fantasy booking: how i would booked the main roster side of WWE

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I’ve read a lot of negative comments over the past few months about WWE has a whole and after all the negative backlash comment i’ve read this morning, i thought to myself would it be fun to just fantasy booked the whole main roster side of the WWE.

For that, i’m taking the business side of the company into consideration as well as the creative side of it and i will do that for every main roster brand.

So let’s get started with a easy one: 205 Live: So the brand still got potential but not in this current incarnation. With the PPV being dual branded now, that pretty much kills any chance of the cruiserweight to make it on a PPV card so what i would do is take the brand off the main roster and start using it with NXT instead. That’s going to help the performers get bigger crowd reactions and in the end maybe get the brand over better

Smackdown: First thing i would do with Smackdown is make a trade to send AJ Styles to Raw and Roman Reigns to Smackdown. These 2 guys really need a change of scenery at this point since they’ve been the face of their respective brand since the brand split occured. Also since 205 live got taken out of the taping schedule, how about taking the Main event tapings off Raw and using it for smackdown, you could either use the same format they do now off having 2 matches and the rest being a recap show, or tape 4 matches before the smackdown taping and use the show to elevate some of the lower card name on the roster that really don’t get anytime on smackdown.

Raw: The biggest thing i would do to change Raw is to completely change the format of the show. The show is 3 hours long so i would use the whole 3 hours to my advantage and not waste a minute of the show. First, I would use the first hour of the show to showcase some of the lower card guys on the roster, maybe use the old jobber match technique that use the work back in the day because if you want to guy to be taken seriously, you need to see theses guys wins at some point. I would still hype up the main event of the show by either do the set up of it at the beginning of the first hour or hype the fact that whoever is my plan guy for the main event would be cutting a promo at the end of the first hour. Secondly, i would stop doing multiple segment matches. The tv shows need to be there to advance storyline not to have classic matches on them which advance nothing in the end. You want to have long matches, keep them for the PPV. Lastly, and that’S for both shows, i would comeback to a 2 man commentary booth. Raw would get Cole and Graves and Smackdown would get Phillips and Saxton. I always thought that a 2 man booth does a way better job at telling the story then the 3 men booth and i feel out of all the pairing you can get right now, these are the best you could have.

Also, as far as who i would push to a main event level and who i’m pushing the a mid card. I’m pretty would go with 2 criteria for this, first i would look who’s making the most money for the company at the time and secondly who getting the bigger reactions. So right now, for Raw, my top 5 main eventers would be: AJ Styles (since i traded him), seth rollins, Kevin Owens, Braun Strowman and Lashley. On Smackdown: Roman Reigns(because i traded him and he making the most money for the company), Samoa Joe, Nakamura, charlotte and asuka.

I would still keep Lesnar as a special attraction but i would have him drop the title and then use him only for the big four PPV. Same goes for Cena at this point.

NXT would go back to what i once was and that’s a true developmental territories, i would do between 2 takeover special instead of 5 since the only ones that are truly beneficial for the company are the mania one and the summerslam one. The rest are not turning a profit and have problem selling out. Also i would stop touring outside of florida since that’s spending that could be put elsewhere and still doesn’t really help the bottom line of the brand. The fact is, as far as NXT goes, you have to find a way to make this brand financial successful since it’s one part of the whole WWE that in the red every year. So making cuts on stuff that are just there to please a small percentage of their audience is essential at this point.

Anyway, that’s how i would booked the WWE. I really would love to read your thought on this or if you have idea on how you would booked the whole company, just feel free to post them on this thread.

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  • Reigns won’t be moved because Vince thinks he’s the biggest star and has to be on the “big show”

  • Owens won’t be a main eventer because Vince doesn’t like his body

  • NXT won’t go to two specials because they need more content

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My opinion is just that there’s too much WWE programming. If there was less we would appreciate it more. I think booking is secondary. If there was less Roman Reigns shoved down our throat, I would like him more, he would be more “exceptionnal”. That’s why people still love the Undertaker or all these stars that make very rare appearances.

Wrestling wise, Backlash was just a point of saturation.

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You brought up several good points. As far as the roman reigns being shoved down our throat, i think you can say that about pretty much everybody that’s on the upper mid card to main event level of the main roster. Personally, i got fed up of Finn Balor, Charlotte, sasha banks and shinsuke nakamura for the same reason that some fans hate Reigns. They have to much exposure on tv and their push are forced instead of being organic like it was in the past. I feel like if you we’re doing more of a rotation with everybody and that it wasn’t the same guys wrestling each other every week then those characters and feud would be a lot better.

Right now, i rather watch a old Hulk hogan or ultimate warrior match then watch anything WWE is producing because it everything feel forced even in NXT.

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Adding 205 to the nxt brand would be a pretty smart move, although I have no idea what that would entail as for as cost/ production. It might open up a few ppv slots for the cruiserweight, though. I don’t think the “live” aspect is a great selling point, tbh.
I would also like to see them employ a ranking system, to determine who gets a title shot. This brand needs to have a point to the matches. And having a mini tournament every 6 weeks ( or 4 weeks) with the results meaning something would do that.
Another thing I would do is a makeover on Reigns. I’m looking at what WCW did with the Crow version of sting. A heel faction runs roughshod for a few weeks. Maybe lead by Owens. They beat Reigns, repeeatedly. Then, Reigns will disappear for a bit. He’s bitter at not getting over with the fans, or something. Have him tease something for a few weeks. Have him comeback as an ass kicker who beats up heels, and faces. Make him a true tweener. Change his look, don’t let him speak. Make him angry and aggressive.
Sorry to go off on a tangent.

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You get a like just for the effort!

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There are two things I want to note:

  1. There is WAY TOO MUCH programming to fix the booking problem. It’s really that simple.

  2. Vince is pushing who he wants to push because booking doesn’t impact his business. Have a look at that stock in a year and a half and let me know which booking decision was so great that it to double the WWE price and essentially Vince’s worth. We can say the booking is horrid but the business model is not.

We can complain all we want but Roman has NOT been bad for business and one could argue the story they are telling with him is a real unique reveal of the actual fan base and worked to a T. WWE is going to push this guy til business is hurt OR they will push him because fans keep tuning in to see what the hell they are going to do with him. We love to hate him. The chorus of Boos is as much a given now as the Yes chant. It’s all part of the show.

So somebody convince me why this booking of Roman is bad for business?

The rest of the card - yeah. Too much TV leads to blowing through feuds and matchups too quick and the ones that don’t get faded into the background for the newest big angle being shot.

If this card had 4 shows a month and a PPV that was co branded we could see stories play out 2/3 months before a first encounter. It works in NXT. But it doesn’t work when you have 5 hours to fill each week.

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Owens got tapped to carry the Universal title after Finn went down and they gave him so much TV time and a huge spot with Shane.

I have to take issue with the argument KO isn’t utilized correctly. He’s simply on the bottom of the never ending Ferris wheel. He’s been prominently featured way more than a lot of guys and has the trust of management to be in the ring with Shane and Goldberg

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Owens is a guy they can use when other plans fall through. Nothing is being built around him or for him.

His title run proved where they have him slotted as. He’ll never be a top babyface (although I think he has the ability to) as long as Vince is around.

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yet the use him for media tour every time they are in Montreal. They continue to rely on him for major programs and keep finding him stuff to do. If Vince truly didn’t like the guy, he would be sitting on the bench and wrestling on main event, instead in the past 2 years, he’s been universal champion, wrestled goldberg, done a pretty decent feud with jericho which lead to him wining the us title, then feud with Aj Styles before transitioning to shane Mcmahon for the rest of 2017 and the beginning of 2018. If Vince didn’t like him, he wouldn’t have gotten all theses opportunities and Owens wouldn’t have resign for another 5 years. Owens is in the top tier of the raw roster like he was in the top tier of the smackdown roster, also almost forget, they actually did a special on the guy for the network so if vince really didn’t like the guy as you wrote, they would have wasted all that money and energy on the guy.

So i know you want to think that Owens isn’t getting push because vince doesn’t like him but owens whole WWE career tells a completely different story.

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I think it’s obvious that HHH likes him, that explains a lot of the opportunities and only getting pushed to a certain level.

Vince probably think who the hell is this fat guy in a t-shirt?

Ever since the Jericho feud he’s been floating around doing nothing and hasn’t been protected or pushed at all. Everything with him and Zayn has made zero sense and they’re just making it up as they go along.

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I don’t necessarily agree that he only held the title as a backup. He held it for a long time. No he wasn’t the original guy slated there but he was someone they trusted to hold it for months instead of hot shotting it to Roman or Seth or Brock

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KO Mania is a thing every WM season.
The KO show is a thing.
Angles with Shane Goldberg Jericho HHH and even Vince himself don’t just happen to somebody they don’t trust. Look how guys we know Vince doesn’t like get treated (Ryder, Christian, Titus)

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