WWE: Three Steps to Put the 'Entertainment' Back in WWE

Professional wrestling has seen better days.

Currently, the WWE has only two megastars working full time in Randy Orton and John Cena. The past few years have seen the departure of many wrestlers who stood with them at the top. Legendary wrestlers such as Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle, Shawn Michaels, Edge, Chris Jericho and Batista have all permanently left the WWE while The Undertaker and HHH have semi-retired.

This leaves WWE with merely a fraction of the main event talent it once enjoyed and the company has failed to replace the lost stars, which has in turn led to boring and unceremoniously predictable storylines. The main event pushes of stars like CM Punk, Wade Barrett, Jack Swagger, Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio have come to nothing and left them wadding knee deep in the mid-card.

The WWE Championship reign of the Miz saw multiple dirty wins over announcers and was buried by Super Cena at Over the Limit. So after months of bland television the fans are left with a Superman with no kryptonite and a supposed psychopath who now dances after hitting the RKO. Don’t get me wrong, Cena and Orton are both fantastic athletes who pull off their characters well and wrestle good matches but due to their lack of competition RAW and Smackdown have now grown stale.

Here are three ways I believe WWE could return to the good old days, when watching pro wrestling was entertaining.

Step 1: Get Chris Jericho and Batista Back.

I know WWE will try their best to bring these two stars back onto our screens but the acquisition of either of these athletes would be enormous from an entertainment standpoint.

WWE has to build stars to challenge Orton or Cena in the main event, which they have failed to do, hence bringing back someone who is already at their level will help fill the current void.

Jericho and Batista are megastars, they have performed and delivered against some of the best the business has to offer but most importantly, they can entertain the masses.

Jericho cuts a promo like nobody else can and Batista proved towards the end of his tenure that he was up there with the best. I would much rather see Orton versus Batista or Jericho than Mark Henry or The Great Khali and more importantly, so would the vast majority of fans.

Another benefit of having these two back would be the ability to use them to build up new stars. A clean victory over Jericho could propel the Miz further than this botched feud with Cena ever could.

Plus, the involvement of stars of their caliber would make the midcard so much more watchable and allows young talent to win against big names without necessarily being in the title picture.

Step 2: Push the Midcard Talent.

This is where the WWE has really failed in recent times.

Wade Barrett came crashing into the title scene as the new top heel. Now he has to cheat to win a match for the Intercontinental Title. CM Punk has not won a PPV match for a year and he is undoubtedly the best all round performer in WWE today. I could go on for hours about botched pushes but instead I will propose a solution, let them win some matches against good opposition.

An example of a push that is going extremely well is that of Cody Rhodes.

The former inferior member of Legacy is now bordering on the world title scene and this has a lot to do with his feud with Rey Mysterio. Mysterio handpicked him as his Wrestlemania opponent and let Rhodes gain the victory which has done wonders for his credibility and standing as a superstar and the same could now be said of R-Truth. 

CM Punk on the other hand lost again and again to Orton and is now stuck in a faction of card fillers and jobbing to Cena and Mysterio who need absolutely no push themselves.

There are many aspects to a main event level star. These athletes have what it takes to be a World Champion but there is one aspect of the status that is eluding them—victories. To give an example, John Cena and Batista won clean against established veterans JBL and HHH respectively for the World Titles and Wrestlemania 21. They continued on to be two of the biggest stars in the industry.

Now let me take you forward to Wrestlemania 27; Barrett, CM Punk, Swagger and Del Rio all lost against experienced veterans and Sheamus was pushed off the card altogether. Imagine where Sheamus and Barrett would be today if their planned matches with HHH and the Undertaker had taken place. What if the Miz had beaten Cena clean? What if CM Punk had beaten Orton? What if Del Rio was World Champion right now?

Of course this is over simplified, the top guys can not just take a fall to up and comers every PPV, nor can heels win the majority of matches on any given night. However, in this business a win is what is required to turn a superstar into a championship contender and that is exactly what WWE needs to give to these athletes. The upcoming Money in the Bank PPV could be a start, just look at what it did for Edge.

Step 3: Face Wrestlers Don’t Always Have to Win.

This leads on from my previous point; to build a top star you need him to win but all of the aforementioned talents are heels. WWE has this fascination at present with baby faced wrestlers winning every main event, whether it be on weekly shows or PPV. This of course causes many issues.

I understand that in the PG era, the good guys have to win. I also understand that heels can’t win all the time but it is necessary for an entertaining product to have a little uncertainty.

Every WWE event for the last six months has been far too predictable. The only surprise WWE has thrown at me lately was Edge beating Del Rio at Wrestlemania, aside from that nothing springs to mind.

If the top guys continue to go unbeaten then ratings will fall as there is no entertainment in a contest where you know the winner right from the start.

Conclusion.

I realize this only scratches the surface of the problem and many of my ideas may just be wishful thinking. However, any fan over the age of 10 can recognize that WWE is not as entertaining as it use to be.

Let us hope that stars like Alberto Del Rio, Wade Barrett and CM Punk don’t get blocked by Cena the way that Ted DiBiase snr, Jake Roberts and Mr Perfect were by Hulk Hogan.