Brandon’s World: Revisiting “What I Would Do If I Was A WWE Writer”
Last summer for blacksquirrelradio.com, I wrote an article titled, “What I Would Do If I Was A WWE Writer (for some reason, right now the author’s name says “administrator.” I no longer work at the station, so I don’t know why)”. The article idea stemmed from WWE’s lack of interesting shows throughout most of 2019, the implementation of Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff as the Executive Director’s of RAW and SmackDown respectively and SmackDown’s pending move to FOX in October. Since then, a virus the likes of which have never been seen in 100 years has hit the world, Heyman and Bischoff have been removed as Executive Director’s in favor of Bruce Prichard, and WWE ratings have tanked rapidly.
The saying, “A lot can change in a year” holds a lot of meaning when it comes to the sport of professional wrestling, and specifically, WWE as a whole. Take for example, last year’s Extreme Rules Pay-Per-View (PPV). The headliner matches were Seth Rollins and his soon-to-be fiance Becky Lynch defending their championships against Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans in an Extreme Rules match, Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre teaming together against Roman Reigns and the Undertaker, and Kofi Kingston defending his WWE Championship against Samoa Joe. Fast forward a year, and Rollins is now a messiah who “ripped” the eye out of Rey Mysterio this past weekend at The Horror Show at Extreme Rules. Lynch is pregnant. Corbin is the “King of the Ring” but hasn’t been used recently in a major program.
Evans has dropped significantly down the card. McMahon hasn’t been on TV since SmackDown’s debut on FOX. McIntyre is the WWE Champion and looks unbeatable.
Reigns hasn’t been seen since COVID-19 began out of an abundance of caution. Undertaker seemingly retired at Wrestlemania 36 following a Boneyard match with A.J. Styles. Kofi Kingston is back in the tag team scene with Big E. Samoa Joe has been on the RAW commentary team since June, and it’s not looking good for an in-ring return anytime soon.
In my article from last summer, I was hired by Vince McMahon as the new head writer of WWE. The article takes place the day after SummerSlam 2019 backstage at RAW (the article was written before SummerSlam, so no results were known yet), and I was in a meeting with McMahon, Heyman, Bischoff and the top officials of both the USA Network, who hosts RAW, and FOX. My duty in the meeting was to pitch to everyone in the room my detailed plan to improve WWE’s product. I outlined six aspects of WWE that needed to be changed, and now it’s time to see if my proposed changes actually became reality on WWE television.
1. Eliminate the Wild Card Rule
Back in May of 2019 during an episode of RAW, McMahon created the Wild Card Rule, a rule which would allow four superstars from RAW and four from SmackDown to appear on the other show every week, creating opportunities for “never before seen matches” (though it was a complete mess, and WWE never held true to the four superstar rule. All the rule did was create constant confusion throughout the summer). I cited in my proposal that the only people that would be allowed to change plans starting in October would be the Women’s Tag Team Champions and the 24/7 Champion, noting that there’s not enough women to create two separate tag team divisions, and the 24/7 Title should live up to its name.
While WWE did eliminate the Wild Card Rule, and the Women’s Tag Team Championships are defended across every brand in WWE, including NXT, the 24/7 Championship has only been used on RAW and seemed to disappear for a while before R-Truth and Akira Tosawa have seemed to pick up steam with the title. While COVID-19 probably has a lot to do with the recent use of the title, when fans FINALLY are able to return to WWE events (whenever that may be), the 24/7 Champion should be able to appear across all brands.
2. On the first episode of SmackDown Live on FOX, do a WWE Draft
I almost had my way with this one! Instead of the debut episode of SmackDown on FOX being the draft, WWE saved the draft for the second show. The first show was used as SmackDown’s 20th anniversary show.
The draft however, fell flat on its face. WWE tried making it feel legitimate with different personalities from the different networks making cameo appearances, showing off each brand’s “war room”, and Stephanie McMahon standing at a podium and announcing the picks like a real commissioner would, but it just came across as corny and cheesy. WWE also made the draft into a two-night event, and SmackDown had the first night, followed by RAW, and I did not approve.
As I stated in last summer’s article, I would have convinced both the USA Network and FOX that the brand that hosts the draft could alternate every year, but FOX and SmackDown needed the 2019 draft in order to establish themselves. USA and RAW would have gotten the 2020 draft under my plan. As of right now, there is no plan to do a 2020 draft, but everything is still up in the air because of COVID-19.
3. Create separate stages for both RAW and SmackDown and separate Pay-Per-Views besides the “Big Five” (NOTE: Saudi shows and other International shows do not count as a PPV in this scenario)
Half of this idea on my wish list came true. WWE did create separate stages for both RAW and SmackDown, and while the SmackDown fist stage did not make its illustrious return as rumored, I like both stages. WWE has yet to return to the separate PPV’s since 2018. With this pandemic, I would have probably put the brand-specific PPV’s on hold because let’s face it, there’s only so much wrestling even a die hard wrestling fan can watch a week without actual fans, but I would bring them back when fans can return because I still believe brand-specific PPV’s help put more talent over, even if they cost more to produce because you are putting on more shows.
As I wrote in the original article, “You could bring back some of the old names like Unforgiven, Armageddon, Bad Blood, among others, or you could create your own. Plus, it’s better for RAW and SmackDown to promote their own special events rather than promoting the same event with both shows in my opinion. It’s all a part of the concept that this brand split needs to feel real. With FOX, the Smackdown pre-shows could even be aired LIVE on FS1 like how UFC used to air their Prelims before a PPV on FS1.”
4. Bring back “Saturday Night’s Main Event” for FOX
This one for the life of me, I cannot understand how WWE and FOX have not done yet. When football season is over, FOX’s Saturday’s are wide open. Now yes, there are some Saturday’s where FOX airs Major League Baseball at night, but to me, having “Saturday Night’s Main Event” once a month post football season would be a great way for WWE to continue exposing their product to casual fans, and a great LIVE show for FOX to put on.
“Saturday Night’s Main Event” was incredibly successful for NBC when it aired during the mid 2000’s. I have vivid memories of watching “Saturday Night’s Main Event” as a child. It felt like such a big deal seeing all of WWE’s brightest stars every so often on a Saturday night, and I want younger viewers to experience what I felt. I mentioned in the article that if USA Network wanted to put “Saturday Night’s Main Event” back on NBC (USA Network is apart of NBC Universal), my argument to them would have been that they get “Tribute to the Troops (WWE’s annual holiday show where they pay tribute to our military, though it did not air on television this year)”, and both SmackDown and RAW are under WWE’s name. I made the argument that FOX needs to build up their WWE audience, and that if more people like what they see from SmackDown and “Saturday Night’s Main Event”, the more likely they are to tune into RAW, giving RAW and WWE as a whole, new viewers.
5. We need to emphasize long-term storytelling again
This one could be interpreted either way. When you look at recent feuds such as Drew McIntyre vs Dolph Ziggler, Seth Rollins vs Rey Mysterio, Braun Strowman vs Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton bringing back the “Legend Killer”, WWE has been producing more long-term stories than in the past, but it’s still not perfect. Many angles since October such as Bobby Lashley and Lana’s wedding, Shayna Baszler’s on and off push, Erick Rowan’s cage and the hacker storyline were dropped all of a sudden from WWE television and never seen again. In the article last summer, I talked about how my love for WWE began: The Edge vs Undertaker rivalry over the World Heavyweight Championship in 2007.
I’ve talked about this feud at nauseam, including in my Thank You Edge column, but this feud from May 2007-August 2008 might be the greatest example of long-term storytelling WWE has produced in the last 13 years! The whole point of the feud was Edge kept costing the Undertaker the World Title on multiple occasions in different fashions, the former living up to his “Ultimate Opportunist” nickname. At Wrestlemania 24, Undertaker defeated Edge for the championship in the main event of the show, and I would argue it’s Edges’ greatest match of his career. The feud did not end there!
The two warriors would battle over SmackDown’s top prize all the way through June of that year when Edge would defeat the “Deadman” at One Night Stand in 2008 in a TLC match (the match Edge “created” in 2000) to “banish” Undertaker from WWE. Edge used the help of all of his La Familia family, including his on-screen “fiance” Vicki Guerrero to win the match. Two months later at SummerSlam, after dissension in La Familia and a wedding gone wrong, Guerrero unbanished the Undertaker, and Edge and Taker finished their 15 month rivalry inside the “Deadman’s” match, Hell in a Cell.
The match was a masterpiece. It was a match that told the story of their new year and a half long feud. Both competitors threw everything but the kitchen sink at each other, and Undertaker finished Edge by chokeslamming him off of a ladder, through the ring and lighting the ring on fire!
I also talked about one of my favorite Youtuber’s Tubby Emu. Emu ran a wrestling channel from 2011–2017, and then took a two year hiatus to focus on other projects. He returned in 2019 with a video detailing how he would book the Wrestlemania 36 main event if he was in charge of WWE. I explained in the article that THIS is the storytelling we need again in WWE!
6. Make championships mean something again
This one has not come true at all, sadly. The Universal Championship and the WWE Championship don’t feel more important as the Intercontinental and the United States Championship. All the tag titles and women’s titles feel on the same level. One title doesn’t feel important. They all feel the same, and that should absolutely not be the case! If you swap Drew McIntyre’s WWe Title with Apollo Crews’ United States Title, there would be no difference!
So overall, most of my ideas to fix WWE television have not come to life. While I am grad the Wild Card Rule has been eliminated and separate brands and stages are back, many areas of WWE have not changed from last year, including the lack of long-term storytelling, no implementation of Saturday Night’s Main Event and the fact no titles feel as important as another title.
With WWE’s ratings at a record low, WWE needs to do something fast to get fans interested in their product again. With COVID-19, it’s hard to put on weekly television that is entertaining every week without a crowd, but WWE should start with making titles more legitimate and better long-term storytelling on both brands going forward. And then, hopefully by 2021, fans will be back in the stands, and WWE and FOX can give us Saturday Night’s Main Event!
Brandon Lewis is a columnist, radio show host and podcaster. Check out his podcast, Brandon’s World, here, and follow him on Twitter @real_bworld. Columns will be out every Friday!