Ya I have a 14 year old cousin who loves Cena, not only for what he does, but because he is pushed as a face. When I was 13/14 I would like all the faces and hate all the heels, if a face or heel turned one week so would my opinion of them.

Im kind of hoping that we are catching the 1995 era WWF, I think there is a lot of talent on the roster who with the proper booking and angles could make wrestling something interesting again. I wish Vince would bring in Paul E to book and we got to see less of the guys who have no shot to bring in ratings (big daddy v/snitsky...pretty much every other guy on the ECW/Smackdown roster).speaking of ECW...I thougfht they had something with the New Blood angle; Elijah Burke has "it" IMO and they handled that terribly.



Also for VeeCee..mvp is one of those guys who I think will be instrumental in the next generation of WWE. I think he has everything to make a great heel...they just need to tap it.

*WARNING* Holy crap this is long. No cliff notes.

1. Get rid of ECW. I already said this earlier but really, its a joke and nobody cares about it. When Vince fired Paul E., that really should have been the end of it. Fire Mike Knox and Tommy Dreamer, move everyone else to main roster or to FCW (developmental territory).

2. Turn Cena. The company desperately needs a solid heel in the main events since Orton is not great on the mic. The only heel who is good on the mic is Edge. The fans want to boo him, just get it over with already. I think one major issue of turning Cena is that he'll have to be on offense for the middle part of matches and that's not a great plan but oh well, learn some ****ing moves. I'd also turn Jericho but I think that's gonna happen anyway. Jericho is a much more entertaining heel than a bland babyface.

3. I disagree with the idea of losing house shows altogether. That's free money and it also allows wrestlers to practice for PPVs and such. I think December should be an off-month completely. Start fresh with 3 RAWs leading into the Royal Rumble.

4. End the Brand Extension. This idea was fine during its inception because WWE already had many main eventers and then they had a bunch of main eventers from WCW coming in and things got crowded. People from other shows just randomly show up on the other show anyway so what's the point. There's several things needed to make this happen:

a. Merge all titles. Having a WWE title, US/IC title, and Tag title is fine.
b. Fire dead weight. Why does Jim Duggan have a job on the RAW roster? He is absolutely worthless. GTFO. Also Val Venis must have compromising pics of Vince or something. He's been on the roster forever and has never been over. Get lost. I'd trim the roster to look like this:

Main eventers (10): HHH, HBK, Cena, Edge, Orton, Taker, Batista, Big Show (Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio)
Midcarders (12): CM Punk, Carlito, Jericho, Kennedy, JBL, Santino, Chavo, MVP, Benjamin, Kane, John Morrison (Gregory Helms)
Curtain jerkers (10): Finlay, Mizark Henry, Jamie Noble, Chuck Palumbo, Matt Hardy, Burke, Stevie Richards, Paul Burchill, The Miz, Kofi
Tag teams (7): Cade/Murdoch, London/Kendrick, Rhodes/Holly, Deuce/Domino, Jesse/Festus, Edgeheads, Moore/Yang
Women: All of em, let me see those awesome rockin' tits

People in parenthesis are either injured or smokin a fatty in their trailer in North Carolina. That makes nearly 50 active male wrestlers and however many women. That is more than enough. Everyone else, get the fudge out.

c. Now we have to figure out what to do with these people. I keep RAW and Smackdown going (dumping ECW ldo), but I'd make Smackdown more oriented towards the wrestling aspect. This is similar to what WCW did with Thunder. I'd have 1-2 main eventers wrestle on the card and I'd make the US/IC title the main title of the show. I'd NEVER have the WWE title defended on this show. The only reason for the WWE champ to appear on this show is to give an interview, maybe to answer something that happened on RAW. Basically, this show would feature most of the midcarders and curtain jerkers, giving them TV time and allowing them to progress storylines through matches and an occasional interview. Yes, it relegates Smackdown to the B show but everyone, including Vince, already portrays it as second to RAW so might as well go all the way. I would also limit all tag teams to being on Smackdown and I would not allow tag teams to have singles matches. Those cutesy matches where one guy on a team faces another guy on a team in a singles match with their partners rooting them on are worthless and time-wasting.

d. RAW is going to be slightly different. First, Vince GTFO. We don't need to to do 1 in-ring segment and 4 backstage segments. Enough already. I actually have an awesome angle to not only be a company-wide storyline involving many people and several turns but also serves to get Vince off TV for awhile. Most matches would be main eventers vs top midcarders or ME vs ME, but I'd actually have less televised matches between top stars. With 8-10 MEs and 10-12 midcarders, I have plenty of options for matches that don't give away matches that should be saved for PPV. I can also get away with the occasional tag team match between top guys since those don't count, I guess. Second, if you're not involved in a storyline or feud, you are jobbing or not appearing. I want storylines/feuds advanced every week, even if it's just a little advance. Most shouldn't last more than 1-2 months anyway so why waste time.

5. Ok let me get to more broad topics. I would try and limit televised ring time to whoever is main eventing the PPV. I'd like to create the belief that the guys in the main event are training and are not about to put their health on the line before the PPV in a meaningless match. I'd still have them on the show for promos and such. It's somewhat difficult to do this as selling the PPV usually relies on the main event so I'd have to cover it up a bit with pre-packaged stuff, but that's fine by me. That takes pressure off guys to deliver solid in-ring promos all the time when they can't (Hi Randy Orton). Plus I make up for it with my solid midcard and other top matches featuring main eventers not in the main event.

6. Bring back stables, managers, and valets. WTF happened to all this? Wrestlers who have little to no mic skills used to have managers do their talking for them. Plus it created great tension between the two which led to more believable turns when necessary. I still remember how awesome it was when Virgil turned on DiBiase after years of being his slave. And Virgil sucked ass at everything yet his face turn was credible and entertaining.

Stables are one thing I really want to see, but I want to see them do it right. The 4 Horsemen had a purpose to being a group: keep the WCW title around Ric Flair's waist by any means necessary. There was no dissension, nobody "wanting a shot" and if they did, GTFO Lex Luger. I'd like to see a prominent heel stable led by Armando Alejandro Estrada, as he is a fantastic heel manager and is strong on the mic in getting heel heat. Of course you have to try and not get out of hand like with the nWo.

Also valets are severely missed IMO. Not every hot chick in the company needs to be an active wrestler, just let them be somebody's girlfriend or whatever and you have constant feuds. This isn't rocket science.

7. Drop a couple of PPVs. Since I'm making December the "offseason", there's no December PPV. I'd also dump the February PPV and allow for all of February and 3 weeks of March to hype Wrestlemania. That's roughly 7 weeks of build-up, which allows for a slower build instead of just rushing everything. Here's my schedule:

January: Royal Rumble
February: nothing
March: WM
April + May: 2 random PPVs
June: Great American Bash
July: King of the Ring (rename)
August: Summerslam
September + October: 2 random PPVs
November: Survivor Series
December: nothing

I'd bring back King of the Ring but I'd probably rename it because the King gimmick is lame. I'd still make it an 8-man single elim. tourney held on one night, winner gets a WWE title match at Summerslam.

That's all I can think of right now.

Russ...seriously...you need to be writing wrestling content for some site, you are great.

A lot of older fans and smarks want to boo him, the kids dont. He is the closest the WWE has to the 80s Hulk Hogan, and he is the company´s biggest draw. While heel Cena might be more entertaining to watch for us it would probably be a big financial mistake on WWEs behalf. I guess kids are the ones most responsible for buying merchandise and all that, and they love faces, especially Cena.

Cena is also the face of the company right now, he is a great role model whos t-shirts and stuff parents wont think twice about buying for their 10 year old.

Turning the most popular (profitable) wrestler is probably not a great idea.

Russ,
Good post

1. getting rid of ECW seems dumb. They should just stick ****ty guys there and use it as training

2. Completely agree Cena would be such a great heel.

3. They should definitely do less house shows. Guys have to work 300 shows a year and really don't get that much money. They just end up getting hurt and tired which means raw/smackdown/ppvs are lower quality.

4. Disagree with merging the titles. Having 22 wrestlers and 2 titles for them would be a problem. Having multiple titles just makes it a lot easier for people to fit into storylines. With only two titles Raw/Smackdown would get very repetitive. Maybe keep all the titles but have a unified champ for a while. i basically agree with your division of wrestlers.

re: Jim Duggan and Val Venis i'm pretty sure they mainly do backstage work and than come out and wrestle every now and then so w/e. Keeping them around as jobbers isn't really that big a deal.

5. Completely disagree. They should have the best guys fighting every week. That's what the fans want to see. i'm going to raw in Toronto and i'd be really pissed off if HHH/Cena/Orton etc just did promos.

6. Completely agree

7. More or less agree. Only thing is that the 7 weeks for wrestlemania is a long long time. Watching the few weeks before WM this year they were hyping it but not moving any storylines forward, if they are going to have a seven week gap they better have good shows. Also PPV's seem like really big money makers i could be wrong though

And exactly how do you get CW to pay the WWE the money they do for the show today by officially making it the b-show for USAs Raw?

WCW could do this because both shows were on TNT which were owned by the same company that owned WCW, but good luck making CW (owned by CBS Corp. and Time Warner) paying what they do now so they can back up a show that is on USA (owned by NBC Universal).

I am sure the networks would love having the most popular wrestlers not wrestling much on their shows so WWE could save them for PPVs that the networks have no financial interest in. So HHH, Cena, Taker, HBK, Big Show, Orton, Edge seeing limited action... sure, that is great for our ratings Mr.McMahon, let us keep paying you this insane amount of dollars so you can showcase only midcard wrestling on our network.

I don't, because Smackdown isn't going to be on CW anyway in a few months.

I'd probably sell it as an alternative to RAW for purist wrestling fans who want to see more action and less babbling.

I said that only the participants in the PPV main event would be limited in the buildup to the PPV. If I had 3 weeks to build to a PPV, they'd probably wrestle on 1 or 2 of the cards. So if I have a PPV featuring Cena/HHH main event, then I still have Taker, HBK, etc. all still wrestling each week. I didn't say save everyone for PPV.

Also this is for TV purposes only. Many times after the TV broadcast has ended, they will feature a main event just for fans only. Like if Edge doesn't wrestle that night but instead just does a promo or a run-in, they will make an "impromptu" match with him after the cameras are off which is purely to entertain the live crowd which I'm totally in favor of.

Ok, I still dont think the next channel to show SmackDown! (MyNetworkTV (News Corp.)) is thrilled about the possibility to not have the World Heavyweight title on their show, and no big stars like Taker and Edge. Purist wrestling fans arent big enough in numbers to make up for the casual fans that want all the babbling that comes with it.

If they keep the brands, which they're almost certainly doing, each brand IMO should have it's own flavor. Raw can be the power stlye+divas, SD can be more technical/lucha+women wrestlers (Victoria,Mickie,Beth,etc), and ECW can be hardcore/tech/etc...

More non PPV wins by non-finisher would be great. My favorite match I've seen in a while was some Japan female match that was filled with 2.999 counts with german/tiger/dragon suplexes. Since I didn't know anyone's finisher, it was awesome.

I never understood non-ME titles. Is MVP happy he's the US Champion? Or does he want to be WHC champ and not care for his curent status? (I did love Regal's TV Title run in WCW when he gave a promo saying he didn't care about the world or America, so the TV belt was right for him)

Those who will main event a PPV are typically involved in the main events on RAW and SmackDown! the last few shows before the PPV too, and it is for a reason. And I still think that the networks would be less than enthusiastic about having the couple of wrestlers that are in the main event picture will see limited TV-time. The wrestlers that are headlining the PPV are basically the same people all the time, think USA would have liked to have Orton do about only half the matches he has done on RAW the last 6 months so that he would be more special for the PPV that USA Network has no interest in?

And what happens in the dark matches does nothing for USA.

WWE do about 300 shows a year, divided on 2 brand which would put the total at about 150 shows on each brand. Dont think any of the wrestlers are close to 200 matches a year.

Going from 14 to 10 PPVs would reduce the income significantly, unless you somehow managed to get 4 PPVs worth of buys added to the remaining 10, which I bet would be really hard. I guess a lot of the buyers are the same from PPV to PPV, and would be hard to get that many new customers.

I dont think it will happen but i think they should get rid of the brands and just have all wrestlers on every show. If MY TV was smart they should make that part of the package. The reason smackdown isnt watched is for one they should put it back on Thursdays and the other is too have Cena, HHH, Y2J. HBK amongst others spread around. They could easily turn a few more guys heel which would make for more exciting feuds. IDK just rambling.

I don't really think it would be that difficult if they can improve the product. All PPVs that aren't the big 4 do about 200,000 buys on average, which means to make that up the 10 remaining would need to pick up about 80k buys each. Not impossible.

Here's some interesting stats about the decline in buyrates. These are 2007 PPV buyrates: (2006 buyrate)

New Years Revolution - .55 (.85) -.3
Royal Rumble - 1.25 (1.31) -.06
Wrestlemania - 2.97 (2.33) +.64
Summerslam - 1.37 (1.35) +.02
Survivor Series - .85 (.96) -.11
No Way Out - unsure (.56)
Backlash - .49 (.55) -.06
Unforgiven - .53 (.77) -.24
Judgment Day - .61 (.63) -.02
No Mercy - .68 (.49) +.19
Armageddon - .59 (.60) -.01
Vengeance - .61 (.84) -.23
Great American Bash - .58 (.58) 0
Taboo Tuesday - .59 (.57) +.02
One Night Stand - .47 (.76) -.29
TOTAL BUYRATE LOSS - .45 (180,000 buys)

I can't find a specific number for 2007 NWO but it appears it did about the same as 2006. So basically they lost the equivalent of an entire PPV last year despite WM doing an extremely high buyrate (highest since 1991).

Sadly looking back at the height of wrestling in 99 and 00, WWE did an average buyrate of 1.27 and 1.37 for those two years. 2007 was around .84 average.

Mayweather is on Mike and Mike right now.

Sleeping with your friend's high profile girlfriend will to that. I think Edge can get never ending heel heat for that.

That said, I think his style works better as a face.

fyp

Edge is awesome right now. The insane look on his face with the pre-spear, his lackeys (which is a kind of stable),his mic work. How does he work better as a face?

Heels can draw big if booked right. (Austin June 96-March 97 and to a lesser extent The Two Man Power Trip, Early DX, Evolution, HHH whenever he's a heel, and nWo)

Rock as a heel was amazing.

Why does the WM card look so short? I remember when i used to watch Wrestling during the last go-round (96-04ish) WM cards were like 10 deep with real good matches, sometimes more. How the hell will they fill the time with such a limp card?

7 guys in a ladder match will take some serious time. Same for the WWE Title triple threat. Flair and HBK will probably go somewhere in the area of 10-15 plus the 10 minute speech Flair will give after he gets beat. Mayweather's entrance will probably take 5 minutes, second only to Undertaker's inevitable 8-minute walk (depending on the length of the entrance path - it was crazy long I think 2 years ago?).

I mean, they've got 9 matches (not including the Battle Royal that happens half an hour before the actual start of Wrestlemania). Throw away the Diva Match, Finlay/JBL, and Batista demolishing Umaga and you're left with 3 world title matches, a 7-man Money in the Bank match, Mayweather vs. Big Show and Flair's last match ever. Add in all the promo time and the random appearances like John Legend and there'll be plenty to fill all 4 hours.

http://www.wwe.com/shows/wrestlemani...emustbeawinner

WWE announced that the Big Show/Floyd match will have a winner by pinfall, submission, or "knockout", with a no holds barred stip. Good to see that someone will job and there won't be a schmoz.