WWE: Fewer PPVs and 4 Other Strategic Steps for a Better Product in 2012

A mere six weeks remain in 2011, and WWE has had one hell of a year.

From "The Biggest Royal Rumble in History" and the retirement of Edge, to Kharma's debut and the return of the most electrifying man in sports entertainment, to CM Punk's ushering in of the "Reality Era" and the slew of recent releases and wellness policy violations, there have been a lot of hits and there have been a lot of misses.

And, to quote The Miz, there have been a lot of instances where us fans were left wondering, really?

Sometimes, it just doesn't seem like WWE knows what it's doing. Ill-planned storylines, underutilized talent, cheapening of titles—as these things continue, the IWC in turn continues to become more and more frustrated.

But all is not illogical pandemonium in WWE. It has, as of late, at least been attempting to exhibit some sort of direction. Air Boom has been doing the best they can to breathe some life back into the tag team division. Mark Henry's monster run is making the World Heavyweight Title look like an extremely valuable asset, and Cody Rhodes is beginning to build back up the Intercontinental Title.

There is, of course, also loads of room for continued improvement. This slideshow presents a five-step strategic plan for WWE, which if implemented could greatly improve the product in the year to come.  

Fewer PPVs Will Lead to Higher Buyrates

WWE is in the business of making money.

That being said, one of the primary ways it hopes to draw revenue is through monthly pay-per-views.

But wait. Sometimes they have two per month.

In 2011, May and October both were "double PPV" months. Extreme Rules was held on May 1, while Over the Limit occurred three weeks later on May 22. Most recently, Vengeance took place on October 23, just three weeks after Hell in a Cell on October 2.

Official numbers have yet to be released for October's PPVs, but from looking at WWE's 2nd quarter buyrates, it's easily argued that holding two PPVs in such quick succession is disadvantageous for business. While Extreme Rules actually improved from 2010 with 209,000 buys, Over the Limit drew only 140,000.

In today's economy, with PPVs costing $50-60 a pop, many fans flat out can't afford to spend that amount of money on entertainment twice a month. Of course, something must be said for Internet pirating effecting buyrates, but the good majority of fans still greatly prefer watching a legal broadcast on an HDTV.

Furthermore, having only three weeks between each event affects the quality of the event itself. The first week after a PPV deals with immediate fallout from the event, with succeeding weeks building up to the next PPV.

If given only two solid weeks to build interest for the next event, at two shows a week that's a mere four shows total to establish (hopefully) engaging storylines. Really, it's only two shows—two for RAW and two for SmackDown.

That is not enough time.

By lessening the number of PPVs held each year, fans will be more likely to buy the ones which are held. This is true not only because they won't be spending money as often, but because when given more time to develop, the feuds and storylines leading up to the PPV will (hopefully) be of better quality, thus garnering more interest and reason for the PPV to be ordered in the first place. 

Speaking of storylines...

Logical Storyline Progressions Will Lead to Greater Fan Interest

How many abandoned, poorly handled and nonsensical storylines have there been in WWE history? Hundreds? Thousands? Millions? Tens of millions?

Point is, there have been a lot.

The most recent storyline to leave us with much to be desired is that of the company-wide conspiracy theory. Let's point out some of its biggest letdowns, shall we?

One of the most asked questions at the height of the conspiracy theory centered around who had sent Kevin Nash the text message instructing him to attack CM Punk at SummerSlam. As it turned out, Nash had sent the text to himself.

Really, WWE?

After Nash and Awesome Truth continued to wreak havoc week in and week out, the great majority of WWE's on-screen employees voted no confidence in Triple H as COO. But he was never actually stripped of his position or any of his power; he was just replaced on TV by John Laurinaitis.

Really, WWE?

After staging a run-in and attacking Punk, John Cena and Alberto Del Rio at Hell in a Cell, it took police force to subdue Awesome Truth. Upon being rehired by Laurinaitis, they went on to defeat the team of CM Punk and Triple H at Vengeance. But then all of their momentum was halted when SuperCena was allowed to single-handedly stave off their attacks on RAW.

Really, WWE?  

Granted, there still is hope for this storyline not to become a complete waste like, say, the Nexus or Anonymous RAW GM storylines were. Problem is, knowing WWE's track record, most fans don't expect it to go anywhere. So why should we care? Why should we continue to watch if there's not going to be some sort of interesting payout in the end?

Not every storyline is going to have a satisfying conclusion, or any conclusion at all, for that matter; it's just a fact. But WWE seriously needs to start making their angles more interesting, less predictable and less completely convoluted. Otherwise, a lot of us are just going to stop caring.

So please, WWE, don't drop the ball with this one any more times than you already have.

Respected Championships Will Lead to Respected Champions

Honestly, with the way it's been handled lately perhaps the WWE Championship does belong in someone's fridge.

Since CM Punk tweeted that picture after Money in the Bank in July, the WWE Title changed hands five times in less than three months. On the other hand, in the same amount of time the World Heavyweight Title only changed hands twice.

Considering that, it's not hard to see why Mark Henry is a far more respected champion than Alberto Del Rio.

Of course, the way in which Henry and Del Rio have been booked, regardless of the titles they hold, has a lot to do with how they are perceived. But, due to the way in which the WWE Title itself is booked, we've come to expect that it's only a matter of time before it finds its way back to John Cena. At just 34, he's already a record 10-time WWE Champion. It might as well be renamed the "John Cena World Championship."

This isn't the case with the World Heavyweight Championship. The WWE Superstar who holds the record for most WHC title reigns is Edge. But he is "only" a seven-time champion, and each time he won disgruntled fans across the IWC didn't collectively think, "Here we go again."

Simply put, because the World Heavyweight Title doesn't change hands nearly as often—and because it doesn't continually go back to the same guy—it is perceived as a much more valuable and respected asset than the WWE Title, at least in the writer's opinion.

If WWE brass wants us, the fans, to believe that the WWE Championship holds as much prestige as they know it does, they need to start treating it with more respect. It's a near half-century old World Championship, for crying out loud; not the Divas Title. But more on that later... 

Utilization of More Deserving Talent Will Lead to a Less Stale Product

This should be rather self-explanatory.

Honestly, WWE is making steps in the right direction to involve its younger, up-and-coming stars. Dolph Ziggler looks set to be pushed into the WWE Title scene, and both Zack Ryder and Mason Ryan seem poised to take his place as U.S. Champion.

Over on SmackDown, Intercontinental Champion Cody Rhodes has been embroiled in an impressive feud with Randy Orton, while Mr. Money in the Bank Daniel Bryan is becoming a threat to Mark Henry's reign.

However, the WWE is still failing in a lot of areas. Exhibit A: The tag team division.

In the golden days of tag team wrestling, being the WWE Tag Team Champions was almost on par with being the WWE Champion. Many tag team wrestlers were expected to, and eventually did, go on to become singles' superstars. An exciting tag team division can both foster burgeoning talent, leading them on to bigger and better things, as well as give wasted talent something to do.

Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne, known collectively as the most PG tag team ever, have been doing a decent job beginning to make the tag titles look legitimate again, especially when you consider that none of their title defenses have been against legitimate tag teams.

Well, perhaps David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty could have been considered a legitimate tag team, but it's pushing it. However, Miz and R-Truth aren't so much a tag team as they are two singles' wrestlers working together to fight The Man, while Ziggler and Jack Swagger are two singles' wrestlers who just so happen to both be managed by Vickie Guerrero.

So, why weren't The Usos ever brought into the picture? Or what about their NXT rivals, Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks? Why not make the tag titles look more credible by giving the champions more credible teams to fight, while at the same time rescuing wasted talent from purgatory and giving fans someone new to cheer or boo? It seems like a win-win-win.

The tag team division does finally seem to be growing, however. Hunico and Epico faced off against The Usos on this past Friday's SmackDown, and hopefully that match was only the beginning. By continuing to build up the tag team division, as well as diversify and strengthen the players in the U.S. and IC Title scenes, it will not only give fans fresh feuds to watch but hone the talent who will carry WWE into the next decade.

Now, Exhibit B is the Divas division, and that is being so horribly mishandled it gets a slide all to itself...

Direction for the Divas Will Lead to a Better Division Overall

Probably the single most discussed topic here in the IWC is the sad, sad state of the WWE Divas division.

"The Divas can't wrestle."

"Well, actually they can wrestle, they just aren't given enough opportunity."

"There aren't enough of them for the division to be any good."

"Actually, there are enough of them, they just aren't being used properly."

"WWE needs to stop hiring models and start hiring wrestlers."

All of these are arguments made about the Divas, and there are more arguments still. But, as far as this disgruntled female member of the IWC and WWE Universe is concerned, there is one problem and one problem alone.

WWE brass don't view the Divas as serious competitors.

How could they, when they retired the Women's Championship, the oldest and most storied belt in company history, and replaced it with that Barbie accessory? How could they, when they push models like Brie Bella and Kelly Kelly while experienced wrestlers like Tamina and AJ are being wasted? How could they, when they allow the so-called "Divas of Doom" to be run off by women half their size and strength?

For some reason, WWE seems to be hell bent on separating the "models" from the "wrestlers;" but with the way they're handling it, it's bringing the entire division down. If the division is ever going to improve, it needs direction, and there are two options.

The first is to start better training the women they insist on pushing, and start pushing the women who already know how to wrestle. We are never ever going to take the Divas Title seriously if the majority of the women who contest for it can't even properly run the ropes.

Furthermore, it is a slap in the face of the women who actually can wrestle when it takes them three months to upset the "models." It's ridiculous and completely unbelievable, quite honestly.

However, if WWE continues to insist on the separation of the models and the wrestlers, then the second option is to make that split permanent. Give the Divas Championship to the models, and bring back the Women's Championship for the wrestlers. This way, the Divas Title could be a "lower level" title used for the models to improve their skills—not unlike the U.S. and Intercontinental Titles are for the men—and be a stepping stone to the more highly prized Women's Title.

Either option is better than whatever WWE is doing with the Divas now. Whatever the WWE does, it needs to figure it out, and fast, because we're sick of this nonsense; and so are the Divas.

What Do You Think WWE Needs to Improve in 2012?

As stated in the opening slide, WWE is making some strides to put out a more satisfying and entertaining product, and hopefully the upward trend will continue into the new year. If even one of these strategies is implemented, it will a big step in the right direction for WWE to hit the mark in 2012 (pun intended?).

What do you think of the suggested improvements, and what would you do to improve WWE? Let everyone know in the comments below, and thanks for reading.