5 Ways WWE Can Keep Fans Interested During Final Month of 2017

December is a tricky time of year for WWE, mainly because people are more focused on celebrating the holidays with their friends and family than consuming entertainment.

It's also a slower period for the company before it ramps up for the Road to WrestleMania following the annual Royal Rumble in January.

This is typically when management books random stipulation matches like Miracle on 34th Street Fights or Santa's Sack on a Pole matches because it's saving all the good ideas for the first few months of the next year.

Unfortunately, WWE Creative has been dealing with these issues for a long time. This means it's more important than ever to keep the WWE Universe engaged during the entire year.

This article will look at some of the ways WWE can keep fans tuning in during the final month of 2017.

More NXT Call-Ups and Roster Changes

Ruby Riot, Sarah Logan, Liv Morgan, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville debuted and expanded the women's division quite a bit in the span of 48 hours last week, and Hideo Itami's move to 205 Live has been teased for weeks.

Bringing up new faces from NXT is always a good way to pique the interest of fans, especially if the person in question was popular in the developmental system.

WWE can't deplete the NXT roster without the risk of damaging the product, but WWE has enough talent to spare a few more names in 2017.

Sanity would be an amazing addition to Raw or SmackDown, as would The Iconic Duo, Peyton Royce and Billie Kay.

Oddly enough, the opposite situation could also help the NXT product. Taking a few people who aren't doing anything on the main roster and putting them in NXT would keep things fresh.

Mike Kanellis, Curt Hawkins, The Singh Brothers, Apollo Crews and several cruiserweights could find new life with a run in the developmental system much like Tyson Kidd did a few years ago.

Clash of Champions

Clash of Champions is the only WWE pay-per-view scheduled for December, and the Dec. 17 event will be exclusive to the SmackDown brand.

As the final PPV before the Royal Rumble, many fans expect management to phone this one in, but that should never be WWE's approach to an event.

The main event of AJ Styles vs. Jinder Mahal for the WWE Championship has already been booked, but the rest of the card is wide-open.

Since the majority of fans expect things to heat up in January, WWE has an opportunity to play with the formula and put together some intriguing and unique matches.

Things like The Usos vs. The New Day for the tag titles in a 30-minute Ironman match or another first-time stipulation for the women's division would be a great way to drum up interest.

Battle Royals are always fun, and there's no denying the appeal of a good ladder or cage match. 

Play Up the Idea of Brand Warfare

How are fans supposed to buy into the idea of Raw and SmackDown competing if the brands only act like enemies when it's convenient? Survivor Series shouldn't be the only time they go head-to-head. 

The feud between Shane and Stephanie McMahon should be addressed more often, especially since the first few months of 2018 will feature two PPVs with both brands.

The Royal Rumble and WrestleMania will include stars from Raw and SmackDown. All of the title matches will be separate, but there is plenty of room to play with the rest of the card.

Management could make the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal more of a competition between the shows, and the Royal Rumble is definitely a place where Shane and Stephanie can compete for supremacy.

The feud between the red and blue brands is obviously fake, but so is every story in WWE. If fans thought an invasion or attack between shows could happen at any time, it would keep them on their toes waiting for the next strike.

Use the Part-Time Superstars Better

Before we get into the topic of this slide, here are a few statistics to give you context:

• WWE has held 15 PPVs in 2017.
• Those PPVs have included 133 matches (including pre-show bouts).
• Only 18 of those matches included a Superstar you could classify as part-time (Chris Jericho doesn't count because he works a full schedule when he is around).
• Five of those 18 matches featured John Cena, who had plenty of regularly televised matches, unlike Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Shane McMahon and Goldberg.
• Only four PPVs featured more than one match with a part-time Superstar, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, No Mercy and Survivor Series.
• We also had four PPVs without any part-time performers.

Many fans will complain about WWE giving too much time to part-time Superstars, but the numbers above tell a different story.

While the majority of PPVs featured someone in this category, we rarely saw them on Raw and SmackDown, and if we did, it was for simple promo segments or short physical confrontations.

Angle and Shane are both clearly capable and willing to wrestle, so there is no reason why WWE can't use them for the occasional televised match to give an episode of Raw or SmackDown a boost.

The WWE Universe loves these guys, but seeing them used solely as authority figures is getting old. Even if WWE only used each of them for one match each in December, it would help give off the impression that they could wrestle at any time instead of just at huge events.

More Major Stipulations on TV

It makes sense for WWE to save all of its big stipulation matches for PPV events, but if the company wants a ratings jump, the key might be bringing some of these bouts to Raw and SmackDown.

Out of the 38 Hell in a Cell matches WWE has put on, only three have ever taken place outside the confines of a PPV, and one of them was an untelevised dark match.

Having this stipulation on an episode of Raw or SmackDown would be guaranteed to bring in more casual viewers, especially if the people competing are major players.

Other stipulations like Cage, Ladder and TLC matches would be even easier to pull off logistically because they don't require a large venue or extra space ringside.

Even when the Superstars are giving us great performances on a regular basis, Raw and SmackDown can still feel repetitive. If management insists on giving us the same combinations of wrestlers over and over, the least it could do it give us more variety in the kinds of matches we see.