What WWE Needs To Do To Improve In 2009

The New Year is here and everyone is making resolutions from people to huge corporations. One corporation that should be making several resolutions is the WWE.

Ever since the Attitude Era ended in the early 2000s, the company has been in a creative tailspin as it tries to bring the fans a new kind of product featuring a new kind of superstar.

Thinking about how the former Federation could improve was an exhausting, yet fulfilling time, but with these suggestions it’s not difficult to fathom that the company would benefit from using one or all of them.

1. Stop pushing wrestlers down the fans’ throats.

Triple H, I’m talking to you. How many times will we have to sit through yet another title run from him before the fans turn on him? This isn’t 2000 where he was fresh and interesting to fun to watch.

His time has come and gone and he needs to step back and let a new face take the spotlight. Ratings go down when he’s champ, so why not have someone else carry the ball.

It’s been proven that fans want to see new wrestlers in top spots as evidenced when the ratings went up when Edge won the title from John Cena in 2006 and during CM Punk’s joke of a title run this past year when. He wants to break Ric Flair’s record of holding titles, but once he does it will have the same effect that Barry Bonds had when broke the home run record just five years after Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa did: no one will care.

John Cena is the only one, who’s been pushed down our throats also, that I wouldn’t mind seeing with the title, but make him work for it because he’s more interesting when he’s chasing the belt.

2. ut down the pay-per-view slate.

WWE made millions on having just four pay-per-view events a year. Each show was highly anticipated because the feuds were built up much better on television and then culminated in a much better match on a major show instead having an eight to ten minute match on a boring pay-per-view.

The low buyrates even show that fans just aren’t into these ancillary shows, because there are eighteen a year, never deliver with the exception of the Royal Rumble Wrestlemania, Summerslam, and Survivor Series, and fans don’t want to spend forty to fifty dollars not getting their money’s worth.

Why not have TV specials such as Saturday Night’s Main Event or to further feuds and anticipation, thus translating to better financial numbers when a pay-per-view happens like in the past?

3. Re-establish the tag team division.

How many fans can fondly remember the days of great tag teams in the WWE such as The British Bulldogs, The Hart Foundation, Legion of Doom, The Rockers, Demolition, The New Age Outlaws, and The Rock and Sock Connection?

Today we have mismatched singles wrestlers who the creative team has nothing to do with teaming up calling themselves a tag team. This isn’t tag team wrestling. A total disregard has been shown to the division by having very few tag team matches on pay-per-views.

Also, the fans of today could see what fans my age grew up with if all the promising tag teams hadn’t been broken up too soon such as Deuce and Domino, London and Kendrick, the Heartthrobs, The Highlanders, and MNM.

The only tag teams of worth right now are Miz and Morrison and Cryme Tyme and only the former are really given any respect, but there isn’t any real competition to challenge them, which means Vince will split them up any day now.

Cryme Tyme won a title shot last year, but they never got one and it seems that they’re destined to be the ghetto stereotypes we fans have come to know and love.

4. Get rid of the “WWE Style.”

For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, the “WWE Style” is where a wrestler, talented or not, does five big moves the entire match and isn’t allowed to show his or her full repertoire.

An example of a talented wrestler affect by this would be CM Punk. Triple H unwisely said that someone needs to teach Punk how to work, but that goes to show you that he didn’t do his homework on the wrestlers who are in the company.

Anyone who’s ever watched Ring of Honor, Full Impact Pro wrestling or any of his indy matches know that Punk can wrestle circles around most of the current WWE roster including one Triple H, but because he’s in the big time now and Vince doesn’t want his wrestlers getting hurt, he can only do a fraction of what fans know he can do.

The cruiserweights are also deeply affected as they can only wrestle a safe style and aren’t allowed to do moves such as the Shooting Star Press and 450 Splash. What WWE fails to realize is that you must have a great in-ring product to go along with the entertainment aspect.

Should Ring of Honor take the TV deal that’s currently on the table with HDNet and gain new fans, Vince will have to let his roster wrestle again in order to compete with may very well be a superior roster of athletes.

5. Get rid of the Diva Search. 

This is a complete waste of time that has taken up too much tv time. Most of the wrestlers have no wrestling, know nothing about the business, and are picked solely on their looks. Hardly any of the Diva Search winners have made a dent in the WWE.

Christy Hemme, the first ever winner, was released after being told to report down to OVW for more wrestling training. Ashley Massaro was very injury prone, couldn’t wrestle her way out of a paper bag, and is now facing down accusations of being a one-time escort.

Layla proved that she could entertain the crowd with her awesome dance moves, but couldn’t do it while wrestling.

Some of the best women wrestlers such as Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Jazz, and Victoria that have made their mark in WWE came through the independent circuit where they honed their skills and weren’t given breaks because they looked like a Maxim or Playboy pinup girl.

In the case of Trish Stratus, she was just a good looking manager who wanted to be known for more than her looks and put in the hard work to get better in the ring. She ended up becoming probably the best woman wrestler in WWE history.

Recent additions such as Natalya Neidhart and the Bella Twins are proof that you don’t need to hold an unnecessary contest that insults the fans’ intelligence to find a great woman wrestler.