What?

Monday night after RAW, the WWE Network aired a special “Stone Cold Podcast,” where Steve Austin’s guest was WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.  At the end of the show, Austin asked Mr. McMahon where people could go to offer suggestions for WWE.  Vince claims he listens to his audience, referring to the live audience, but Austin insisted that they could send their thoughts to the WWE and Vince McMahon’s Twitter accounts.  I saw a great post from @KellettFilm on Twitter with a list of things he would like to see, and I agreed with a lot of his list, and some of his things, in my own words, may show up here.  That said, here is my idea of what I’d personally like to see from World Wrestling Entertainment.

First and foremost, I think Monday Night RAW needs to revert back to two hours.  Or even 90 minutes.  Quite frankly, it is extremely difficult for the current product to hold my attention for that much time every week, sometimes twice a week.  Three hours should be reserved for Pay Per View events every few months.

Yes, every few months.  I think we need far less than 13 Pay Per View events per year.  We did just fine with just four or five.  The fact that they’re changing the Elimination Chamber event in February to something else is indicative of the fact that it’s very difficult to make the Royal Rumble mean something if five other guys that didn’t win the Rumble are getting a shot before WrestleMania inside the Chamber.

I’d love to have more long term story arcs.  I’ve been watching the early Monday Night RAWs on the WWE Network, and you could see the seeds planted for WrestleMania X back before even Survivor Series in November of 1993.  SummerSlam 1994 angles were developing by the Royal Rumble of that year.  And I never had to watch Owen Hart wrestle Bret Hart during their year long angle except during those Pay Per View events they had matches on (the debut of WWE Action Zone notwithstanding).

I’d like for WWE SmackDown to go back to being a show where angles continue, like it was when it first started in 1999.  Which is another reason we don’t need three hours for RAW.  If we have something booked for RAW; for example, the debut of The New Day; don’t put it on SmackDown three days earlier.  And stop having matches on SmackDown for the sake of having a rematch on RAW the next Monday.  I don’t watch SmackDown now because I don’t feel like I’m missing anything.

I’d like the Intercontinental Championship to mean more.  Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat made that title feel just as important, if not moreso, than the WWE Championship in 1987.  At one point, the title was considered a springboard to the WWE Championship, a platform that in their current roles I can’t see Dolph Ziggler or Luke Harper attaining anytime in the near future (though, both of them should certainly be future WWE World Heavyweight Champions).

I feel the United States Championship should either be defended more often or disbanded altogether.  What did Dean Ambrose have, 5, maybe 6 defenses in his record setting title reign?

No more authority figures, especially heels.  I’ve written at length about the subject before, and I still feel as strongly about it then as I do now.  It was suggested that maybe a more Jack Tunney-like authority figure, who rules from his office and only speaks on issues when absolutely necessary may be a way to go, and I agree with that.

While we’re at it, how about less talking altogether?  Austin mentioned in the Network podcast that he feels the opening segments of RAW go on far too long.  I get we’re trying to establish characters and rivalries in an effort to make the fans care more.  I feel it can be done quicker.  And on the subject, no more promos to open a Pay Per View.  I don’t care if I only paid $9.99, or if I paid the full $65, this isn’t Monday Night RAW, I paid for wrestling.  WRESTLING.

WRESTLING.  It’s not a dirty word.  It’s what these guys and girls who have made it here have worked their asses off to do.  Yes, I get that it’s “sports entertainment,” and I don’t have an issue with the term.  I have an issue with the fact that we’ve somehow made “wrestling” something we’re not allowed to say.  And I’m not a Universe, I’m a fan, dammit!

Look, I understand the point of being a publicly traded company and that seven hours of original programming is a lot for any writing staff, but can we hire some writers who are wrestling fans and may actually agree with some of these ideas?  I understand that competition is any other form of entertainment, but you’re not any other form of entertainment, you are wrestling.

And the final thing that I’d like to ask of WWE is to please not screw up NXT.  Keep doing what you’re doing there.

Post by thinksojoe

The founder of BoredWrestlingFan.com and it’s parent company, Fropac Entertainment, ThinkSoJoE has been a wrestling fan since he first saw WWF television in 1986 at the age of four. His first wrestling memory was Hulk Hogan on Saturday Night’s Main Event talking about getting King Kong Bundy in a cage at WrestleMania 2. Sixteen years later, he met Hulk Hogan on the eve of WrestleMania X-8. On December 9, 2013, he legitimately won a Slammy Award (Best Crowd of the Year). ThinkSoJoE currently hosts the weekly BWF Radio podcast.


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3 Comments

  1. I couldn't agree more except to add a few things.
    1) LOGIC- Make your matches have some sort of sense to them. Take tonight's "Tag Team Turmoil", the team that starts first would be at a huge disadvantage. If you are going to do it that way, at least give us the reasons teams or people are coming out when they do, even if it's just them drawing numbers from the Bunny head. Also for tag matches like the four way at Survivor Series, make a rule up that says a person can't tag their opponent, face their partner and then submit to win. It's a logic hole.
    2) COMEDY- There is place in wrestling for comedy but not if the comedy is just mean spirited. Last week, Kane was just doing the job he was supposed to do and Ryback attacks him with mustard in the eye. I know it was supposed to be funny, but why are we cheering someone for attacking a co0ncession worker, he wasn't a "sports entertainer" that night. It's another logic gap, too.
    3) The CENA IN THE ROOM: When your heel can use the fact that half of the audience doesn't like the guy you're pushing as the greatest person to ever lace up a pair of (Reeboks) boots, you're doing it wrong. Yes, he sells a shit ton of merch, but anyone you push like that will. You could book me and Joe like you do Cena and we'd sell as much merch as he does. You control the perception and in wrestling perception is reality, and it's time for a NEW reality.


    • In those four way tag matches like the one at Survivor Series, they used to explain that "The Outlaw rule is in effect," meaning that you couldn't pin your own partner, which actually happened in a match that the New Age Outlaws won the Tag Team Championship in. Without the rule being explicitly stated, it would certainly allow a team to take advantage of said logic hole and win by pinning their own partner, a la Road Dogg and Billy Gunn.


  2. Also, why did JBL mention the Freebirds by saying The New Day were the "Gleebirds" but didn't mention they were using "The Freebird Rule"? Man, embrace the past and it adds to the present, right?


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