I have been a wrestling fan ever since the day a neighbor invited me over to watch Wrestlemania V in 1989. From that moment on, I was hooked to the characters and storylines from the WWF. As time passed I got my grandmother into wrestling, and I was able to attend various live events like Wrestlemania 14. During this time I got familiar not just with the WWF/WWE product, but with other companies like WCW, and ECW as well.
My love for wrestling faded somewhat in 2003 when work and other grown-up things became priorities. I tried keeping up with the news and major events, but it wasn’t like before. Earlier this year I signed up for the WWE Network so that I could watch the stuff that I loved when I was younger. The WWE Network has also allowed me to witness how dreadfull the current WWE product is, with little or no storylines, repetitive angles and matches, and overlong promos.
The current state of WWE shocked me since the company probably has the best roster of talent it’s ever had. WWE knows it’s grown stale and has tried minimal adjustments without success. The recent hirings of Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff to run Raw and Smackdown respectively made headlines. But in the weeks since, nothing has changed. I know this is still the PG Era, but there is no reason WWE programming can’t be fun again. With that in mind, here are three things I would do to improve WWE:
3. New announce teams
The current Raw and Smackdown Live announcing teams don’t spend any time talking about the match going on in front of them. Instead, they go on and on about whatever angle opened the show or something that will happen later on the show. Having Vince McMahon screaming in your ear can’t be easy, but to completely ignore what’s going on in front of them doesn’t help them or the audience.
To me, Michael Cole was at his best in 1997-1999 when he was paired up with Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. You could relate to the announcers back then because they reacted like any of us would when something shocking took place. Today everything they say comes off as scripted and when something amazing does happen, whatever they say comes off as cheesy.
What I would do to fix the announcing problem is have the teams react to what they see in the ring. Call the match currently taking place, and don’t give them a script ahead of time. Let the announcers react like real people when something shocking happens. Also, on Raw, I would lose Renee Young, and I’d shift Michael Cole and Corey Graves to Smackdown. On Raw, I would promote Tom Phillips and Nigel McGuinness from 205 Live.
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2.Focus on Other Talent
From what I’ve seen over the past few months, WWE likes to focus on the same handful of stars. Those near or at the main event level are the only ones with true storylines and/or feuds. Thos wrestles in the mid-card are either comedy acts or not seen at all for weeks on television. It wasn’t always this way, however.
Whether it was the Attitude Era or even the New Generation Era, the wrestlers in the mid-card had their own stories and rivalries. In the Attitude Era, it felt like everyone on the roster was a star because they all had something to do no matter their level of talent. If WWE could do that then, why can’t it do it now that the roster is even more stacked?
The solution to this is very simple: remove Roma Reigns, Seth Rollins, Daniel Bryan and Brock Lesnar from the main event scene. You can still have them around, but instead of them fighting over the Universal or WWE championships, use Reigns, Rollins, and Lesnar to build up younger talent. This will help WWE create new stars and will introduce new blood to the main event picture.
Something that could also help create new starts and freshen up the main events is unifying championships. At the very least the Universal and WWE championships. Having two world champions doesn’t make sense to me, and it leads to one title being prioritized over the other. Think about it, when was the last time the WWE title was the final match of a PPV?
Another thing WWE needs to do is to start letting the superstars do their promos. At most give them bullet points like making sure they name the event, the city, stuff like that. But for the most part, let the wrestlers be themselves and show some personality. This is an era where AEW has a been advantage on WWE.
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1. Make Each Show Different
In the early years, you knew you were watching Smackdown because the stage had either an over Titantron or a giant fist punching through. Both sets made the show stand apart from Ram and other wrestling shows of the day. This made going to Smackdown unique/ Today though, Raw and Smackdown share the same stage, with the only difference being the lighting. Raw is lit red, while Smackdown is lit all in blue.
I would take Raw and Smackdown back to basics, giving each show its look. For Raw, I would lose the endless LED screens it has today. It’s just too much, even the ramp, ring sides, and ring posts have LED screens these days. Technology is cool an all but it makes Raw look too glossy, too perfect. The show is called Raw, so make it look like it!
So I would go back to the early days of Raw is War. First I would rebrand the show to the Raw Zone again, making it clear we’re going back to basics. For the stage, I would use only one massive Titantron and a black curtain with the WWE logo where the wrestlers come out of. On each side of the Titantron, I’d bring back the two camera towers. From each tower, you can have signs advertising whatever pay per view is coming up. The ramp would be a simple metal ramp, no more fancy stuff.
Meanwhile, for Smackdown I would have two screens, one on each side of where the wrestlers enter the arena. Above the entrance, I’d hang a redesigned Smackdown logo. No ramp for the show, but I would have the aisle lit by spotlights similar to the current Wrestlemania entrances.
Finally, Id gives each pay per view a unique look. No, that doesn’t mean bring back the tuxedos for the announcers. The problem is that today every pay per view looks like en episode of Raw or Smackdown, there just nothing to differentiate the shows. You can easily have separate stages for the pay per views, and they don’t have to be fancy either. Just take a page out of the stages used in 1997-1998. Those were simple and effective.
There are plenty of other things you could do to improve WWE, but that’s what I would do if given the chance. Hopefully, Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff are allowed to change thing up, because something has to change. I’ve been a WWE fan for most of my life, but right now I’m more excited by what AEW is doing. So please WWE, listen to your fans and shake things up!