Three Ways You Would Make Raw A Better Product

[ryan86]

This exact topic has been on my mind for about the past 10 years, to bad i'm only alowed so many charahters, so this will be difficult:

1) Get rid of the "Circus" atmosphere. Remember the Gobly Gooker? Well that same embarrassing type gimmik seems to morph it's self in different ways onto the WWE Product. Santino, Hornswoggle, The Boogie Man (at one point), or The Muppets coming to Raw ect.., all that needs to stop. It makes me emmbarrased to watch.

2) The international stars need to better represent their country by being someone their respective countries can truley be proud of. Don't you think the U.K. wants a Randy Orton over slant face Barret? Or Ierland Wanting a Young rising stud like Cody over a pale, red hair Sheamus? WWE needs to stop patronizing and steriotyping the international fan base.

3) Grab some of those Abercrombie & Fitch marketers to start designing clothing merchandise. They could also mix up the ring attire for certain wrestlers to help them appear more modern to a broader audience.

 

[I_amPerfection]

Getting rid of the Divas would be a start, they add nothing in terms of in ring value. I mean keep them there to look at but that's about all they are good for..

Secondly I think they need to return to a more edgier style of wrestling, RAW was at it's greatest during the Monday Night Wars when the WWE had actual competition in WCW and had to make each show bigger and better.

Finally use more of their roster to a higher standard, the WWE has some great wrestler who usually just float around show after show unless they are involved in story lines with some of the bigger stars such as Cena & Orton. They have the US and IC titles why not make a proper division out of them. This applies to the Tag Team Titles, long gone are the days of Edge & Christian, The Hardy Boys and The Dudley Boys.

 

[geroge86]

1. Have more hardcore matches actually bring back the hardcore title as well as dropping the PG rating in order for that to happen
2. Start utilizing Curt Hawkins,Drew McIntyre,Alex Riley and Michael McGillicutty on Raw
3. Intergender assault be brought back as well. I'm not talking about men beating up women but women hurting men with low blows and stuff because it was a good way for heel divas to get over or a face diva to do it to a heel like when Trish did it to Mr. McMahon because the crowd really gets a joy out of a popular diva emasculating a guy they can't stand and it also shows female empowerment which may attract more female fans. My sister used to love Chyna because she would step in the ring with men and wasn't afraid to get involved.

 

[Mike Diesel]

The first part of your argument is okay, sometimes the comedy stuff can be a bit much, but it doesn't usually bother me. I personally thought the muppets were fun for one night, but I'm more than all set with Hornswoggle.


But as for the "young rising star Cody over a pale, red haired Sheamus", it doesn't really make sense. There is no doubt Cody is a young rising star, he's on a nice roll right now. But as for Sheamus not doing Ireland proud? Correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't he in the middle of a very big push as the 2nd face of Smackdown, well on his way to a WHC match in the somewhat near future? Almost every time he's in a match, the commentators bring up how SHeamus is the first ever Irish born champion, seems like that's something that Ireland can be proud of, no? Not really sure how that's a stereotype or patronizing.

As for the 3rd thing, not sure how you could really modernize people's trunks, maybe glue an iphone 4s to the back of them?

BTW, your spelling is atrocious, geez

 

[marklouis]

1) Change the announcers. Cole is insufferable, & Lawler offers nothing. Many times I mute the TV while I'm watching. Problem is, I'm not sure who can replace them. JR can replace Cole, but he isn't a long-term answer. Maybe Regal could replace Lawler. But please, not Booker T, he's worse than Lawler.

2) Install a new GM. The GM needs to have charisma & be able to speak coherently, 2 things Johnny Ace simply cannot do. He/she also needs to be a strong authority figure. Again, I'm not sure who to use here. Maybe Mick Foley? Maybe Vince? There has to be someone better than Ace.

3) Stop with the guest hosts. They really offer nothing, both creatively & ratings wise. No one who isn't a wrestling fan will watch because of them, & giving them air time alienates loyal wrestling fans.

I'll give you a 4th: stop mentioning twitter every 5 minutes. We get it Vince. You just discovered twitter. I've known about it for 2 years. And if you ever read the comments people make on twitter, you wouldn't be so quick to promote them. Just because people mention your product doesn't mean they like what they are seeing.

 

[RKO920]

1. End the Supershow aspect, Raw has enough young talent that should be showcased without Orton, Henry, Show, Sheamus, Cody, and other Smackdown superstars taking up precious minutes for these guys to be built up to be the future of the WWE.

2. Make the US Title mean something. I know its only a matter of time before Ziggler drops the title to Ryder but I heard something interesting on the Bret vs Shawn DVD, Shawn said about the IC title back in the 90's that the title was given to the guy who would go out there and work the hardest and best match of the night (I'm paraphrasing but it was along those lines). So if sometimes a guy like ADR has to take a step back to a US Title match just to get back into the WWE title picture I think it would do wonders for the division.

3. Add another potential WWE title contender or 2. Going back to July and probably going into December we will have had 6 straight months about the title picture being about 3 guys, Punk, ADR, and Cena. Have someone do a slow buildup to a title run so the fans can get behind them. Have The Miz finally get back into the picture, or give Ziggler a title match or at least a small program with Punk after he drops the title and has a rematch with Ryder. I think the title picture as a whole would be better if every few months fresh faces were thrown in and not just the predictable same few guys.

 

[paulopunk]

Not so much Raw but WWE as a whole.

1. Scrap the split and everything about it. I really don't see the point in it. Most of Smackdowns big stars are appearing on Raw at the moment anyways. They don't necessarily have to have Punk, Cena, Orton, HHH appear on Smackdown every week, but it have one or two of them on there. They can do away with the titles as well. Just have one Heavyweight Title, Intercontinental, Telivision, Tag Team and maybe a Hardcore Title. Scrap general managers. They are completley pointless as well.

2. Scrap the divas. Utter shite.

3. Scrap the PG era as a whole. I know that they can appeal to kids more in the PG era, but they were at their most popular in the attitude era so its surely got to be worth a shot.

 

[multiverseman.com]

1. If you're going to have a Diva's division in the PG era, take it seriously. No more models who can't wrestle. Make it a prominent, competitive and important part of the product.

2. Internet presence. WWE has it ALL wrong. Rewarding Zach Ryder for original thinking is the best thing they've done in a long time. All the Twitter references? Terrible. Tell you talent that thinking outside the box and figuring out ways to get themselves over will be rewarded. Let the wrestlers be themselves and run their own webpages and Twitters. Do an interactive PPV that's truly interactive. Let the fans decide a few of the matches by themselves. Let them pick both contenders and the type of match without trying to influence or put restrictions on it. If they want to see Orton vs. Hornswoggle in a steel cage, let them.

3. The announcers are terrible. Not just Cole, but Lawler too.

 

[PunkIsGod]

Those are not the ways to make RAW better, those are the ways to make RAW the way you like it. Maybe you will find it awesome, but maybe millions of people won´t and you have to close the company in a few years.

 

[ryan86]

MarkLouis:

If your were entertained by the "Muppets" and you are not embarassed by goofy circus gimmicks, and you'r how old? 30?...

I admit that my spelling is pretty bad. What I write is all me, and I don't run it through "spell check". Now if I were in position of power like the super, great, and awesome mods, I would most definatly run my words through auto spell check.

But the main thing here is respecting thought out post, responding in a manner that provides an informative input of your own ideas, and staying away from characther assasination.

And yes, from the international fans I talk to, especially in Italy where both my grand parents live and are from, I get a lot of negative feed back. Especially in terms of WWE being a yanky joke with international sattire. Most are offended.

And I am willing to take any IWC heat for this but Cody is a much more valuable long-term comodedy than Sheamus. Sheamus will be riding the mid card on SD a year from now. He's a complete turn off for those with eyes.

 

[NegativeFeedback]

1) Get rid of the Raw announcers. They need to drastically change the commentary team. They have Matt Striker, Jack Korpela, Josh Matthews, Booker T, William Regal, Michael Cole, Jim Ross, Scott Stanford and Jerry Lawler and they chose the two weakest of the bunch to represent Raw. I think they should really focus on having Josh Matthews, Scott Stanford to represet Raw. Young guys who will be announcing for a long time and can cement themselves as the new voices of Raw.

Either that, or bring in both Edge and the injured Christian. That would be the most awesome commentary team of all time.

2) Give guys time off. Every wrestler has to take an obligatory 1 month off every year. That means that we'll have a month without John Cena and Alberto Del Rio. Another month without The Miz and R-Truth. Another month without The Big Show and Dolph Ziggler. You get the deal. Not only will this help each wrestler get a break and relax, but it will allow everyone to get a little exposure during the year. With Cena gone for a month, Zack Ryder can step up and show what he's got for at least 30 days.

3) End the Supershow aspect and start featuring their own wrestlers. Guys like Drew Mac, Curt Hawkins, Joe Hennig and Alex Riley don't receive the time of day on Raw because Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton keep hogging the spotlight. Give the young guys the opportunity to prove themselves and stop delegating them to NXT. If they don't want some of these guys, they can easily release them. But until then, they should appear on the show and have a chance to prove their worth.

 

[alexg]

1 the commentators. lawler dosent seem to care anymore. booker t is the worst commentator out there hes always saying one thing than going back on it. cole is a good commentator when hes not being over the top stupid he calls the match good but at the end they try to make him super annoying.

2. everybodies saying it but the divas division sucks with the pg era all theyre matches are boring. they should just make them managers or backstage commentators.

3. get rid of laurinitis (sp?) his stupid lawyer and del rio out of the championship run they are just to boring. john serves no purpose anymore since they seemed to have thrown out the conspiracy story. otunga is just stupid with his whole harvard thing. and adr is just boring as hell punk was dead right usually i watch raw online and when ever he come out i first have to fastforward his stupid long entrance. hes a good wrestler so i can watch his matches but when he fets on the mic i start fast forwarding again

 

[DeathClutch]

1. Bring back the Hardcore championship minus the 24/7 rule and utilize guys like Drew, Alex, Brodus, Mcgillicutty in the division, basically guys that don't get any time get them in there and show their worth, if they fail then send them to superstars/NXT.

2. Less Divas matches/comedy spots, keep the Divas for PPV's that can actually wrestle and the comedy spots for comedy central.

3. Less of Michael Coles patter on RAW, use him as a manager, he's too over bearing for the announce table he'd be better suited as a manager.

 

[johndabomb1984]

an awful lot needs to be freshened up on raw. most definately they have to do something with the announcing. i cant understand how they have a system like fcw and they are so shortsighted that they only use it to "train" in ring talent. they should look into usin it for commentators as well as refs managers and tv production people. but that is a long term project in the short term they should bring jr back. he is the only won with a true passion and business intellegence to suck the viewers in and not loose there interest by getting himself over.
secondly i think they need to let the reigns off the wrestlers just a bit. they did it in 97/98 and they went from the roadie and rockabilly to the new age outlaws, from rocky maivia to the rock and from the ringmaster to stone cold steve austin. like shawn michaels said in an interview in the past all the guys in the locker room were fans before so they have an idea of what the fans want. the best "characters" in the past were an extension of the wrestlers personalities, austin and the rock said it best that they were just themselves with the volume turned WAY up
and thirdly i think they need to make all the titles mean somethin again. now they have slightly tried to do that by tryin to get the tag division back on its feet and reintroducing the classic ic strap but they need to do more. bring back some more classic designs for the tag and wwe belts but more than that they could maybe start a rankings system for the world titles and stop playin hot potato with the titles as much as they do. i mean cmon howmany times has the wwe title switched hand since april 4? 5? you dont see titles move that quick in ufc do you?

 

[The Future Rises]

I can think of a few ways to make Raw an overall better product..

1 - Change The Announce Team - Michael Cole can stay, like him or not he's very entertaining. Jerry Lawler just doesn't have it in him anymore. I'd bring in Matt Striker and Booker T or even Josh Matthews to be a 3-man announce team. They're all very good at commentating or at least entertaining like Booker T. Lawler, on the other hand, doesn't seem like he gives a rat's ass about his job anymore. And that's why he's so boring nowadays.

2 - Improve The Divas/Tag Team Divisions - This is actually something they were in the process of before Evan Bourne get suspended. The tag team division in general has been very uninteresting for the past couple of years. And if the WWE want to improve it, they need to push actual tag teams like The Usos and Hunico and Epico to the tag title picture, not a big alliance like Awesome Truth. And now to the Divas division, it just flat out sucks right now. I can't give a shit about the Divas Of Doom and their annoying "Pin-Up Strong" thing. If the WWE wants to make the division interesting they need to give them better storylines, better characters, and stop force feeding us someone like Eve Torres who can't get a good enough reaction to save her life.

3 - Better Main Events - I don't know, it just seems like the main event of Raw is always stale. Most of the time it's some sort of tag match with the top faces and heels in it. But why not give us a huge main event every month? I'm talking Cage matches, Last Man Standing matches, Ladder matches.. Big matches that fans would actually want to see. This is one thing I would definitely add to improve Raw.

 

[JBK2008]

1. The Announce Team
For far too long this has been stale and something needs to change drastically. Striker is nice on the mic and King needs to go or get remotivated. JR could really help Booker out and Cole needs to be toned down a bit.

2. End the Supershow
What's the point of having mid card wrestlers if only 4 are going to be used a week? It's nice seeing Orton and Rhodes more often, but it kills any development for McIntyre, Otunga, Ryder, Ryan, etc. The young guys can't grow if they don't get anytime to do it.

3. Better main events
A Cage match or Lumberjack or something. This whole top face vs top heel tag team main events are getting old and annoying. It's lazy booking too. These writers are awful nowadays and change has to start from the top down!

 

[oldhamandy1]

Ryan86 stop with all this Cody is the best around it's pretty pathetic, he is good but in terms of whose more long term him ot Sheamus I would have to say the Irishman wins it for me.

As for talking about how the international aduience feel? I feel you are more patronising than WWE, telling us how to feel and then being negative about the guys we've got.

WWE is pro American, shocker wait there I'll aleart the media. For goodness sake watch your whole country is built on it being the best in the world, this is a country that loves two things GOD and the USA. The American dream and all that, Swagger is after the all American American, in Britain people would find it offensive if someone called themselves the all British Brit.

RAW is doing fine and all these suggestions are just ways to make it better for that person, so the pompus thread title really is wrong.

I agree with either keeping the brands seperate for bring them together, not like it is now. As for the GM having authority that's the storyline, I like the way the Divas are they are good to look at and is a little something for the men. The joking around is funny, its an entertainment show for goodness sake.

 

[sdelfin]

Good question and some good suggestions such as getting rid of Cole. WWE drops storylines all the time for no reason, and it's too bad they don't do that with heel Cole. The announcers need to get back to getting the talent over. Anyway, my ideas to improve the show.

1 - Realize that the WWE is still a wrestling promotion, with promotion being the key word. Raw gets good ratings on its own name value. I don't see how you increase ratings without letting people know one or two things that are in store for next week. I think they need to plan things out a little bit and at least announce and promote main events a week in advance. They just did that with Del Rio vs. Punk, but that is rare. At least people know in advance that they can see a pretty good title match if they want to.

2 - Let the bottom and midcard guys carry the show. I couldn't order Summerslam this year, and didn't feel too bad about it when WWE gave away Punk and Cena the next night on Raw. WWE has trained me to expect PPV matchups on basic cable, and often right before or after a PPV. There are many talented guys who are not even used on TV, some of whom would get over if they were allowed some TV time. The lower card guys need to be doing most of the wrestling on TV. That builds up talent while keeping the upper card guys away from each other long enough to make the PPVs seem special. We'd already seen Punk pin Del Rio twice on TV in recent months. And they gave away Miz vs. Punk on Raw twice I believe. They gave away Jericho vs. Undertaker on Smackdown a while back. If you give the matches away, it makes it harder to sell the PPVs. And guys like Shamus, Punk, Cena and Orton are all so over they don't all need to wrestle on the same show and certainly not every week. Have one or 2 wrestle while the others do talking segments. Cena burying people every week is one reason people hate him so much.

3 - Keep it simple. WWE and TNA are both guilty of this as they try to fit too much into the show. I would have them plan things out a little better and feature fewer, better matches on each episode. There could still be plenty of talking to sell the PPVs.

Those are the three things that come to mind immediately, though there are other things I'd change as well.

 

[ryan86]

Oldhamadny1:

Ive already schooled you in the economic situation your own continent (in the "Sane Man's View on CM Punk Title Win" thread) After you tried to go into an you are not informed on. If you did not read it, go back and look at my responce right after you replied in the thread.

Also, I am Italian-American and visit my grand parents in Italy once, somtimes twice a year. I know what the fans in that region of EU are saying first hand. Maybe not the entire picture, but I can only go by my experiences.

And as stated b4, Cody is a much more valuable, long-term comodedy than Sheamus, who is very hard on the eyes. I'll take all the IWC heat 4 telling what I feel is true. And I wont disrespect any other poster for giving his prespective.

 

[Captain Morgan Freeman]

1) Get rid of the "Circus" atmosphere. Remember the Gobly Gooker? Well that same embarrassing type gimmik seems to morph it's self in different ways onto the WWE Product. Santino, Hornswoggle, The Boogie Man (at one point), or The Muppets coming to Raw ect.., all that needs to stop. It makes me emmbarrased to watch.

WWE is PG and appeals to kids. By having a programme to appeals to a younger fan base they can attract more sponsorship which was a big problem for them in the past. Sponsorship is a big revenue stream for WWE and weren't you the one who said that 2009 was the best financial year for WWE since 2001?

2) The international stars need to better represent their country by being someone their respective countries can truley be proud of. Don't you think the U.K. wants a Randy Orton over slant face Barret? Or Ierland Wanting a Young rising stud like Cody over a pale, red hair Sheamus? WWE needs to stop patronizing and steriotyping the international fan base.

By far the biggest load of bullshit ive read on this site by a country mile.

Last time i checked Wade Barret is a heel and heels aren't meant to be liked. Last time WWE was in manchester Barret got massive boo's in his own hometown which means he's doing his job pretty damm well.

So people in Ireland aren't proud of Sheamus are they?
For starters im Irish and im more then happy with how he is being used on Smackdown. Earlier in the year he appeared on the leading talk show in Ireland and was greeted with massive cheers from the crowd.
A friend of mine recently got back into wrestling after 4 years because he was delighted that they finally had an Irish wrestler he could relate to. Seems to me like Ireland is very proud of Sheamus.

So what makes you the spokesperson of what the English and Irish fans want?
Where's your proof they find Sheamus and Barret patronizing?

All you have shown with this post is a bunch of statements with no fact to back them up and the spelling ability of a 10 year old.

 

[akrassikauda]

Wow the same old responses.

1) PG is not going anywhere anytime soon just like a Cena heel turn either get used to it or change the channel.

2) Comedy has always been apart of WWE. We love seeing heels get embarrassed on tv. DX were the kings of WWF/WWE comedy and you know that's true.
3) What does the E in WWE stand for, Entertainment.

Turner-"Vince I'm in the rasslin business".

VKM-"That's good Ted I'm in the entertainment business"

By know if you don't get that after all these years after it started with Rock N Wrestling but you continue to complain yet still watch then your just plain stupid. The deal with the Muppets was a business deal between Vince and Disney and it worked because after the RAW episode the Muppets where all over the place and I won't be surprised if they land in the top 3 in movie releases for Thanksgiving. It's for families WWE is now for families a good business decision and how the hell did Vince convince NBC Universal to allow another entity from a rival network on it's programing is just even more of a smart business decision. Once again get over it.
Ok that was my rant at the smarky smarks so back to the question at hand.

1) The first 30 minutes must have exciting wrestlers involved if people are glued to the excitement they're less likely to change to MNF.

2) Have Cole put more emphasis on the in ring action I'll give Cole this when he's focused on the ring he's not bad it's the other stuff that makes him an unbearable heel announcer.

3) Recorded promos. When Beth and Natalya started DOD they had a recorded promo in the corner of the screen. That's what's missing. If your not going to give certain talent promo time have them record it put the promo in the corner like the old days one thing it does is you don't hear Cole and that promo was done beautifully. Need more of it,it's a way for talent to further their promo skills.

 

[ironsheik84]

1) Get rid of the twitter updates. I'm sick and tired of hearing what's trending, what the superstars are saying, etc. The point of pushing twitter is to get more mainstream attention right? Well... what does pushing the tweets on WWE TV do? If I cared enough to want to see it, then I would look at the tweets myself.

2) Stop the commentator agenda and focus on the wrestling. Cole and the rest of the team talking about themselves during matches and not on the action makes me wanna turn the channel.

3) I love a good promo, but less talking & more wrestling.

These two are items I'd like to add as honorable mentions :

1) I know this only happened once or twice, but don't charge us $50 for a PPV and air regular, non-WWE themed commercials. If you're gonna run normal commercials during a PPV, charge less for the PPV.

2) After every PPV we get a survey email from the WWE asking about our thoughts on the PPV and stuff with NOTHING in return. I'd appreciate getting a $10 off $50 coupon, 10% off or SOMETHING in return for our thoughts. I think it's not fair that they get free market research off of us with nothing in return.

 

[Dalinkwent]

1. (This goes for the overall product) GET RID OF THE STRIPTED PROMO'S!!! How on earth are wrestlers supposed to find their persona if everything they uttered is written by other people?

2. Stop the start and stop pushes. One of the most fustrating things about WWE is they develop interest in a certain wrestler one week, then the next week he's left off T.V or buried in a pointless segment. For example Swagger gets a pretty big win one week, then the next week he job's to Satino in a comedy match. WWE once did a angle between the Uso's and The Hart's, it was great way way to establish The Uso's as a threat and set up the babyface heat for The Harts, yet this was never followed up on or even mentioned again, in fact neither were on T.V the next week or the following.


3. Give John Cena an actual threat. If WWE is going to use Cena in the main event capacity, then give him someone that can at least make him sweat. Cena's persona is beyond stale at this point, but what makes it worse is noone is a match for him and it makes all of his matches, promo's and overall character BORING!!! If Cena is screwed out of the title, he comes out the next night like nothing happened. Remember when Austin was screwed by Vince? He was arrested the next night for trying to beating the piss out of Vince. Even when The Rock dropped Cena for little reason at SS, he came out on Raw like it wasn't big deal and seemed to be more upset with Miz and Truth. Cena was at his most interesting when he feuded with Punk, because that feud actually rattled Cena and made him aware that Punk was a threat to his spot. Thus he seemed more engaged and MILES BETTER on the mic.

 

[chilly]

Been coming to this site for a very long time & have been reading forums for a very long time as well.

This one, however, finally got to me to register.

With that being said, I believe the product is suffering because WWE only focuses their storylines on their "superstars" who are ALREADY over.

#1 - BUILD THE MID-CARD TALENT - I know we say this enough but we need storylines for the mid-card so they can be used to this when they are in the main event. We have Dolph Zigger, who is one of the best in the game right now, facing 3 or 4 people for NO reason. He faced John Morrison in a great match, but it had nothing behind it. Everyone KNEW Morrison would win, they should have built something up around Morrison's contract & it being his last shot or something.

#2 - Make the brands seperate from each other. - Is it just me or does time after time they try & make SmackDown irrevelant? As soon as SmackDown creates quality storylines/fueds, RAW turns into this "Supershow" & brings those fueds over to RAW. They also make John Laurinitis seem like he's the superior voice in the WWE, when in fact Teddy Long has more power than him seeing as Johnny is the interim.

#3 - It's OK for top babyfaces to LOSE - They are OVER already, I am sick & tired of John Cena, Randy Orton, & Sheamus winning EVERY match on TV. They are already over, it doesn't make sense that Cody Rhodes lost almost every match with Randy Orton or the fact that Christian lost every match to Sheamus. It just makes your heels look weak & makes it seem like they never have no chance of winning. Thus, nobody cares.

 

[The Idiot]

1.) Less of the same matches. We dont need to see Ziggler vs Morrison for weeks on end and then promote them in a title match on PPV. Give us a reason to buy the ppv. Why buy it if Ive already seen the match a hundred times and will see it again a week later.

2.) Change the entire setup of Raw. New announcers, new stage, titan tron....movs the announcer table away from ringside like they had in the old days. Give Raw a different feel...people are intruiged by change. It makes it interesting.

3.) I dont know if they still use Jim Johnston for enttance music, but he was the best. There was a time when each wrestler had a unique entrance theme that fit their personality and not some generic crap ass music we get now.

4.) Im not done yet. Eliminate the brand split. Merge the major titles. Focus on recreating the tag division and possible cruiserweight division. Lastly, eliminate the gimmick PPVs. LESS IS MORE!!!!