is by far the weakest show in the WWE and Extreme in name only. When you think of what E-C-W E-C-W used to be, and what it is now.... ouch.

ECW is basically just a place for mid-carders, and tag-teams to go and wrestle and for Miz and Morrison to talk for half of the show cutting promos for their tag matches on other shows or at PPV.

I think the entire brand needs an overhaul and I don't really know how one would go about doing that. But ideally I would like the ECW title to truly be an EXTREME Championship Wrestling title and only being contested over EXTREME rules.

I also think they need to have more Inter-brand matches. Tommy Dreamer vs Undertaker would be a wicked match for example.

 

[J Fine]

This one isn't too difficult. 2 big things need to be improved:

ECW
It's really not that great. It's not even a shell of it's former self. Personally, I stopped watching. I got bored. I feel that ECW needs to add at least one title to its program. The ECW title is fine, but the roster keeps growing and there are a lot of new guys that need to be shooting for something. When one of them gets too big, they get drafted to Raw or Smackdown and go from there. Basically, they're fighting for their jobs. I think it would be awesome if they brought the hardcore title back into play. It would fit in so nicely seeing that the E stands for Extreme in ECW. Old school rules, crazy hardcore matches, a great way for new guys to pay their dues before getting drafted to raw or smackdown. If not the hardcore title, either the cruiserweight (growing number of high flyers will make it fun) or the european championship. My vote is on the hardcore title. That would be fun.

Stables
Legacy. Thats all there is. The tag team division is suffering because it's just a bunch of duos of wrestlers. Let's add some numbers into the mix. I think Legacy should become a massive stable spanning all 3 brands and involving all of the "generational" wrestlers. To stop them, the tag teams will need to combine forces, creating stables and turning the WWE into chaos that will be worth enjoying. The less predictable, the more enjoyable in my opinion. I went into this Legacy idea in great detail in the other thread about feuds. Let's get things crazy.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

The tag and mid card divisions. Easily.

unify the tag belts. no one is buying it anymore guys. That, in and of itself would add more prestige to them, not to mention the amount of people battling for them. Solidify the US and IC belts. Storylines based around them, champions defending them at PPVS. obvuiously, you cant put them ALL on there, but at least one or the other at every show would be good enough, and far better than it is now. It makes it difficult to take anything besides the ME scene as serious when its not even vaugley feigned that the tag titles or mid card mean jack squat shit. I do belive however, that all of these are easily solved.

 

[CDR]

Pay-per-views, build up for matches, brands

The WWE hasn't had as much "awe-inspiring" moments as it seems they used to. And I think that's happened because the build-up for pay-per-views hasn't been that great. It feels like the biuld up for matches and the matches itself are beeing rushed. Take Batista vs. Randy Orton for example, this was supposed to be a big, four years in the making match. But it didn't get the hype it deserved because the build up is bad.

I think that happens because pay-per-views happen WAY too often. There's a PPV every 4 weeks. That's just four shows to build up the match and it's just simply not enough. There is currently 14 PPVs. Divide that by days in a year(365) and it comes out to be roughly 25 days. That's not even 4 weeks!! They should cut the less important PPVs like One Night Stand, GAB, and Cyber Sunday. And maybe some others too.

Or if they didn't wanna do that they could go back to the brand-exclusive PPVs. They were good and you actually had time to build up for matches instead of rushing them all. These types of PPVs also allowed for more members of the brand on a PPV card, thus forwarding their characters and keeping them from beeing burried under all the main eventers too.

 

[Tenta]

I would rebuild all of the developmental territories.

One of the things I've noticed is that these kids that are coming onto Smackdown, RAW, and ECW are just simply lacking something. Be it mic skills, a gimmick, creativity, I'm not sure what you call it. Most of these wrestlers just don't look ready for prime time. Can you honestly tell me you see Scotty Goldman and Ricky Ortiz as stars in the WWE? I'll be shocked if these kids last more than six months before being wished a happy future endeavors.

How do we protect these kids? Rebuild the developmental territories. Let these kids spend time not just in one developmental territory like FCW, but in different areas. There's no reason a wrestler shouldn't be spending four or five years somewhere like OVW or Deep South unless they've perfected their craft. Let them learn how to build a character. Granted, some of these guys get tossed absolute shit for a gimmick. But unless these kids can make their gimmicks work, they won't make it anywhere. Steve Austin had to go through a lot before Stone Cold finally came to be. Shawn Michaels was a fucking Rocker and wasn't a threat to anyone until he went to go see Vince one day. The fact is, unless you stand out, you're going to be given absolutely nothing to work with. That's why Vince loves big guys so much; they stand out far more than the regular wrestler. Don't just give these kids one stop in a territory, and let that be it for the guy. I would definitely work with more promotions to breed exclusive talent to WWE, and once they've done that, let the wrestlers build in different promotions. Give a kid like a year in OVW, or what have you, and then send him to FCW. It's like the minor leagues in baseball... Don't let a kid go from Single A to the major leagues unless he's ready. Send him through a progression, to Double and Triple A, until you feel the kid can build a character and work.

 

[TheGreatSPAMbino]

Ok, if you think that the Intercontinental division and the Tag ddivison are the main problems in WWE then you are wrong. Are they problems, yes, but not the biggest one. The biggest problem in the WWE is the mentality of the creative team. The number one thing wrestling fans and tv viewers enjoy is unpredictablility. The wwe writing formula needs to change, im sick of seeing the following on every raw: 20 min promo setting up main event, run in during main event setting up pay epr view match, the guy that gets the advantage heading into the ppv is actually going to lose. It is sad that we can predict everything that is going to happen on a consistent basis.

For wrestling to truly improve the system needs to be changed, start throwing curveballs to generate interest. change the formula to increase unpredictablility. Dont be afriad to take risks and turn someone face and turn someone heel. When building a match the WWE needs to look at what the outcome of that macth would normally have been, and go the opposite direction. SWERVE the audience, put the belt on someone out of nowhere and dont be afriad to have title change hands on raw every once and a while. Give someone new a shot at becoming a star. Actually create storylines and character, truly intricate storylines are gone in this era, its just: "i want the title" nowadays for the most part. Lastly, END THE BRAND SPLIT. Nothing has grown more stale than the brand split, ending it is the best way to generate some interest back into wwe programming, now you dont have to have watered down shows every week and you can actually have shows worth watching.

 

[klunderbunker]

ANother thing that needs to be improved is the way that matches can be ended. It seems as if no one wins anything with a move other than their finisher. I'm watching SD and Edge landed a Full Nelson Slam. Not his finisher, but Matt was down and not even a cover. Edge just kept looking for the spear, same with Matt and the Twist of Fate. It would seem to me that from a total mark perspective, any move that gets a three count for you would be good enough. By loosening it up a bit and letting other moves get pins or maybe throw in a random submission, not only do you make the matches less predictable, but it seems as if the match can end at any moment.

 

[NSL]

ANother thing that needs to be improved is the way that matches can be ended.

While agree with you, that too many people rely on their (sometimes shitty) finishers, and that match endings need to be improved, I see a bigger problem with match endings...

I don't get to watch too much WWE TV, but it seems like when I do, there isn't a whole show, where a match doesn't end in a count-out...

This is OK for some feuds, like the MVP/Matt Hardy feud, where MVP was trying to avoid saying he was pinned by Hardy, and it works if a heel is getting his ass kicked, and makes a quick get away...But, to beat someone down, and run back to the ring for a cheap win, doesn't help eithe rperson in the match.

I'd rather see Edge do 3 spears to take down his opponent, then smash his face off the stairs and guardrail 5 times, and slide back in the ring at 8...