SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
PWTorch contributor Frank Peteani writes…
I would like to see WWE put a focus more on wrestling and the wrestler’s missions and less on comedy and non-wrestling entertainment. I feel as though for many years they’ve wanted to make us laugh and make us smile rather than focus on wrestlers competing for titles or for supremacy amongst each other. I could do without Jinder Mahal trying to get guys to meditate, New Day flinging pancakes, or any other skit WWE thinks is going to amuse us. I want to see wrestlers going after each other talking about issues they have WITH EACH OTHER and not heeling on the crowd. Tied into this, I want to see wins and losses meaning something, rather than just having random matches where the results don’t lead to anything.
Small bulletpoints:
- No McMahons on TV unless they need to make an announcement
- Heel and babyface turns take place over time
- Championship matches are earned by wrestlers obtaining victories and the announcers framing them as contenders, legitimizing them being in such matches.
- Announce matches ahead of time, especially on Raw and Smackdown. Besides making my life easier, writing the Raw Primer and Smackdown Primer each week, this would make the matches feel important when they’re announced ahead of time and discussed.
PWTorch reader Mark Chetcuti writes…
One change that I would like to see for 2019 would be a WWE Queen of the Ring pay-per-view. I do think that having such a tournament would help usher new WWE wrestlers highlighting their progress in a way that the Mae Young Classic does not. Let’s face it. The Mae Young Classic highlights and emphasizes the splendor, grace, and toughness of rookies of WWE and those who are on developmental deals. A Queen of the Ring pay-per-view would be different than that as it would allow women wrestlers who are already present in WWE an opportunity to cement themselves as icons of the sport of professional wrestling. It would also catapult the WWE women’s titles to top tier championships as the WWE has been pushing for. The women’s division is missing something, and that’s far from Freudian theories of penis envy. They are missing the matriarchy which goes along with a Queen of the Ring tournament, as we have seen true global leaders in professional wrestling emerge through the King of the Ring tournaments. When I called WWE corporate office to make this suggestion and to make the truth claim that I came up with a former WWE pay per view title, they made the conversation short. They probably think that I am a nut, but I cannot do much about that. I love watching women’s professional wrestling and I want to help fight for equality in the sport/entertainment/art-form. Women deserve to be treated on the same level as men in all categories.
PWTorch reader Dan DePuy writes…
The most important change would be to allow talent more creative freedom. One big weakness of WWE today is that they don’t really have big stars anymore. Let performers break from scripted promos and improvise more, let them work matches in a more dynamic way with less laid out beforehand, and let them have input on their own storylines. The storytelling has been stale for a while now and a few fresh voices could really shake things up.
Now it’s your turn…
What would you change about WWE? The McMahons are promising to do more listening to fans, so be heard. This is your chance to be published on PWTorch.com with your suggestion for what you would change about WWE.
Here are the ground rules to be published. Pick one change that you most want to see and explain it in less than 500 words. Be concise and clear, and don’t mince your words. Let the McMahons know what you want out of WWE in 2019.
After you explain why your single suggested change is most important to you and why it would be good for WWE to listen to you, you can add onto the end, if you choose, a few other quick suggestions that are one-sentence each that were runners-up for your primary suggestion.
I will go through the responses and publish many of them in bathes here at PWTorch.com in comings days. Check back to read the suggestions of fellow fans in coming days.
Send to pwtorch@pwtorch.com.
Meanwhile, check out this week’s Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show featuring PWTorch VIP Analyst Todd Martin’s 30-plus minute list of five key suggestions for how WWE could change for the better in 2019.
Or search “Wade Keller” in Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Tune In Radio, iHeart Radio, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Beyond Pod, Downcast, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Less McMahons. Have them only as figureheads to arbitrate disputes & announce fines, suspensions & the like, ala-Jack Tunney. I know I can’t be alone in finding the whole Evil Authority bit played-out & tedious.
1. No more bickering announcers carrying on while there’s action happening in the ring.
2. The end of “heel announcers”, particularly where the heel announcer is contrary merely to be contrary.
3. Alleged comedy. “Fashion Police” or whatever it was called comes to mind.