Mcmahon wants more..

[Rokitka]

Well about a week ago..there was a topic in the articles on the Wrestlezone main page of Vince Mcmahon wanting higher ratings. They also stated the idea to get higher ratings was the change around raw and smackdown. They were going to have Raw go back to its edgier formula like in the 90s and they were going to make Smackdown be like Wrestling back in the 80s (which fits Batista and all the other horrible ones on the mic perfectly). I was wondering what everyone thought on this and if you think it could still work. For you former-WWE veiwers, would this make you watch again? Is edgier the answer?

 

[t.N.a. 4 Life]

Yeah, I agree with that. RAW has been HORRIBLE lately. I used to get excited on Monday mornings, now I just watch and hope that they will get better. They have some good guys on RAW, but the DX crap, Eugene/Hacksaw, Spirit Squad, and WWE Legends are just making it harder to watch. I won't stop watching, I'll just keep complaining to my friends

 

[Skullz Crack'Em]

I wouldn't blame Vince for wanting more ratings b/c if you look at the ratings RAW had 6-7 years ago you would see ratings ranging from 5.5 to 8.5. Today it is only 3.5(RAW) and 2.5(SD). I hope RAW does make a significant change but honestly i don't see RAW changing very much but that it will practically stay the same as it is now. SD won't change much either but i already think it has a good layout of an 80's style anyways, all they need to do is cut out the ring promos and convert them to backstage interviews so there will be more time for matches.

 

[dxfan23]

i used to do the same, get all excited for raw, but now it is all predictable. every week, dx against rated rko, squad vs legends, hardy vs nitro and the list continues. im one of the biggest dx fans around, and i hate when people say crap about them, but now im starting to understand why people say stuff. raw really needs to get back into the attitude era again like when dx was bad and austin didn't give a fuk on what went on and make the show with a rating for mature audiences. its too much of a family show now. anyone else agree?

 

[xDJx]

i used to do the same, get all excited for raw, but now it is all predictable. every week, dx against rated rko, squad vs legends, hardy vs nitro and the list continues. im one of the biggest dx fans around, and i hate when people say crap about them, but now im starting to understand why people say stuff. raw really needs to get back into the attitude era again like when dx was bad and austin didn't give a fuk on what went on and make the show with a rating for mature audiences. its too much of a family show now. anyone else agree?

Agreed with that completly raw isnt what it used to be <_< and i'm thinkin of puttin smackdown and raw together again would do wonders for the federation

 

[CCFC Bluebirds]

True, WWE's product has been on a downward spiral ever since that bloody roster split. I say bring Raw and Smackdown back together and get rid of some of the crap wrestler's which just flood the roster.

 

[Kasey]

They just need more cohesion and athleticism in the product. Gimmicks need not be pushed as much these days. The wrestling has suffered greatly because of this mentality. Even in the company logo the word "wrestling" comes before "entertainment." This needs to be drilled into the heads of those behind the scenes who approach the shows in a completely ass-backwards modus operandi. They have all the tools to re-energize all of their shows and make them truly great again. WWE also needs to trim the fat with regards to wrestlers who can't perform at the top level in the business. Wrestlers who can't handle the singles division need to be put into tag teams and the tag divisions need to be nursed back to health. The potential has always been there...they just have to use it.

 

[greenbeast95]

I agree alot with what Kasey's saying. My big issue is that there's nothing behind the feuds anymore. Rarely do we see a good feud. It's like WWE just throws guys out there, and announces this is the feud for next 4 weeks to lead up to a pay-per-view. Next month we'll have some new one's for ya. There's no realism to them whatsoever! What happened to feuds that really made you think these guys hated eachother? Where's the unpredictable aspects of Live Television?

 

[NeoScyther]

I agree alot with what Kasey's saying. My big issue is that there's nothing behind the feuds anymore. Rarely do we see a good feud. What happened to feuds that really made you think these guys hated eachother?

First off, I know that there was more in the middle of the above quote, but I just wanted to use those few lines.

Second, I fully agree with the above. I've only been watching WWE since the McMahon/Helmsly Era, so the biggest feud I saw was probably Rock/Austin, but that was one hell of a feud to say the least.

I also agree that things have gotten quite predictable on Raw. If I had a Tivo (because my VCR sucks) and could record two Raws in back-to-back weeks, especially out of the last few, I'd almost be watching the same show.

I really hate how some superstars get let go and others that can't do shit stay around, especially in the women's division. Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the Diva's themselves, but the Women's Division is practically non-existant now that Lita and Trish are gone, and what's left seems to be going downhill (Mickie and Victoria are notable exceptions). I mean, why would you release Diva's that can or WANT to compete (Molly, Nidia, Gail Kim, etc.) and replace them with Diva's that shouldn't be in the ring to begin with? If properly pulled off I'd love to see the Women's belt retired and the Hardcore Title come back with the 24/7 rule, especially if they're going back to an edgier 90's style.

 

[PlatynumX420]

if ecw cant be extreme why should raw or smackdown get the hardcore title? hardcore matches are a big no no now according to mcmahon


i dont see how raw can be get edgy like it was in the late 90's. theres no stone cold to drink beer and flip ppl off. theres no crude dx and wont be since michaels religious turn. theres no 'satanic' undertaker and plus he's on smackdown. the rock is an actor now even tho he wasnt edgy but he was 'the most electrifying man in sports-entertainment'.

the attitude era is dead and mcmahon needs to get over it. it pisses me off vince saying heyman iscaught in the past. i think vince is the one caught in the past. he fucktard's (vince) product isnt what it used to be so now he's gonna try to do what used to work for it. why couldnt he have let ECW do that??? i said it in another post and i m gonna say it here again . Vincent K. Mcmahon is a goddamn fucktard.

 

[Kasey]

I agree alot with what Kasey's saying. My big issue is that there's nothing behind the feuds anymore. Rarely do we see a good feud. It's like WWE just throws guys out there, and announces this is the feud for next 4 weeks to lead up to a pay-per-view. Next month we'll have some new one's for ya. There's no realism to them whatsoever! What happened to feuds that really made you think these guys hated eachother? Where's the unpredictable aspects of Live Television?

It's just been a long time since I watched a feud that I was chomping at the bit to see finish up on a PPV. Even if there were worked or semi-worked shoots, the shows would be all the better for it. Instead of the cartoon-land mentality. It just pisses me off greatly when I see Undertaker still zapping dudes with lightning. I'm sure this greatly impresses all of the five year olds watching, but the rest of us who've actually passed the fourth grade want to vomit on our remote controls. I appreciate Callaway as a worker, but I'd be much happier if he found a happy medium between the Badass and the over-the-top Deadman gimmicks. As an example of a properly set up feud (even if the matches sucked) I look back at Piper/Hogan from 1996. They had a phenomenal buildup starting at Halloween Havoc with an interview after the main event where Piper made references to their first Wrestlemania encounter and they talked some great trash to each other en route to building a huge match for Starrcade that year. Or when Ausin threw the Rock's belt in the drink on Raw. I almost pissed myself from laughing that night. The intelligence is missing from that stuff these days. I see faint glimpses of it in WWE and TNA, but there is truly nothing like what was done in years past.

 

[makeitvab]

Personally I want the undertaker to just....LEAVE. He's boring as all other to watch in the ring, he looks terrible for his age and that makes his gimmick look even more like a joke. The whole lightning/eye rolling/tongue sticking out crap just turns me off from watching smackdown knowing he's a large part of it.

I was very disapointed because I felt that Orton and Edge teaming up was going to be HUUUUUUGE....nope. Most of the time they haven't even directly FOUGHT DX. IT's been with other people in the ring, or just plain other people that aren't dx. Did we really need that 8 man tag match on raw? It would've been a better product if they weren't so fucking lazy and built feuds up individually instead of just clusterfucking them together.

What I DON'T get however is that it would NOT be hard for them to make a GOOD product. Nearly everyone else that does not WORK for the WWE seems to know what is needed, they might not be 100% right but it all sounds better then this crap.


Oh btw I still look forward to Raw. Think it's because it's live and I like Rated R.K.O despite that feud being in limbo. Can't describe it, but Smackdown is "Eh" if I watch it because it isn't live and is edited and I can just read results should I miss it.

I don't want them to make it all attitude era, just improve on thnigs. Cut down HHH's/DX's god damn promo and entrance time it's mind boggling how much they get. Make the tag belts on both shows worth a damn, frankly...SCRAP the divas. I don't need eye candy for my WWE. I tune in to watch the storylines and wrestling revolving around the men. I never got into womens wrestling just because it seemed "Tacked on". Eliminate them, save some big $ and air time for more important shit. Make gregory helms feud with someone who can take his belt, or just vacate it from him...etc etc...you all know what I'd list if I kept going because a vast majority feels the same.

Alex~Vab

 

[jawn87]

maybe they should go with this. it might be a better idea than what they have been doing. see, they have been keeping the good stuff from us fans, and you know its very very bad when one of RAWs top superstars even points out how bad it is on there.

 

[Brilliance In Supremacy]

The one thing that should not happen but is always happening is depriving one show of its stars for the benefit of another show. Smackdown has been stripped of practically half its roster this past year.

 

[Jcice24]

What I have read in Bischoff's book is true. All the storylines are just about gone. There isnt alot more that wrestling can do as far as storylines go. We as the avid wrestling fans catch on very quick and have just about seen it all. What else is there to do?

 

[G-Money]

i used to do the same, get all excited for raw, but now it is all predictable. every week, dx against rated rko, squad vs legends, hardy vs nitro and the list continues. im one of the biggest dx fans around, and i hate when people say crap about them, but now im starting to understand why people say stuff. raw really needs to get back into the attitude era again like when dx was bad and austin didn't give a fuk on what went on and make the show with a rating for mature audiences. its too much of a family show now. anyone else agree?

I blame the internet for it being predictable. They tell you what is going to happen before it even happens.

 

[I_Heart_Princess_P]

I long for the days of when Triple H and Evolution ruled RAW.

 

[Kasey]

I blame the internet for it being predictable. They tell you what is going to happen before it even happens.

Don't blame the internet, Money. Hell, I haven't read spoilers for angles since 1998. But when they keep replaying the same matches and basically the same schemes over and over, how can it not be predictable. Especially when they keep pushing some matches that don't even get over in the first place. The fact that Duggan and Flair were even allowed to wrestle this years says loads to what the creative team is thinking can succeed. This is the kind of stuff they used to poke fun at WCW for with stuff like the Huckster/Nacho Man bit. There is also a general lack of creativity to match outcomes and clean victories in important matchups are fewer and further between. It's the same kind of mentality that did WCW in. It's also been working it's way into TNA thanks to Russo.

 

[lapel8533]

Well I heard they were going to make wwe cool agian whatever that means. I'm thinking something like the attitude era.

 

[xxmonsterpimpxx]

I like smackdown and ECW better than RAW. THERS SO MANY REASONS WHY ITS BETTER. !)SMACKDOWN AND ECW IS MORE WRESTLING,RAW is just fucking dumbass CENA(who fucking sucks really bad and can lose to batista nyatime) act likes hes black."CENA your not black". 2)move smackdown to thursdays so more people can watch it. if more people can watch smackdown its more ratings. 3)give all of ecw titles back and its in the mix and basically its more wrestling then raw ever gave in the past 2 years

 

[masterrapper123]

first off ecw does not have enough time for them to get all their belts back
it would turn out like raw
i also think that the fans are to blame for some predictability, there the ones that go to smackdown and ecw and get the spoilers
and when u see that u have the oppurtunity to hear stuff before it happens u get intrigued
they cant throw any real good storylines at us because they are used up
i love dx but they arent what they used to be
they cant make fun of tna like they did to wcw because tna is smaller and already waas used
the wwe needs new writers but i just believe that wwe is past their prime unless the rosters are back to before the split

 

[Randolph H]

The WWE needs to reformat its programming. First starting with the belts, over the past years the Championships have been degraded because each show has a "World Champion" etc... There needs to be only one world champion in the WWE products. There needs to be only one World Tag team title.

Smackdown needs to become a different show instead of being a weaker version of Raw. Take all the top guys from smack down and put them on Raw. Make Smackdown a cruiser weight and high flying show, Having the top championship as the World Light Heavy Weight title, Cruiser weight title, and the international tri team title (something innovative).

Move all the guys that don't fit on Raw or Smackdown to ECW. Bring back all the old ecw championships. Don't associate ECW with WWE on either shows until the to Wrestling Organizations collide.

 

[Kasey]

^Solid ideas. The flavor of each show needs to be vastly different from the others and they haven't done much more than change the stage setup to do this. I think if they have a world champion, he should go back and forth between each of the major shows (Raw and Smackdown) and that the ECW belt should strictly be a hardcore title and never decided by a DQ. Interesting idea about the tri-team title. Would that be for six-man tag? Or for three tag-teams in a three-way dance? Either way, cool idea. I'm in the group who thinks there needs to be a fundamental overhaul in ALL of the shows to really play to a certain strength and make each show unique, instead of having all the WWE product feel like one big, $hitty run-on sentence of disjointed booking and sub-par wrestling. They have the talent to do all of this stuff, but they rest on their laurels too damn much.

 

[blowjoe5]

I agree an overhaul is needed on all the shows. There are a few things that really would make WWE great again but it's not all that likely vince would do them. The WWE needs the attitude era back. As someone said before, it's become too family friendly now. It's become quite circus like in my opinion. The rosters should be put back together and ecw scrapped. With a tag team division including wgtt, the hardyz, london and kenderick, regal and taylor, mnm, orton and edge (for now), people like trips, hbk, taker, kane, orten, edge and cena after the wwe title. helms, rey, matt hardy, chavo, jeff hardy etc after the cruiserweight title and then an IC/US title division of rvd, sabu, carlito, batista, finlay, booker, benoit then you have the makings of an amazing show. Rather than having two shows a week, wwe could maybe have a three hour raw and then smackdown would be similar to heat but with more wrestling and less raw footage. smackdown as a pure wrestling show. Also, WWE needs a propperly hated authority figure. Vince is great at it but doesn't get enough heat. Shame wwe couldn't hire russo just as an onscreen character with no power over booking etc. People really hate him so it would work brilliantly. That kind of character would be perfect for a return to the attitude era. A complete heel boss that could help a new austin/rock type of character get over.

 

[v14ever]

McMahon just needs to go back to pure "wrestling", period. They can still have that entertainment aspect, but sell the superstars as "wrestlers" not entertainers. People still like the promos and vignettes, but I think they will appreciate the wrestling part of it as well.

Also, they need to cut down on PPVs. The PPV industry is already dilluted and washed up. Why not just have the "big three" (RR, WM, SS) all three shows can showcase their guys on those PPVs and possibly add one in the summer like the GAB. The writers can then lengthen storylines and it will mean more when the PPV happens.