What I Want...

Kevin Thron vs. CM Punk

Another guest post from Chad. 

There’s a new wrestling blog called, IWantWrestling.com. It’s the brainchild of former WWE writer and current ROH on HDNET Producer David Lagana. After writing my open letter to TNA, and seeing all the tweets with #IWantWrestling, I asked myself what is it that I really want out of today’s wrestling promotions.

When it comes to televised wrestling, I’ve given up on TNA. I watch WWE Raw, but rarely do I watch Smackdown. And after watching Raw, I usually have more complaints than praise for the show. I’ve only seen a handful of ROH on HDNet.

None of the shows are must see in my opinion. TNA, in my opinion, throws too much on the screen and hopes something is good instead of focusing on a handful of storylines and making them meaningful. WWE is so repetitive you can skip a couple weeks and not miss any major developments. If you do miss something, it’ll be recapped and repeated enough on commentary to make you think you saw it. As for ROH, as I said, I have only seen a handful of episodes to I don’t think it’s fair to make comments about the show.

So, with that being said, what would wrestling promotions have to do to get my regular viewership? Standard pre-body disclaimer; I don’t write this thinking my ideas are better than what WWE/TNA/ROH are currently doing. This is simply a list of things I’d do differently. This is not a magical list that will turn any wrestling program into the best show ever. While I have 12 years of television experience, I don’t know the first thing about writing or producing a wrestling show and dealing with all the variables that go with it.

Anyway. Onto my ideas.

TNA and WWE have monthly Pay Per Views. The purpose of the weekly shows should be to build interest in the PPV and entice viewers to pay to see guys wrestle. Therefore the first change I would make is I would not have the champions wrestle on the weekly show. Unless it’s a special event there’s no good reason for a champion to wrestle. Especially if you have a heel holding the belt. Unless the rules have been rewritten, the champion only has to defend the title once every 30 days. If the belt only has to be defended once a month, why would a heel want to defend the title more than he’s obligated to? If the champion refuses to wrestle on a weekly basis, hopefully the fans will get antsy wanting to see him wrestle, and if he plays his role right they’ll want to see him lose. The fans desire to see a champion wrestle will be so intense that they will shell out money to see him in the ring. When the champion wrestles on a weekly basis, and looks weak, why would fans want to spend $40 to see him fight?

When CM Punk was revealed as the new leader of Nexus, I was thinking a match between him and John Cena would make for a good Wrestlemania match. My concern was could the WWE creative team keep the buildup interesting for three months. After this past week’s Raw, the answer is no. For some reason in order to build a feud, the guys involved must interact with each other every week. Why? Flashing back to last year’s Wrestlemania, by the time the show went on, I had next to no interest in most of the matches because the guys fighting had been wrestling each other or interfering in matches for the previous 4-8 weeks. If you give me something on a weekly basis for free, why should I pay for it? I think the creative teams and those in charge need to think outside the box and find news ways to build interest in matches.

Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels

For instance, at Wrestlemania 26, Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker had a rematch from Wrestlemania 25. This time Shawn vowed if he couldn’t beat the Undertaker, Shawn would retire. The buildup was mostly Shawn attacking Taker after matches or the two of them having a face off inside the ring. If I had written the storyline, they wouldn’t have been in the same ring after Taker accepted Shawn’s challenge.

With Shawn’s career on the line, and Shawn having lost the year before, he should have been determined to not end up with his shoulders down for the three count. I would have taken a few pages from the Rocky IV script and had several weeks of training videos showing Shawn working out in the ring with a sparring partner learning how to escape Taker’s signature holds. Have Shawn talk about the need to end Undertaker’s undefeated Wrestlemania streak. How his loss the year before eats at him because the Heartbreak Kid is Mr. Wrestlemania. If you keep them apart from each other, building to match with vignettes and promos, when they finally step into the ring, the atmosphere will be more electric.

Less talk, more action.  Please!

Does every show have to start with a 15 minute in ring promo? Most of the time the meat of the promo could be said in 5 minutes or less and is going to be recapped multiple times throughout the show so what’s the purpose of an extended promo? At least mix the format up a bit. Maybe start the show with a match to get the fans excited, and then in segment two give them the promo.

It’s time for the GM to take a backseat. I remember back when I first started watching wrestling Jack Tunney was the President of the WWF. He was the one who would make big decisions when the time came. And when there was no decision needed, he wasn’t seen. Now the GM or whatever the person in charge is called is either on screen or mentioned in almost every segment. It’s overkill. Like having wrestler interact with each other every week kills interest in a potential money match, having a GM constantly adding or changing matches to a show makes the show look slapped together. Since the GM usually sets up the main event during the show, what would happen if the GM wasn’t there one week? Would there be no main event match. I’m slightly stealing this from one of Lance Storm’s blogs, but when a show goes on the air, all the matches should be set. Has there been any UFC or Boxing cards that get changed on the fly or matches added without warning? If the GM needs to make weekly decisions they should set up the following week’s show.

That’s just a short list of items I’d like to see on a wrestling program. I don’t see any of them happening anytime soon though. I’m sure I’ll keep watching anyway. What do you think of these ideas? And what would you change if you had the power?

40 is the New 30

From WWE.com

You've probably read by now that the WWE has announced that for the first time ever, the Royal Rumble will feature 40 superstars instead of the standard 30.  If you haven't read that yet, cool.  I'm glad you're finding out here.

Reaction to the announcement has been mostly positive from members of the WWE Universe on the WWE's Facebook page.  I read a few comments about messing with a tradition and some other choice words that I can't/won't post here because this is a Rated PG site.  (Darn WWE programming)

Anyway, I've been thinking about the decision.  It always seems like in years past there's guys who have been left out of the Rumble match who could have and probably should have been in there.  Opening it up to another 10 participants I think is a good thing...

But only if they do some of the follow things...
No Surprise Entrants Winning:  In 2010, Edge won the event after returning from an injury.  And even though he won the match he didn't win the title at Wrestlemania.  And in 2008, John Cena was the surprise entrant and won the event too.  He went to Wrestlemania 24 and ended up losing too.  Triple H returned to the Royal Rumble in 2002 and won the event and the title at Wrestlemania.  My memory isn't strong enough to recall if this was a surprise entry or a scheduled return for H.  My gut tells me we're going to see him return and win the Rumble.  That's my prediction as of right now, January 17, 2011.

Don't Throw Just ANYONE In There:  Ten extra spaces shouldn't be filled with 10 jobbers.  Or jobbers to the stars I guess is more accurate.  I like it when the participants in the Rumble are guys I can buy into and believe they could win.  Should Darren Young, Michael Tarver, and Zach Ryder all be thrown in?  No offense to those guys, but really, come.  I also am not opposed to the idea of throwing in a few guys from Japan or Mexico or even ROH.  Although I don't really believe that will happen.  Speaking on this too, no celebrity entrants like Drew Carey.  What waste that was.

Title Match Losers Get Added: Stack the card so the WWE and World title matches are early in the show.  Then the two men who lose get thrown into the Rumble match too.  It's a way for them to either redeem themselves or get an automatic rematch (should the champion lose his title) at Wrestlemania.

Get Rid of the Wrestlemania Guarantee: This concept has become more than played out.  And I know with the other things I've said I'm contradicting myself.  But hear me out.  Back in the day when there weren't 12 pay per views on the calendar and there was space in between the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania, having the winner get the title match made sense.  Now with Elimination Chamber literally weeks after the Rumble, the title picture can change so much.  Look at last year.  Edge won the RR, we assume he'll face Undertaker at Mania (again).  Then Chris Jericho wins the title at Elimination Chamber.  I don't like the hot potato game with the title.  If they planned to do Edge vs. Jericho at Mania anyway, why put the belt on Jericho just weeks before the event?  It just seemed like there wasn't a lot of planning in my opinion.

Since it looks like Elimination Chamber isn't going anywhere anytime soon, why not make the winner of the Rumble automatically qualify for the Elimination Chamber.  Then the winner of the EC match goes to Wrestlemania.  It makes the road to WM at little rougher, but makes it look like the winner worked a little harder to get there.

So right now, I'm going to get behind the idea of 40 participants (can't say men as Beth Phoenix or Awesome Kong could appear this year) and hope it's not a big cluster.  What do you think?