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The last few years of WWE programming have been somewhat chaotic, in terms of how the shows are presented, and the amount of talent the company has at its disposal. One could argue that the WWE roster is too crowded and that the layout of WWE television/pay-per-views is wrong.
Today we are going to take a look at a few ideas that may be controversial to some, to improve and make the drastic changes that the company sorely needs. This is completely based on the opinion of this writer, and I am more than willing to hear your thoughts and opinions on it all below.
So without further ado, let's begin...
#1 Fewer matchups and run time on pay-per-views
Over the last couple of years, PPV's have been running for a minimum of 4 hours, and have gone for as long as 7 hours for the big PPV shows. The run time of a show should not be anything over 3 to 3 1/2 hours, as it becomes too monotonous to sit through, both at a live event or watching it at home.
With how WrestleMania is shaping up this year, we could get anything of up to 16 matches on the show. This is going to be quite difficult to sit through, no matter how good the matches are going to be. It is understandable that WWE would like to pull out all the stops for a show such as WrestleMania, however, sometimes you just have to know when enough is enough and not to go overboard with it.
What the company has to remember is that they have NXT Takeover, The Hall of Fame ceremony, Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live, all surrounding the day of WrestleMania. With all of the programming that is on over the course of WrestleMania week as it is, even the most hardcore fans are going to be sick of it all by time WrestleMania day has finished, and the crowd will still be burnt out on Monday Night Raw.
WrestleMania week needs some tweaking in order to iron out the creases and to make it much more bearable to sit through, and more enjoyable experience. However, the only problem isn't with WrestleMania, but most of the pay-per-views that WWE has. It is understandable they want to get as much talent involved especially for the big events, but they have to also think of the fans, and just how much that they are able to tolerate at any one time.
I believe that this is one of the significant reasons for attendance figures dropping over the last few years. Even the hardcore fans can't and shouldn't be expected to have to sit through a monotonous 7 hours of PPV run time. It certainly explains why people choose to go online to only watch the highlights of WWE programming.
The easy solution to it would be to restructure the big PPV set up especially WrestleMania week. Maybe they could hold the NXT Takeover event the week before WrestleMania and host the Hall of Fame ceremony the week before. That way they could host WrestleMania over a 2 day period (Saturday and Sunday), so as to not burn out the crowd in attendance.
It is something that makes a lot more logical sense rather than continuing the monotonous routine they have now. Having that many matches alone on one card is absolutely ridiculous and would be hard for anybody to follow, but if they insisted to keep it that way, then having WrestleMania over two days would be the most logical step forward. The same would apply to the other Big 4 pay-per-views.
#2 Make the WWE title the top title and make the Universal title the secondary world championship
Let's face the facts that the Universal title has been cursed from the get-go, and literally has no meaning behind it, due to Brock Lesnar's noticeable absence and lack of defence. It is going to be questionable even when the title does get back onto TV full time, whether management can make the Universal title gather some prestige, and be accepted by fans again as a world title.
An opinion that I'm sure most of us would agree on, is that Brock Lesnar has not given the title any sort of prestige whatsoever. As it stands now, the Universal title has become somewhat of a joke to most wrestling fans, with some fans not even liking the belt from the very start, due to its toy-like presentation.
Who will ever forget the night on Monday Night Raw when it was revealed in 2016, following the brand split. The crowd was chanting "that belt sucks," and to be hones,t it doesn't look very prestigious, but it wasn't the worst design.
Since the Universal title hasn't been received very well or garnered any sort of prestiege, it should become more like a secondary world title, more like how people viewed the World Heavyweight Championship in its later years. It could be a cross between a world title and sort of like a TV title, due to how damaged its reputation is.
The WWE Championship needs to go back to being the most coveted and prestigious title that everyone wants to hold. It was always known to be the top prize, even when the WWE officially introduced the World Heavyweight Championship because the WWE championship is synonymous with the company and has a rich 50-year history. Some of the greatest legends of the sport held this title and it needs to be treated the way that it was for most of those 50 years. No title should ever be created (or existing ones), made higher than the coveted WWE Championship.
#3 Keep the brand split
Lately, we have seen a number of superstars return from injury on a different brand, without so much as an explanation as to why they returned on a different brand. It seems that WWE isn't really committed to the brand split any more, and could be looking at merging the rosters again at some point in the future.
We know that Smackdown Live will be moving to Fox in October, seemingly wanting the biggest stars to be on the blue brand for rating purposes. SmackDown Live will also become more sports orientated, rather than focusing on the entertainment aspect of the business.
This will pose a problem for people that only have a limited moveset, so most of the guys will probably be good in-ring workers such as Seth Rollins, Finn Balor and AJ Styles. I am assuming that these are the type of people that Fox would want on their show who can put on a decent match. SmackDown will probably be a show like NXT for the hardcore purest fans, who like the in-ring action.
To keep both Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live interesting, then it is best to keep the brand split in play. That way more Superstars get opportunities and members of the roster are exclusive only to one brand, and they also don't face overexposure by appearing on both brands. It would not be great from a performer's standpoint, if the brand split was to end, knowing that you may not get featured very much especially if you're a mid-card guy. This leads me to my next point.
#4 Create a third main roster brand and keep NXT as developmental. Let Triple H control the third brand
We can see how aggressively the company has been adding talent to all forms of the company, and it has resulted in the roster being absolutely bloated. The simple solution for this, which in its own right is controversial, would be to create a third main roster brand.
WWE officials can decide how this program would work, but ultimately the goal would be for the third brand to feature all the underutilized talent on the main roster. And the idea would be to maybe put one of the mid-card titles on the show for them to fight for, most possibly the United States Championship.
This show could and should be run by Triple H, and could showcase some of the NXT talents that have failed to impress Vince McMahon on the other two brands. It would be a similar style show to SmackDown and NXT, but it would be a proper main roster show for underutilized mid card men and women. It would be essential to have at least one sort of championship on there, such as the US title for the stars to fight for, and the show should run for an hour or two and no longer.
It could start off as a WWE Network show until they got a proper television network to appear on. Having this in place would probably prevent a lot of unhappy Superstars asking for their release from the company, and may even help build some of the talents back up & develop their character a bit more.
#5 Roman Reigns shouldn't be in the world title picture anytime soon
It is great that Roman Reigns is back on our television set so soon, after being diagnosed with leukaemia in October. His recovery is nothing short of miraculous and he certainly deserved the pop that he got on his return, as well as the support that he continues to receive from the audience.
The problem that WWE faces currently, is that they are probably going to try and insert him into the world title picture as soon as possible, which is going to be a big mistake that will cost them dearly. Pushing Roman Reigns back into the main event will automatically turn the fans against him again, even though he does deserve a rematch for the Universal title.
What the WWE must do is build Roman Reigns up slowly, even if it takes them a year to do so. They can try and give him another run as Universal champion, without forcing him down the throats of the WWE fans. It may work and it may not, but the best way to do it is just to build him back up slowly, without making him look like an underdog.
It certainly wouldn't hurt for him to put a few guys over, such as Drew McIntyre and even Bobby Lashley as well as his own brother Seth Rollins. Roman has been very well protected by management over the last 4-5 years, and having him put a few guys over would not dent his credibility at all.
The company wasted a lot of time trying to get the WWE fans to accept Roman Reigns as the face of the company, and it has never worked so perhaps it's time that they had multiple faces of the company. That way WWE will never get stuck in the same predicament that they were in when Roman got diagnosed with leukaemia. Putting their eggs all in one basket was never going to work out. It always works out better for them if they have multiple top faces.
If WWE play their cards right they can build up Roman Reigns, with the crowd actually supporting him. He definitely does not need to be in the main event scene all of the time, and there would not be so much pressure on him to be the one and only face.If they build up Drew McIntyre, Seth Rollins, Braun Strowman and Finn Balor, they can also be people that could share the main event scene.
One thing that was noticeable just before Roman got diagnosed with leukaemia, was that even he seemed to be sick of facing Brock Lesnar. It would be understandable if he was, because the matches with Brock would take a toll on his body. Brock Lesnar is a very stiff and aggressive in ring worker, and it definitely would have knocked Roman around.
I think that if Roman gets back in the main event, then he needs to be kept away from Brock Lesnar. Their feud has been done so much that nobody liked the matches, and appeared to take a lot out of Roman, whether fans want to admit that or not.
#6 Get rid of Brock Lesnar
Brock Lesnar has been back in the WWE since 2012, yet you would hardly notice it. His appearances have been few and far between. When he has been champion, we do not see him defend it regularly. Overall he has held the Universal championship hostage for the majority of the last two years, to the point where people no longer care about the title.
Somehow Vince McMahon believes that Brock is still a draw for the company, yet his appearances have hardly raised the ratings on Monday Night Raw these last couple of years. It's literally got to the point of desperation from the fans, that they want to see the title taken off him and who can blame them. Monday Night Raw is without its top title, and it needs to come back to a full-time champion, to at least start giving the championship some credibility.
It's hard to take the Universal championship seriously as a world title if we have not see it on television for the majority of the last two years. It has left the male Superstars without a top prize to fight for on the red brand. Brock has overstayed his welcome, while Vince would do well to allow the Beast to walk away from the company and not return.
Brock clearly has no passion or desire for professional wrestling and is only there for the money. Vince would save himself a heap of money if he wasn't forking out so much money per appearance for Brock Lesnar. The Beast is better off to just retire, or go back to the octagon, where he seems to want to be.
#7 Make all the titles the focal point of the show and storylines
Over the last year, we have seen many of the championships, not be the focal point of a storyline. Championships these days seem to be getting neglected, or appear like an afterthought in the storylines. The company seemingly focuses on the personal storytelling aspect, rather than the championship.
The United States Championship has been relegated to pre shows, sometimes not even featured at all due to lazy booking by creatives. Shinsuke Nakamura had one of the worst runs than any of us ever have seen when he was holding the United States Championship. It honestly felt like it didn't matter at all that he was holding it.
WWE should always have people fighting for each and every championship at their pay-per-views. They should always have people built up ready for a title shot. No championship should not be defended at any event, especially with the amount of talent they have on the roster.
Making titles feel like an afterthought is not right for a global product like WWE. All Championships in pro wrestling, no matter what company, should always be presented as prestigious, and should always be the centerpiece of storylines. WWE needs to stop making the rivalries personal all the time, and get the championships back to being the focal point.
Many of the titles have lost or are losing their prestiege for this very reason in WWE, and it's not right. All of those championships deserve to be at the center piece of every storyline, and could be if they didn't have so many other storylines going on, that is irrelevant to championships.
