i do like those tips. but... they're really nothing new, and most have been said for years. i dont think vinnie mac has aol at home.
and, quite honestly, for the 25% of the audience that hates hhh, 75% obviously love him. why should the wwe fuck around with stuff like that?
i think the best tip for the wwe is simple:
find an (non-kurt) angle.
right now, i could skip 8 episodes of raw, and i wouldn't have missed much of anything. nothing would have happened. stone cold would still be stunning people for no reason, scott steiner would still be angry at everyone, jericho would still get beat up, etc.
i have no motivation to watch. its not the characters, its the stories.
give me a reason to watch every night -- something to look forward to other than 4 matches and some pyros. something big. something that involves the characters. something that gives them reasons for going out and wrestling.
i'm tired of the "you made me so mad last week when you stole the girl that i stole first, who apparently can't escape either of us, despite the fact that she's unguarded 90% of the time" storylines. they're old. done. tired. they don't tell a story, let alone progress one.
the nwo was the right idea. the invasion was the right idea. the millionaire club / new blood was a good idea. the powers that be was a good idea. the rebel from authority was a good idea.
sure, some (most) were executed poorly... but the concept of giving everyone a motive is fantastic.
1) dividing the characters and branding the two shows is a great start. ... but put it to use! set up an inter-show feud. have each show try to outdo the other show. have alliances formed between characters on opposing shows. have one show steal the other show's belt, turning all smackdown guys against all raw guys. empower the owner of each show to the point where they could buy characters from the opposition, or even buy the outcomes to matches and fix the match.
2) have all of the younger guys turn against the older generation. many of the then-little guys got great pushes during the newblood wcw days because of that. then, instead of a big name fighting another big name every night, where people see the same matches repeated ad naseum... big names are forced to fight lesser known characters. interesting sub-angles are formed. unusual matchups play out. goldberg vs reyrey. hhh vs. kidman. hogan vs. lance storm. etc. for this to be successful, you might need to pay the bigger names more if they lose a match (or, at least just remind them that their character is losing, not them). guys like hhh and goldberg, etc seem to be invincible which makes their matches boring. since returning to the wwe, hogan put on a great show because you really never did know if he was going to win or not. seeing someone like kidman beat someone like hhh, even if just because he pulled off a fast move and got lucky, would kick ass.
3) introduce a ranking system. start with a random drawing, giving everyone a number. that number is their rank, say 1-25 in each show. the goal is be #1. the catch... you can only wrestle the number above you. the... second catch, whoever loses drops to the bottom of the pile (or down 10 slots ... something like that). so, golddust starts out as #1 and brock as #2. brock destroys dust, who drops to #25 and has to wrestle #24 -- slowly, but steadily, working his way up the list. the reward is that we get to see golddust fight everyone (not just him, but anyone trying to work their way up). matches that would never be booked now play out because everyone is in it for themselves. it would also prevent the needless "lets fight just because" storylines we're forced with. all wrasslers fight and earn their ranking, then at the ppvs, only the top 8 names from each show get to fight, each of them battling their mirror ranking from the other show.
three atleast decent ideas typed up in about 30 minutes while at work, no less. surely, there are thousands of others out there.
