One Major Thing The WWE Needs to Revamp?

[MinistryofDeath89]

In your opinion what is the one major thing that the WWE needs to revamp??

For me it's got to me the WWE Title it needs to be retired and they need to bring in a new WWE title a title that suits everyone that becomes champion.. Attitude Title suited everyone who held it, the WWE title did not suit anyone who held it. Apart from John Cena

So what do you think needs to be seriously revamped in the WWE it can be anything that you want.

 

[aussiewwefan]

the title needs it but wwe has a toy deal with matel a as i know with my cousins they all want the spiner belt
i want the stage redone be its looking a bit old now it close to 4 years old and is looking out dated
h

 

[crowbartotheface]

Someone needs to find out what John Cena's kryptonite is. I'm getting sick of they way they book him as Super Cena it needs to end. I honestly don't remember the last time he's lost clean.

 

[vampirek]

The title can stay, its not that much of an issue. Cena can remain the 21st Century Hogan but the revamp really has to be the brand split and the midcard. Get rid of the brand split, its there for only touring reasons and hardily used on tv apart from stupid storylines or the draft.

Overhaul the midcard, keep both titles and allow the entire midcard to go after either one. Those that aren't being used, put them in the tag team division and boost them up that way.

Have one world title, put the likes of Morrison, Truth back into the midcard until they know how to push them right (i.e. not a quick 1 month heel turn etc).

Divas shouldn't be split either, utterly pointless having them stuck on Smackdown when the title is on Raw so end their split too and actually use the talen they actual have.

So the revamp is quite simple, end the split (those who say talent will be further disadvantaged... gives them a good reason to do a spring clean then)

 

[The Universal Re-monster]

Here we go... an other Cena-Bashing/Push Ryder thread. Fuck it, I'll play.

How about some added emphasis to the world, tag, and mid-card titles? Have meaningful feuds for them, drop a "main-event" guy down to win the US or IC. Put some emphasis into tag teams. I'm not asking for UFC level prestige, but some inkling of matter would really be nice.

 

[legendkillerbsal]

They need to get rid of some PPV's. Make the story lines longer like they used to so the matches would have more meaning. And have Cena lose the title to go off and fight in grudge matches and push other people to a high status/

 

[FutureChamp328]

WWE has been trying to revamp a lot of stuff that's been slacking lately and here is the proof:

1. Until he was fired Finlay was working on the Diva's division and had been making real progress in that field.

2. The midcard (although still lackluster) has been showing improvements with stars like Daniel Bryan, Sin Cara, Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes, Kofi Kingston, and before he went to the main event last year the Miz all having great feuds both for titles and just in general.

3. The tag division which has been atrocious for the past few years has been looking much stronger lately with teams like the Usos, Slater and Gabriel, possibly the Kings of Wrestling, and the Hart Dynasty before they split up. (To answer your original question out of everything I feel this needs the most work.)

4. The main event has been doing fine and to everybody who says that nobody is moved up anymore looked at all the new faces who have contended for or won World titles recenty: Shemus, Christian, Miz, Wade Barrett, R-Truth, Jack Swagger. Hell Vladimir Kozlov was given title shots shortly after he debuted in 2008-2009.

 

[yur_momma]

i hate to cheat and name two things but you cant really do one without the other...

cut down the number of titles. they mean nothing anymore and giving someone a title doesnt make them more of a superstar. the 70-80s created a seemingly endless string of legends and alot never held a world title. one world title, on mid title and a tag belt. (bye bye womens wrestling)

the second would be ending the roster split. i was for it when they got the ecw and wcw influx of wrestlers but now its a mess...sometimes there is a split but sometimes they pretend it doesnt exist.

and i agree with the guy above me, there is way too many ppv's....

 

[CitiBoy7]

the title needs it but wwe has a toy deal with matel a as i know with my cousins they all want the spiner belt
i want the stage redone be its looking a bit old now it close to 4 years old and is looking out dated
h

I agree with this idea because I miss how every show had its own look and feel to it. You give Smackdown and raw different stage settings and just have superstars before raw and have nxt before smackdown.

If only Smackdowns fist would come back I would be happy.

 

[RKO920]

How about some added emphasis to the world, tag, and mid-card titles? Have meaningful feuds for them, drop a "main-event" guy down to win the US or IC. Put some emphasis into tag teams. I'm not asking for UFC level prestige, but some inkling of matter would really be nice.

I want to expand on this idea because this was something I was thinking. My thought is to almost do like the UFC and have the Intercontinental and the US Title be main event titles, just not every PPV. The thing about UFC is that there is build up to the title matches, people get excited for a title fight, no matter if its the lightweight all the way up to the heavyweight title.

What I'm saying is have number 1 contender matches be more important and have a month long or even longer build up to the title match. Only on the big 4 PPV's will every title be defended so Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series do the titles all be defended. I think by doing this it will bring more excitement towards title matches and make the titles mean more. Also have the champions wrestle on Raw and Smackdown but not against main event talent, more like tune up matches and if you want to elevate someone to a main event status have them beat the champion on one of the shows.

Make wins and losses matter essentially. They want to do this Raw pre-show then make it like an ESPN style show, have stats on the wrestlers, make these Raw and Smackdown matches have an importance, or seem that way and you will want to watch every week to see if your favorite can move up and work his way to get a title shot.

 

[RJB1976]

Put a little effort into booking a decent tag team division. Have shock title changes (Like Christain winning the world title, only let said wrestler have a decent run with the belt)

Give the people a break from Randy Orton and John Cena. What made Miz's title run so fresh was that he wasn't consistantly hounded by Cena.

less backstage skits. Backstage skits were cool in 1999, when they were new. Now they are as passe and boring as the latest Saw movie.

Less models, and more athletes in the women's division.

Less PPV's.

Vince retire.....please. If the rumors are true, and Vince is trying to run the show each week, it's clear that the game (not HHH) has passed Vince by.

And finally.....Bring wrestling back to the fucking program! Some excellent matches this past week. Let's hope that becomes a trend, and not a rarity!

 

[Cats Pajamas]

i hate to cheat and name two things but you cant really do one without the other...

cut down the number of titles. they mean nothing anymore and giving someone a title doesnt make them more of a superstar. the 70-80s created a seemingly endless string of legends and alot never held a world title. one world title, on mid title and a tag belt. (bye bye womens wrestling)

the second would be ending the roster split. i was for it when they got the ecw and wcw influx of wrestlers but now its a mess...sometimes there is a split but sometimes they pretend it doesnt exist...

I do like reading the yur_momma posts but this is one I can't agree with completely. Hear me out...

I think the could easily get rid of the IC/US Titles. Huge [talented] wrestlers are a little more sparse nowadays, I think you could easily get away with a Light Heavyweight Title instead of the [portal to nowhere] "midcard" titles they have now. And how about even a Cruiserweight title? Cruiseeweight wrestling isn't snubbed in other places like it is in WWE. Cruiserweight wrestling has its own history.

As far as a roster split, I still think Vince should've had a little more competition between brands. The Monday Night Wars created some pretty good TV.

And you know the Woman's division has to stay. Awesome Kharma can't stay pregnant t forever and I need to see her save the woman's division then feud with Beth Pheonix. That'll be the best thing to ever happen to woman's division anywhere.

 

[wrestlingfan]

I agree, Kill the Brand Extension, Have 1 World Title, 1 Mid Card, 1 High-Flyer, 1 Tag Team, 1 Women's. Maybe a redesign of titles too.

Also like the UFC does have #1 Contenders DEFEND their #1 Contender status even after the ppv(if they lose against the champion) Also with #1 contenders, I say the contender should go through the whole division to prove why hes the number 1 contender. Not just "WWE randomly picked me, I beat this guy, I win, I get title shot"

 

[imdaman316]

Well I always appreciate questions like this. But like anything else, it has to make sense. Getting rid of the brand split DOESN'T make sense. It's stupid to go back to 300 dates a year with one roster and killing your talent. The brand split allows WWE to maintain it's touring popularity (which is their biggest revenue maker), while maintaining the physical health of it's roster. PPVs aren't going away, so no talk of reducing PPVs.

I think, as much as the IWC may hate it, the biggest changes WWE should make is the re-emphasizing of feuds in the mid-card, as well as devoting more time to storylines on tv. There's no reason every title shouldn't have build-up. There's no reason every match on the PPV shouldn't be given some degree of hype around it. It's ridiculous how many PPV's have only 2-3 storylines for the card. Heck, the Intercontinental Title match at the last PPV was the first time in a while a real storyline was created around the title. Zeke and Barret got about 6 weeks of buildup, and the story was great. Regardless of the quality of the storylines, TNA always does a great job of making sure every match on their PPV has some buildup going into it. WWE should follow suit.

Reduce match times on tv, create more segments, build more storylines. You need time and segments to build stars. Creating more segments increases WWE's ability to do it.

 

[aboynameddirt]

The tag team division for sure. It's become almost non existent, there are hardly any legitimate tag teams anymore.

The Intercontinental and United States titles. They have become so dull and meaningless that almost all prestige is gone from them and they do next to nothing for whoever has them.

I agree that there definitely needs to be something done with the WWE Championship. It's a custom belt that has somehow stuck. Bring back the Undisputed belt, or even the Attitude Era belt...anything that can be taken a little bit more serious.

 

[LegendKiller716]

I got two things.

1.) The writing staff. Hire some new writers to take over. The reason WWE seems so stale is because WWE has had the same head writers for like 10 years. Bring in some new guys to eventually take over.

2.) Do something new, and Innovative. WCW had the criewserweights, ECW had extreme rules, Impact had the X-division. I think a Lucha division would be great. Build around Cara, Mysterio, Del Rio, and Alverno. Ricardo Rodriguez is good, bring up Huncio and Unico. WWE has a whole division on the roster already. Also the kids will love it, as well as wrestling fans. Base it on Smackdown to capture that Latino demographic Vince wants.

 

[jake122683]

Just for them to take pride in their product. I remember when there weren't commercials mid match and the shows were on networks I could find and there was Sunday Night Heat, which was a quality filler, lower-card show. I mean, they don't even bother announcing some of the matches prior to the PPV now. It just seems lazily thrown together with little effort.

 

[AntiChristDeicide]

The best thing WWE could do is to fire the Hollywood writers. I mean for satan's sake they don't know anything about wrestling, so fire their asses and use the road agents as creative writers. At least the road agents know about the buisness.

 

[SMKM]

Storylines involving the minor titles. I want to see Ziggler or Kofi (seriously any other guys on the damn midcard gonna feud for the IC or US besides these 2?) actually have a storyline involvine the title not just "oh were feuding, its a PPV you won? see you next time" and same goes for the tag titles, I wanna see tag promos again. The Corre is no more so get rid of the Nexus next so its not just stable vs random tag. I wanna see Ths Usos make a promo saying theyre after the tag titles and then follow it up with DiBiase and Rhodes stating their dislike in the Usos and Cara/Bryan and that theyll be the ones taking the titles etc etc the main event atm is doing fine besides the fact its cena and orton the title holers but eh its something you come to expect

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

I thought about the WWE title a lot, because I really do think the spinner belt looks childish on anybody except John Cena. It works for him because he invented it (although Edge rocked the Rated-R belt...), but I think Miz would have been taken a LOT more seriously if he had blown up the belt and came out with a new and improved title that is fitting of the "best in the WWE".

I then thought about the stage, and while it's a bit annoying that everything in the WWE is so sterile and that ALL the shows use the same stage set-up...it's not that bad. I understand from a stage-crew perspective that flipping a switch and making the lights and projectionss go from Raw to Superstars to Smackdown is SO much easier than having to set up a completely new stage for recording. And it also makes PPV set-ups seem cooler I think...

I thought about a few more things like John Cena's superman character, the tag team scene, and the lack of midcarders with personality...and then it hit me.

Announcing. The current announce team's for Raw and Smackdown consist of Jerry Lawler and Booker T respectively, with Michael Cole appearing on both shows. I love Booker, but he's just terrible on the table. I thought maybe he'd improve after the first few months, but I think he might have gotten worse. He was brilliant as a trainer on Tough Enough and his ring work is still solid, but he can not announce professional wrestling. Jerry Lawler still has it, but he'll never been as good as he was with Jim Ross in the post-attitude days. And Michael Cole is...Michael Cole. He has the heel persona down, and now that his angle is over he's been a decent announcer again, but there's just too much damage done... I can't hear him without wanting to cringe. The every-other-week beatdown he gets from special guest hosts are even getting stale.

Announcing is the bread-and-butter of pro wrestling. You can have all the fancy high flyers, all the ring generals, and all the technical warriors you want, but without a solid announce team the televised product is going to fall flat. Look for all the best eras of wrestling and you'll find the best announce teams. Heenan/McMahon. Ventura/Monsoon. Cole/Tazz. Ross/Lawler. Today we've got the bored and generic Jerry Lawler that is out of touch with the current product, the god-aweful Booker T, and the annoying as hell heel character played by Michael Cole. The only problem is, Cole is supposed to be the face of commentary. The reason Lawler worked so well as a heel was that Jim Ross was the obvious face of commentary. Having the biggest heel in pro wrestling as the voice of your product is just backwards marketing. That's like putting a "made in Iraq" tag on American flags... But if you're WWE, what do you do about the current state of announcing?

They have an investment in Michael Cole. They can't just drop him and replace him with Booker T. As bad as things are now, that would make things 10x worse. Long term I think they need to start scouting for new blood. Scott Stamford has a cult following, but I've heard him on Superstars and I'm not impressed or convinced he has was it takes to call play-by-play for the major brands. Josh Mathews is probably the best commentator in the WWE right now, and it really bothers me that after so long they haven't pulled the trigger on using him. My gut says there is a lot of politics involved on that table. It's the same duo of Cole and Lawler that got Striker off the table when he was improving every single week and bringing a little bit of wrestling know-how to the team. If they were really interested in building a solid commentary team I would take Booker off the table and replace him with Josh Matthews on a full-time basis. I would them give JBL and Dusty Rhodes a call and have them relieve Cole of his duties on Smackdown so he could concentrate fully on Raw. I would then start looking for new talent so they could eventually move Matthews to the lead position and retire Lawler. Right now I just don't see them planning for the future. That doesn't surprise me though, because they never have when it comes to that position.

 

[LoudClearVoice]

I agree with everyone in here, the belt needs to change, they need to eliminate some PPVs, etc.

What I really think needs to happen is that they need to revamp the whole "two shows, two separate rosters" thing.

I think it should all be one roster and everyone can appear on every show and feud with anyone. The RAW shows where they have smackdown guys are always so much better.

Tying into that (and I could start a whole thread about this) is that I think they need to develop a ranking system, similar to American college football and basketball. Look, we all know WWE is scripted and that any ranking system would be totally arbitrary BUT I think there should be a "poll" with the world champions not included in it. Basically, when they have a match, it would be more than meaningless match, it would affect your ranking. When you are ranked #1 in the poll, you are the #1 contender for either title. If the champion loses, he drops into the rankings and now has to move back up (after his "rematch"). So let's say for example's sake that John Morrison is #5 one week and he fights R-Truth who is #3, at a PPV. If Morrison wins, he moves up to at least #3 possibly 2 or 1 depending on what happened with the others.

The rankings would be made available to the fans (similar to their power rankings on WWE.com) and they would show the rankings continually during the RAW show and the PPVs and stuff.

As I said, we know it wouldn't be real rankings, since it's scripted but at least that would add interest and give fans something more to talk about and argue about.

 

[AntiChristDeicide]

I think it should all be one roster and everyone can appear on every show and feud with anyone. The RAW shows where they have smackdown guys are always so much better.

SDS1582 bad idea. I get what you are saying, but it wouldn't work like you think it would. The reason WWE split the rosters, was to get more time for everyone. Did it work? Not really, but having both rosters on the same show isn't going to help matters.

Anyways, i stand by my previous post. Fire all the Hollywood writers and give their jobs to the road agents, at least the road agents are formers wrestlers so they know the buisness.

 

[MarcOmega]

RAW/SD Divide
They seem to be carrying on with this brand split even though there is no real competition between brands i.e. Bragging Rights and SVR series being scrapped this year (Oh well **sarcasm**). But what I miss about pre-HD WWE was the different sets. Okay so they have the same set to save money and I'm all for that but how about arranging them differently have the RAW stage as it is now but change SD a little.

Titles
Most emphasis on titles. The IC title used to have amazing matches, Benoit/Jericho ladder match at the 2001 Royal Rumble, Val Venis/Rikishi Fully Loaded 2000, Eddie Guerrero/RVD, Hardy/Morrison, Randy Orton/Edge(?). Same for the US title the best of seven series matches, tournaments etc. They used to garner more attention than some world title matches. I think someone mentioned it here but perhaps drop a main event guy down to hold that title ala Triple H in 2001.

I used to love the tag team division in WWE, had some brilliant tag teams in recent times, The Hardys (before shitting on themselves), Dudleys, E&C, WGTT, Los Guerreros, APA. 5 halves of these teams became world champions and thats how you develop guys is start off tag team ala HBK, Bret Hart then they break out. Come on WWE, stop being lazy however it is getting better (shouldnt of split the Hart Dynasty up)

More emphasis on story telling, i find alot of the storylines are pretty half arsed and don't really capture my attention as of late though R-Truths character has comedic villian value and Alex Rileys break away from The Miz has me intrigued, he can cut a pretty good promo which is rare for someone in their first year.

As for the rankings idea...didnt TNA try doing that and it ended up falling flat as TNA does regularly! I dont think it would work!

 

[JBShakes]

For me, the big problem that causes all the smaller problems is the PPV calendar. A monthly PPV means that the writers/bookers start approaching their work with a "template" mindset - meaning there's a stock way of approaching every angle, feud, etc.

Right now, Wrestlemania is really the only PPV that seems to get any build longer than a month, with the possible exception of SummerSlam - taking 3/4 PPVs out of the calendar would force the writers to think outside of the box in terms of keeping angles fresh while they wait for the next PPV to wrap things up.

As for a suggestion I've seen from several posters here - I'd like to ask: what BENEFIT would be derived from unifying the WWE and WH championships? Isn't one of the big complaints right now that the top of the card is too focused on Cena and Orton? Wouldn't unifying the two top titles only make the number of guys in focus at the top of the card SMALLER?

 

[King Blitzkonic]

If they were really interested in building a solid commentary team I would take Booker off the table and replace him with Josh Matthews on a full-time basis. I would them give JBL and Dusty Rhodes a call and have them relieve Cole of his duties on Smackdown so he could concentrate fully on Raw. I would then start looking for new talent so they could eventually move Matthews to the lead position and retire Lawler. Right now I just don't see them planning for the future. That doesn't surprise me though, because they never have when it comes to that position.

Mike, yer a damn great poster, lots of respect.

You had me perfectly right up till the part I quoted. Yes, definitely keep Cole full-time on Raw. The main problem I see is I really don't like Matthews on the table. He really does look like a little boy at the table with men. I suppose with Cole gone that would change the look a bit, but we'll have to see. If they're going to insist on a 3-man team (which I really hate), put Cole and Lawler with WILLIAM REGAL on Raw. I've always liked Regal on the mic and I really do think he would do well on a main show. I'd rather hear him make a GM announcement than Cole.

On Smackdown, I rather like the idea of JBL coming back to announce. Put him and Matthews and Striker together. Booker cuts good promos but he definitely stinks it up on announce. Let him stay on Tough Enough with Bill and Trish.

The main thing I would change is the booking. Come on now, WWE, you have two creative teams. Why in the hell are you booking SuperCena on Raw/SuperOrton on SD! facing off against conspiracy theory heels R-Truth/Christian? The parallel booking that WWE gets into the habit of doing just really doesn't sit well with me. Let Raw and SD! be completely different dynamics and let the rating speak for themselves. Personally I'd like to see SD! go on USA rather than SyFi but that's just me.

While we're on Orton there is one other thing that needs to change. Orton never was and never will be a Superman character. He is the Viper, the very definition of an anti-hero. Booking needs to keep it fresh with him or his face run will go the route of Cena.