Obviously, if you're going to a WWE houseshow expecting the same atmosphere as a TV taping, yeah, you're going to be disappointed.
Of course, money will always be the make or break of a presentation. But, I don't think it's all because WWE wants to rip the fans off, but, it's almost how much money WWE is willing to invest into a show. Pyro, the entrance way, lighting grids and general production overall production all cost not to mention travel expenses (gassing the trucks and such) -- and like anyone else would, WWE doesn't want to spend more money on a show than making a profit from it. MOST of WWE's profits result from TV, Pay-per-views and merchandise sales... house show and TV arena GATE numbers really pale comparatively speaking. WWE house shows are basically to help promote WWE TV/PPVs in that particular market. While WWE is happy to take the ticket sales and gate profits, the basic idea to houseshows is to help put over WWE TV and pay per views. WWE has an advantage, in a sense, over most other shows on TV as they are able to hold houseshows and allow their fans to be "interactive" with WWE's "TV stars." Those stars come to you, you don't have to travel to see them. If you want to see David Letterman, you have to fly to New York. He rarely ever does his show on the air "on the road." TNA should take a cue from WWE and expand on this philosophy... I'm not talking expanding house shows, but, get TV on the road and the hell outta The Impact Zone in Florida. (Just sayin')
But, yeah, WWE houseshows can be really lame at times. I live in a city on the westcoast (opposite side of North America of the WWE hub) and we rarely ever get WWE houseshows these days, but, we're also not considered to be a "wrestling town" either. The gates tend to be pretty poor here, and, the WWE TV is almost nil on local TV stations, although, well served by a national network. So, we're not a strong WWE market compared to other cities that are mainly in the east. So, WWE will usually just "throw us a bone" with a houseshow usually once a year. So, we, like most other places who just receive the WWE bone here and there (boy, that didn't sound right) so, we're more willing to accept a half-assed show rather to have no show at all.
Having said that, yeah, there are some MINOR things that wouldn't hurt to spruce things up that wouldn't cost too much to help the atmosphere of WWE house shows -- looking at Sidious' suggestions --
1) Do occasional title changes at House Shows.
This is something that WWE gone through phases of throughout the years. They really seem to go heavy on this at times and then just drop it as quick. The last time they tried this was just about a year ago. The idea behind it was indeed to promote house show sales (and WWE was really going into a slum about that time but has since improved). The problem is that MOST of the title holders they have at the moment are pretty solid and WWE wouldn't want to "taint" the title reign of that star by having them lose it at somepoint unless they want to advance a story line. And of course, as we've been seeing for the past decade of so, WWE "Creative" has been having some, uh... shall we say, "challenges" maintaining solid booking, never mind solid championship reigns. I would suggest the US Championship would be a great title to switch at houseshows where WWE doesn't have to make a great investment in a star, but, still sell championship switches out side of TV exclusively. They could always put over the title changes on TV without discouraging the TV audience because they didn't see it on TV, but, still put over houseshows. US Championship (or even WWE tag titles (not world tag titles)) are still titles that don't require fans to hold a great investment in, but, they're still titles.
2) Start preparing the cards in advance and make it mandatory to have the cards POSTED on the WWE website, at least 2 months in advance.
With the current state of WWE booking, that'd be very difficult to execute. WWE is basically being booked on the fly (for the most part) and is all centered around TV and PPV booking. And as I said, WWE "Creative" is obviously facing challenges and that's just by week-to-week booking, nevermind anything 2 months into the future. Plus, as been mentioned by someone else, announcing matches that far in advance cold spoil up coming PPV results. And if goto a houseshow expecting a particular match and it changes for whever reason, it'll turn you off. Back in the 80s WWE would announce wrestlers being at a show, and then when that wrestler could make it for whatever reason, people got PISSED off! So, that is tricky!
3) Even though we know not to expect the full lighting rig and stage/ramp setup brought to TV, at least consistently put up the miniature stage setup used at all the International tours which features a lighted up entranceway.
No argument here. But, some people actually like the grittiness of a WWE houseshow with limited production as you're less distracted by the entrance way and can focus more on the matches. I went to a Raw TV taping a few years ago with the old set (pre-hi def) and the match in the ring kinda bored me... it got to the point where I was more interested in the "burning" Raw logo graphic on the screens on either side of the entrance way than the match itself. Yeah. Not proud of it, but there you go. But, I wouldn't mind something like the old "Superstars of Wrestling" TV entrance way where they just took the grids, set them up in a square, lit them up in multiple colors and just had the wrestler walk through that.
4) Work actual interview segments onto the shows.
On paper that sounds like an excellent idea -- but let me ask you this -- have you ever been to a WWE, TNA, WCW, or indy wrestling house show where you could EVER understand anything that was said on the arena sound system?!? The sound systems tend to be really bad and more often than not, you can't understand anything that's being said. That can only irritate and anger the fans more than anything.
5) Plan for some special entrances for talents
Sidious suggested having kids come out with Cena and such. Actually, not a bad idea, but, I would limit that kind of stuff for the main event only. Doing too much of that kind of gimmick would burn out the idea by the 4th match of the card and loses any impact by the end of the show you'd be just annoyed by it.
6) Hype the House Show cards on television
WWF and AWA TV did this best in the 80s by inserting bumpers going into commercials that would target towns with their own interviews during broadcasts of Superstars or Wrestling Challenge. So, if WWF was holding a houseshow in Calgary, Alberta, they'd have Mean Gene or Sean Mooney standing in front of the famed the blue WWF logo'd wallpaper wall interviewing Macho Man about his match with Hogan in Calgary and that would air on Calgary TV stations only. AND then the same concept of Macho Man doing the same kind of interview but talking about how he'd beat up Hogan in another town (say Chicago) with Chicago references. Then that interview would only air on TV stations in Chicago during Superstars. Gerneric interviews would air during Superstars or Challenge in markets that didn't have upcoming houseshows schedulled. I'm betting it took a lot of time to tape and probably annoying for the wrestlers to shoot a handful of different interviews saying the same thing but mentioning different cities, but, it WORKED. It works along side going to a concert and having the singer say, "Are you ready to ROCK, <insert city name here> ??!!??" It just connects them more to you. The current WWE TV formats are tight as it is, but, something that could be considered again.
