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GUEST EDITORIAL
By Chris Zunis
PWTorch.com VIP Member

It's time for the WWE to shake things up. The product is suffering from over-saturation and repetitive booking ideologies. WWE has spread itself too thin. They have created structure where any hope to make things better is very low. For wrestling to return to where it was ten years ago, WWE must shake things up dramatically.

I think everyone agrees that the product is largely stale. Even when they shake things up like they did over the summer, everything always reverts back to the status quo. Over-saturation hasn't helped as it has just made things more redundant. We get five hours of WWE television a week plus monthly (and sometimes bi-monthly PPVs). And that's not even factoring in UFC and TNA, which WWE obviously can't control. It just feels like there is too much to follow for the average fan. It's to the point that titles have lost a lot of their meaning. Up and comers constantly get pushed only to be de-pushed over and over again.

This shake-up would require major downsizing. For it to work they can't be a publicly traded company since stock holders wouldn't understand and would think something was seriously wrong. So the first thing you would have to do would be to buy out all the stock and become a private company again. An expensive undertaking, but WWE has the money to do this.

The next thing I would do would be to find a way to cancel Smackdown and ECW. WWE just doesn't need this much TV time. It has led to PPVs feeling like just another show rather then special events. Plus, it has made it harder for fans to keep up with the product. It would be far better to focus on two hours of TV a week and maybe an occasional Saturday Night's Main Event. There was a time when you could wait for the next Raw because the only major first run show the company had per week. WWE has lost that feeling with all these prime time shows. This would probably have to be done long term, as you probably can't just drop two TV shows in the blink of an eye.

Several PPVs also need to be dropped as there are far too many. There is no reason to have two PPVs - in one month at times - when you have the same talent appearing on most of them. I'd cut back to 10-12 PPVs a year. With two hours or TV and a PPV once a month that would make things feel far more special. It might lead to fans pining for the next show instead of being surprised that the next one was two or three weeks away.

The next step would be to unify the titles. Assuming you planned ahead for when Smackdown and ECW ceased, you should be able to really build to each champion facing each other. By the end you should have one World Champion, one WWE Tag Champion, and one secondary champ. This will allow even the most casual fan to know there are clear champions. Try explaining to fringe fans that there are two or three world champions. It loses a lot of meaning that having one WWE champion would have.

Now the rosters would be far too bloated if all this went down. Lots of wrestlers and talent would need to be cut. I'd probably fire 50-75 percent of the roster. It's a heartless but necessary business move. If you kept the top stars, some mid-carders with potential, and some filler you'd be fine. You could send some of the young talent back to developmental as well as some veterans to work with them. Obviously some talented people would still get cut, but that's just the nature of the beast.

I'd actually expand developmental to several territories across the world. Even with fewer spots on top, it still wouldn't hurt to bring in a large amount of talent to groom for the future. Some of these young guys could uses several years of touring and honing their craft anyway. It would be the closest you could get to the old territory days.

As for booking, I'd fire 90 percent of the Hollywood writers. There are plenty of wrestling people inside and outside of the company to choose from. The booking should be done by a handful of these people. But one person should have full power. You can keep a few of the Hollywood writers around to get their points of view on things. Just don't put them in charge unless they demonstrate phenomenal talent for booking a wrestling promotion.

The bookers will needed to make things less scripted. Give wrestlers bullet points and challenge them to come up with their own promos. Give wrestlers reasonable freedom when laying out their matches and segments. I'd probably groom a worthy mid-carder to be the eventual top guy. Have him go through all of you're existing top guys over time. Then pick a mid-carder to be his eventual rival and have him do the same. When the two wrestlers would be two to three years down the line, it could really mean something.

All these are dramatic changes that don't come easy. And probably can't be done all at once. But WWE has the ability to go in the direction without suffering devastating losses. And if done correctly it could lead to bigger gains down the line. It would make things far more simpler. Which is a good thing in wrestling.

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