I don't know if this has ever had a thread started about it but I had a thought that came to me to help re-invent wrestling and get it exciting again.
I was hanging out with a friend of mine after we both had read The Death of WCW and I got to thinking. The invasion angle when WCW came over had some serious potential. The incredible thing is it still could; even in present day 2011.
Picture this:
Paul Heyman suddenly gets some "investors" to help him finance a company. He begins going around talking to TV execs to acquire the rights to a wrestling promotion that could give WWE a serious run for their money. What nobody is aware of is these "investors" happen to be Vince McMahon. But there is a twist to this. There are only a set number of people who are aware of this situation: Paul Heyman, Vince McMahon and the legal people involved. Nobody else in the WWE is aware of this, and I mean NOBODY. As Vince has tons of money everything he does and takes part in does not have to be approved by his headquarters and high ranking officials.
So Vince is funneling money to Paul Heyman and Heyman is proving to these tv execs that he has the money to back his claims.
IF Paul can get a TV time slot here is what happens next:
Heyman begins bringing in talent that is from all over the world but still can be considered a big force. He acquires enough talent to boast that his roster is better than TNA's and at a level equal to WWE. Some will be talent that WWE failed with and essentially released, others will be talent that WWE has not been able to get a hold of or just hasn't bothered to sign. With a TV deal in tact Paul begins doing what he does best: creating buzz and excitement in wrestling. This is not a PG type show. We will get GOOD matches, decent storylines because Paul E will have creative freedom and such. If this starts to catch on with people, the ratings may begin to grow. Since no talent or anyone in this new company will be aware of Vince's involvement and the fans will be in the dark, the promos will be nice because they will take direct shots at the WWE and it's "PG" restrictions. If all of this happens correctly buzz should be generated and again, since only a select number of people would know the truth about what is happening people may start to see this new competitor as a real "threat". That is when you start sending this new promotions stars to WWE events with legitimate tickets. I mean they literally wait in the lines with fans to buy their tickets. Similar to the way TNA tried to promote themselves at WM with the helicopter flying over head you would have the stars talking to the fans telling them to tune in to a REAL promotion. And here is the kicker. The performer actually jumps the barricade (yes I mean LITERALLY). He gets arrested, the news reports that it is a legitimate arrest. Most of the time trespassing doesn't get you jail time and if you do it's generally 14-30 days. But of course sites like this and TMZ would pick it up and it could create some REAL buzz. I don't know about you but I would tune in to see if there was some form of legitimate "retaliation" by the WWE to this.
Let this go on for a while and hopefully the buzz is so good that fans are actually tuning into the new promotion to see if the WWE will show up at their show. You know similar to the way Bischoff invited Vince, Paul can come out and say WWE is welcome to come in for a REAL fight. Of course for a while WWE doesn't show up but after the 3rd or 4th interruption WWE finally retaliates. And since they were "invited" by Heyman they won't get arrested for anything thus keeping the WWE PG image in tact.
Then comes the best part. The WWE doesn't appear as dominant as they did against the WCW. Let's face it WCW was WWE's b*tch during the "invasion" angle. WWE stars lose to this new promotion, and lose CLEANLY. You could also have some guys if their contract is coming to an end just literally lay down and then say "I QUIT" then head to this new promotion. WWE of course removes them from the WWE page and starts banning their signs. What are the people going to believe? That this is legitimate. And since the stars contract is coming to an end people may take this as a real war. Keep this going for a while. If the buzz is awesome, fans will tune into both shows. You might split the audience a bit, but think about it like this they may bring back the old fans that they lost once wrestling got "stale".
The key to this whole thing is McMahons "finger prints" are NO WHERE near this thing. The focus is NOT on Vince, Shane, Linda or Stephanie much like it was during the invasion. It is on the "legitimate" war between these 2 companies. At no point and time does Vince "take over" this new promotion. My thought process behind this is with GOOD competition things in the wrestling world were GOOD! Again this all has a ton of variables to the success/failure of this and once again this is just an IDEA. Please don't flame me if you find this idea "stupid" i respect your opinion.
My question is from what you have read do you think this could actually work/be pulled off?
I know this is a bit of a jumbled mess because I didn't write down everything my friend and I had spoken of and I apologize if at times it is hard to follow.
Your thoughts on the idea presented? I would also appreciate your thoughts/ways this could be improved. And as always I apologize if this is in the wrong section but since it wasn't FULLY WWE I didn't think it belonged in the WWE section.
I was hanging out with a friend of mine after we both had read The Death of WCW and I got to thinking. The invasion angle when WCW came over had some serious potential. The incredible thing is it still could; even in present day 2011.
Picture this:
Paul Heyman suddenly gets some "investors" to help him finance a company. He begins going around talking to TV execs to acquire the rights to a wrestling promotion that could give WWE a serious run for their money. What nobody is aware of is these "investors" happen to be Vince McMahon. But there is a twist to this. There are only a set number of people who are aware of this situation: Paul Heyman, Vince McMahon and the legal people involved. Nobody else in the WWE is aware of this, and I mean NOBODY. As Vince has tons of money everything he does and takes part in does not have to be approved by his headquarters and high ranking officials.
So Vince is funneling money to Paul Heyman and Heyman is proving to these tv execs that he has the money to back his claims.
IF Paul can get a TV time slot here is what happens next:
Heyman begins bringing in talent that is from all over the world but still can be considered a big force. He acquires enough talent to boast that his roster is better than TNA's and at a level equal to WWE. Some will be talent that WWE failed with and essentially released, others will be talent that WWE has not been able to get a hold of or just hasn't bothered to sign. With a TV deal in tact Paul begins doing what he does best: creating buzz and excitement in wrestling. This is not a PG type show. We will get GOOD matches, decent storylines because Paul E will have creative freedom and such. If this starts to catch on with people, the ratings may begin to grow. Since no talent or anyone in this new company will be aware of Vince's involvement and the fans will be in the dark, the promos will be nice because they will take direct shots at the WWE and it's "PG" restrictions. If all of this happens correctly buzz should be generated and again, since only a select number of people would know the truth about what is happening people may start to see this new competitor as a real "threat". That is when you start sending this new promotions stars to WWE events with legitimate tickets. I mean they literally wait in the lines with fans to buy their tickets. Similar to the way TNA tried to promote themselves at WM with the helicopter flying over head you would have the stars talking to the fans telling them to tune in to a REAL promotion. And here is the kicker. The performer actually jumps the barricade (yes I mean LITERALLY). He gets arrested, the news reports that it is a legitimate arrest. Most of the time trespassing doesn't get you jail time and if you do it's generally 14-30 days. But of course sites like this and TMZ would pick it up and it could create some REAL buzz. I don't know about you but I would tune in to see if there was some form of legitimate "retaliation" by the WWE to this.
Let this go on for a while and hopefully the buzz is so good that fans are actually tuning into the new promotion to see if the WWE will show up at their show. You know similar to the way Bischoff invited Vince, Paul can come out and say WWE is welcome to come in for a REAL fight. Of course for a while WWE doesn't show up but after the 3rd or 4th interruption WWE finally retaliates. And since they were "invited" by Heyman they won't get arrested for anything thus keeping the WWE PG image in tact.
Then comes the best part. The WWE doesn't appear as dominant as they did against the WCW. Let's face it WCW was WWE's b*tch during the "invasion" angle. WWE stars lose to this new promotion, and lose CLEANLY. You could also have some guys if their contract is coming to an end just literally lay down and then say "I QUIT" then head to this new promotion. WWE of course removes them from the WWE page and starts banning their signs. What are the people going to believe? That this is legitimate. And since the stars contract is coming to an end people may take this as a real war. Keep this going for a while. If the buzz is awesome, fans will tune into both shows. You might split the audience a bit, but think about it like this they may bring back the old fans that they lost once wrestling got "stale".
The key to this whole thing is McMahons "finger prints" are NO WHERE near this thing. The focus is NOT on Vince, Shane, Linda or Stephanie much like it was during the invasion. It is on the "legitimate" war between these 2 companies. At no point and time does Vince "take over" this new promotion. My thought process behind this is with GOOD competition things in the wrestling world were GOOD! Again this all has a ton of variables to the success/failure of this and once again this is just an IDEA. Please don't flame me if you find this idea "stupid" i respect your opinion.
My question is from what you have read do you think this could actually work/be pulled off?
I know this is a bit of a jumbled mess because I didn't write down everything my friend and I had spoken of and I apologize if at times it is hard to follow.
Your thoughts on the idea presented? I would also appreciate your thoughts/ways this could be improved. And as always I apologize if this is in the wrong section but since it wasn't FULLY WWE I didn't think it belonged in the WWE section.