After a few months of some abysmal Monday Night Raws, full of lackluster matches, illogical segments, characters fans were tried of and plenty more. Amid harsh criticisms from fans and sagging ratings, Vince McMahon and family decided to return to TV this past Monday to shake things up. Promising new stars, new match ups, and that fans were the authority they promised they heard the fans and things were going to change.
For now it looks like their sticking to truly making a change. I just finished a Fan Council survey from the WWE on changes I would like to see on the programming. For the most part they did the right things on Raw and Smackdown this week, we'll see if they stay true to their word going forward. For now here are three things I think could help the product and switch things up.
1. It's been the main crying point of fans for a few years now, make Brock Lesnar defend the damn universal championship. The Universal Championship only being defended 4 or 5 times a year severely devalues the championship and the wrestlers purpose of fighting for the top spot. If in the eyes of the McMahons Brock is a "special" attraction, and their willing to pay him millions of dollars to work a handful of times a year that's fine. However instead of making him the champion and letting the title disappear for months at a time. Use his special attraction status to build up some superstars who could use a rub from working with him. Much like many guys of the attitude era begin to move to the side for the ruthless aggression era guys, it's time Brock pays it forward and does the same. If he doesn't agree he can always make fighting in the UFC a full time job again.
2. The McMahons should really limit the amount of time they are on screen. We know their the owners of the WWE and they have been fixtures of WWE television for 20 years now, every one of them have flipped between face and heel authority figures and that path has been beaten to death now. In fact and this is not just limited to the WWE but authority figures in wrestling period really need to take a backseat. That character has been done to death and many times especially with the McMahons as authority figures they overshadow the superstars. Create one General Manager/Commissioner type figure who works as a liaison of the McMahons who oversees both brands. Their sole purpose is to make appearance for special announcements and restore order when things seem to get out of hand.
3. I often try to avoid comparing the product today to the attitude era, they were two different time periods with different rosters and agendas. The attitude era was great for many reasons, and one often overlooked reason that the current era could really benefit from. Is during the attitude era if you were on TV, Raw, Smackdown, Sunday Night Heat it was for a purpose. There were the main angles featuring the likes of Stone Cold, The Rock, D-X etc. Then there were smaller angles that were just as important Jeff Jarrett berating women until Chyna came to the rescue, X-Pac humanizing Kane. Val Venis tryna keep his willy intact after sleeping with the wrong woman. They all served their purposes no matter how outlandish some of the stories were. People cared about the entire roster from top to bottom. With a influx of talent and the brand split there isn't much reason fans should not care somewhat about every single wrestler on the roster during Raw and Smackdown.
I'm just a fan offering my two cents on how WWE can improve their product. These are a few things I feel would make the product better. I'll continue to watch and suffer through some rough times and wait for the tide to turn. In the meantime maybe WWE will hire me, a guy can dream.
