10) Get Rid Of 205 Live

I'm writing this article on June 8th, 2017. According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, from Monday, May 29th to Monday, June 3rd, the May 30th episode of 205 Live was the twentieth most-watched show on the WWE Network. That is extremely unfortunate for a weekly show that features many talented wrestlers. Not only is the Cruiserweight show not getting as many views every week as WWE would like them to get, but WWE isn't giving the superstars enough time on Raw to showcase their talents to then lure people in to stay awake and watch 205 Live. To put the icing on the cake, WWE hasn't appeared to be doing anything to improve the Cruiserweight division. Getting rid of 205 Live would be a great start to improving the Cruiserweight division. It forces WWE to showcase the Cruiserweights on Raw because there wouldn't be any other way and the amount of wrestling content per week decreases. WWE has provided its fans with a lot of wrestling and to some hardcore fans that could be a good thing. While I consider myself a hardcore fan by watching Raw and Smackdown every week as well as pay-per-views, I can see why people don't watch 205 Live and NXT. On pay-per-view weeks, there are roughly ten consecutive hours of WWE programming from Sunday night to Wednesday night's NXT. Putting the Cruiserweights only on Raw would allow them to have much longer matches and put on more entertaining segments. If placed right on the and if booked correctly, the Cruiserweights can contribute to the brutal third hour of Raw.

9) The Division Some of the same reasons I think WWE should get rid of 205 Live applies to the U.K. division as well. Rumors has it that WWE will eventually air a weekly United Kingdom show on the WWE network. The thought of that is a huge fear of mine for the U.K. division. The United Kingdom tournament should be a yearly event WWE can utilize to scout talent from the United Kingdom. Afterwards, they can see who they should sign to NXT, who is already ready for the main roster, or who doesn't need to be signed. Simply distribute the superstars where they need to be and treat them as free agents after the tournament. WWE doesn't need to invest money on yet another wrestling show that won't pay off, not because of the product and entertainment of the show, but the fact that it's to much wrestling. Also, wrestlers such as , , , , and more, deserve to work for a spot towards the main roster. Fans and WWE management themselves know Pete Dunne and everything he brings to the table cannot be wasted or misused. Someone like him shouldn't end up on another weekly show on the WWE network, but should have television time on NXT and eventually Raw or Smackdown.

8) Smackdown's Midcard Tye Dillinger, Luke Harper, , or have not been seen on television in weeks. hadn't been seen on Smackdown for weeks until last week. I understand you want to have the United States Champion in the match which is completely fine and actually a smart move, especially when the United States Champion is . But you can still keep the rest of your midcard relevant.while building to a Money In The Bank at the same time. Perfect has downgraded to a slightly less than perfect 5 by not appearing on Smackdown. Smackdown usually is the more consisting and entertaining show, but including the rest of your midcard would make it so much more fun to watch. Smackdown needs to start giving these talented superstars just a bit of television time to keep them relevant.

7) Raw Creative Team While Raw had a surprisingly good episode of Raw on June 5th, most Raws before that one had been very difficult to watch, lackluster, and for lack of a better word, boring. They have the roster to put on an entertaining show. It's difficult when your world champion isn't on the show every week but that's not an excuse to put on a boring show every week. It almost seems as if the Raw creative team is a math lesson and it tries to use the same formula to solve the problem. They start the show with a promo, which then leads to a match. If not all, most of the Raw shows since Wrestlemania has started that exact same way. The buildup to solely consisted of matches between all members of the Fatal Five-Way match. A fair portion of fans forgot Extreme Rules was on Sunday. Luckily, Raw has slowly began to pick it up with the inclusion of an mystery attacker and a mysterious text received about we have yet to find out about. There's still a lot of room for improvement such as putting their only singles title as the main event. With off of television most of the time, find a way to make the Intercontinental title feud the most interesting and entertaining feud on Raw instead of using the main event to set up a non-title feud like they did four days ago on Raw. The Ambrose and Miz feud has gone on long enough and we've been seeing it since Smackdown. They should be shaking it up. Take Raw to a new level WWE.

6) PPV Names/Concepts I officially lost it with WWE when it was announced that the name of a event, an event where people put their bodies at risk and are gaining money to do so, was going to be named Great Balls Of Fire. I would love to meet the person who thought that name wasn’t going to make people laugh and people were truly going to take it seriously. Hopefully the show itself will hide the fact that the name of the show is Great Balls Of Fire, but it’s not only the names of PPVs (pay-per-views) that bother me. It’s the disorganization and lack of creativity. For example, Smackdown recently held a brand exclusive PPV (pay-per-view) called . They decided to name it Backlash despite the fact they held a show named Backlash in September. It was a whole nine months in separation from each other but it was still fresh in our minds. The fact Smackdown had a Backlash PPV in September was fresh in my mind at least.They could’ve brought back another PPV name for the month of May like “Bad Blood”, “”, or “Fully Loaded”. The list can go on for awhile but they didn’t have to name this one Backlash. Also, they should have more PPVs that carry a stipulation. “Extreme Rules” ,“”, and “TLC” should not be PPV names and shouldn’t be the theme of a whole wrestling show. It should remain a match stipulation and should only be used when necessary for storyline. The replacements for those could be . Instead of the winner being given the gimmick of a king, the winner should be the new number one contender for title of that show or even have the title on the line for the tournament. It would create much more intrigue in a PPV and it would be exactly what WWE needs right now which is variety, something new, and extremely interesting. You can also change the tournament in a way as well. Each round could be a stipulation and as the tournament gets closer to getting a winner, the stipulation gets harder. King of the Ring can even be a dual-brand PPV, with the winner getting a title shot at any title for any show and the amount of superstars being larger. Of course, the whole tournament wouldn’t have to take place on that same night but it would boost interest in the show for once. Instead of having to expect we should be getting extreme-type wrestling on the Extreme Rules PPV or having to expect ladders will be used in the TLC PPV. Wrestling fans love to be surprised. When WWE puts these stipulation PPVs every year, it makes the stipulation of that PPV grow more and more meaningful. Cyber Sunday would also be a great PPV concept to revive. As long as what we’re allowed to choose is reasonable such as “who should be the Universal Champion’s opponent” or “what should the stipulation of the world title match be” and now something absurd like having the option to choose what color the ropes will be. To avoid thinking the fans might swerve WWE management with who they think the fans will choose, they should have a finish for each opponent booked before the match has even started. War Games, Bash At The Beach, and more would be great replacements for bland PPV stipulations that vacuum the meaning of the stipulation when used outside of its brand exclusive PPV like Hell in a Cell, Extreme Rules, Elimination Chamber, and TLC.

5) A Big Angle It’s no secret the ratings for both Raw and Smackdown aren’t that great. I personally believe a big angle can help spike the ratings just a bit. I’m sure “big angle” is a broad statement to whoever’s reading this but allow me to provide examples. versus CM Punk in 2011. That was a big angle that provided a series of one on one matches between the two. The Invasion angle was a big angle. While the whole angle was rushed and it completely flopped, that was a big angle. WWE, whether it be on Raw or Smackdown, need a big angle right now. While it seems like Raw is slowly on the path of doing this with Kurt Angle’s mystery text, at the moment, it’s not enough for me as a fan. We need something big and something that will change the landscape of the whole show. Again, Raw might be heading towards this but we don’t know for sure and it’s not worth trusting WWE to book a well-told big angle. There are so many people who are never in T.V. who can use this opportunity as well. Have “search for a new family” and through the span of months, pit his new family against whatever WWE wants to be Balor Club. That is a golden storyline if booked correctly. Then again, any storyline booked correctly can be okay, but you understand what I mean of course. Two brand new factions consisting of three or more people brawling month after month on Raw and PPVs. They can have singles, tag matches, and larger tag matches all the way until Wrestlemania. Get three, four, or even five talented guys who haven’t been seen on WWE television for weeks cover themselves up and beat people in the back up for weeks! Their motivation for doing so is that they’ve been cast aside by management and want them to pay for it. Then management, whoever that may be, can put a team together. You can book that storyline all the way to Wrestlemania or if you don’t want it to go too long, . WWE is need of something large creatively because overall throughout the past weeks, they’ve been in a creative slump. Rather than booking big storylines for months, they’ve been doing mini feuds between main eventers that last a month or two. Take for an example. Roman Reigns can still face Brock Lesnar and beat him in the main event of Wrestlemania 34 if Vince wants him too. But why does he have to walk into that match as the face? WWE is capable of booking a four to five month long storyline leading up to Wrestlemania that will have people entertained. That’s exactly what WWE needs right now.

4) Get The People On TV , , Aiden English, Tye Dillinger, , Rusev, and along with a few more people who are not injured but haven’t been seen on television for weeks. It’s not because WWE doesn’t have the time because both shows are long enough to fit these people in somewhere. All these superstars are talented and deserve to be on television somehow entertaining the live crowd and the people at home someway. Put Sin Cara in the Cruiserweight Division, Bo Dallas into the new Wyatt Family, Curtis Axel can be “revived” by again considering Brock isn’t on television most of the time, and Tye Dillinger can just show up to have a match, which that alone entertains the fans.

3) Mention Key Motivations In Storylines I stress the fact that WWE fails to mention the reason why a feud started in the first place all the time. Prime example of this was the recent versus feud. After they mentioned it the first one or two weeks the feud started during Wrestlemania season, the fact that Triple H returned on Raw and costed Seth Rollins the Universal Championship was barely ever mentioned. The focus shifted towards the fact that Triple H was going to target Rollins’ injured leg and that shouldn’t have ever been the case. The reason of a match at Wrestlemania should’ve been that Rollins was screwed out of the title. The words “Universal Title” rarely came out of Seth’s mouth during their feud. That’s only one example. I constantly catch myself realizing on the third or fourth Raw of the month when two people are feuding, they don’t remember what they were feuding about in the first place. The focus slowly and discretely shifts towards one just wanting to be better than the other one. That’s a shame because if the audience at home or in the arena, is constantly reminded about why a certain number of people are angry at each other in the first place, it makes the upcoming PPV match to that feud mean so much more rather than just another PPV match. This is something WWE does constantly do with their feuds and is something that they should work to because it can make WWE feel a bit more legit, which is also another issue.

2) Make The Matches Feel Legit When I’m watching a wrestling match, I shouldn’t have to catch myself saying “wow that looked really good” or “wow, that was really nice”. I should be saying “Damn that looked like it hurt!” They’re professional wrestlers, they know how to make things look like they hurt, even when they don’t hurt as much. Especially the really good and experienced ones such as Kevin Owens, , Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, and more. They know how to protect themselves and how to protect their opponents when delivering piledrivers, stiff punches and kicks, along with other styles of moves performed a lot on the indies. I don’t want to be misunderstood because I don’t believe in no-selling stiff shots and constantly bashing the head of the opponent. But the matches should look like wrestling matches. A wrestling match should consist of moves that inflict pain on the opponent because that’s simply the whole point of matches. For example, the so-called punches the wrestlers throw in the WWE are laughable. We don’t laugh at them as wrestling fans because we respect the product, but to any other person, even if they know it’s “fake”, the strikes are laughable. Once again, I’m also not saying they should be decking their opponents in the jaw for every strike. But I am saying to make the wrestling matches themselves more believable. WWE should incorporate more , slams, and bring back the piledriver. Bringing back the piledriver for everyone to use might bring a portion of people back to the product just because wrestling doesn’t seem as fake anymore. There are so many people in today’s WWE that have signatures or finishing moves that involve strikes to the head which baffle me considering WWE has eliminated the piledriver from everyone’s arsenal and they’ve had issues with former wrestlers about concussions. But when these people hit their finishers that involve a simple strike to the head, it rarely ever lands. Either the opponent sells before the wrestler hits him or the wrestler attempting the move just misses wildly. It makes wrestling look less legit and WWE should loosen up a bit. I can see why they limit their wrestlers when it comes to what they can do in the ring. Superstars get hurt now with the limited amount of moves WWE wrestlers have. But that’s the point. If wrestlers today are getting hurt due to non head-related injuries than eliminating the piledriver essentially isn’t doing much to protect the superstars. While there is a risk factor when attempting piledrivers and other stiff moves to the head, there’s a risk factor when attempting a through a table, a buckle bomb, curb stomp, clothesline, superkick, submission, and more. It’s wrestling. People get hurt. I think limiting their movesets wouldn’t increase the risk of injury all that much. Especially now since we live in a time where WWE has a good number of and New Japan alumni. Both are companies where the wrestling is stiff, entertaining, and to a certain extent, believable depending on who you ask and who’s in the ring.

1) Listen To The Fans...For Once Vince knows exactly what the fans want. The fans are hard to ignore. We’re able to air our grievances through all social media platforms, YouTube channels with thousands of subscribers, and more importantly, the live crowds for each show. We’re constantly saying what we want and the WWE hears us. What stops WWE from giving us what we want is Vince and the rest of management not listening. It may sound a generic but it’s the best example and that’s Roman Reigns. Yes, some fans may be hypocrites for hating on Roman Reigns being pushed because they cheered on a lot of monster pushes such as ’s Diva’s title win on her first night on the main roster, Finn Balor becoming the number one contender on his first night on the main roster, and Kevin Owens beating John Cena in his first match on the main roster. Also, part of the reason why these pushes were celebrated by the fans is because the superstars pushed were already over with the crowd before they got to the main roster. They had won over the crowd through their charisma, in-ring work, and mic skills before they got to the main roster. Roman had gotten over with the crowd through his work with The Shield but he didn’t talk too much and simply got over because of how dominant the three men were as a faction. When it was time to impress the crowd as a singles competitor, he didn’t do so. On top of that, he was moved straight into the world title picture very soon. Seth Rollins won a world championship before any title as a singles competitor, but he was able to get over as a good heel and being aligned with Triple H. My point is, wrestling fans as a group are passionate people and easily impressionable. Once the thought of Roman Reigns not deserving his push, that thought slowly radiated through the rest of the internet and it became normal to not like Roman Reigns’ work. I don’t blame the people that don’t like his work. His mic skills aren’t very captivating and his arsenal consists of the same few exciting moves every match. But I don’t loathe Roman Reigns like many do. I personally don’t have an issue with him. Nonetheless, this is what the fans think. The fans think that Roman Reigns should not be where he is on the card. The fans don’t believe he should be a three-time Wrestlemania main eventer already. Once the fans think something, nothing changes their mind unless something drastic happens, like a heel turn. A Roman Reigns heel turn is something the fans actually want. But Vince and management stubbornly disregards the fans, their hurtful comments, and shockingly loud boos during shows. On the other hand, I’m sure they have statistics that proves keeping him in the main event makes them money, but if you launch AJ Styles, , or Seth Rollins to the stratosphere as the top face of the company, I’m sure within a span of two or three years, they’ll make the same amount of money off merchandise as Roman does now. They might even make more money for WWE as the top face of the company just because of how much more entertaining the three of those are than Roman Reigns. The boos, loathing, and hating of Roman Reigns has been going on for such a long time, but WWE refuses to listen. As a fan of wrestling, that’s very frustrating. It’s not so much that their continuing to push Roman Reigns, it’s the fact that they’re not listening on purpose and continuing without taking the fans opinion into consideration. After all, we’re the ones that watch the shows, buy the merchandise, and talk about it almost every day. Why wouldn’t they listen to the fans for once? Sometimes listening to the fans can eliminate a surprise factor because if you always gave them what they want they would always know what to expect. But Roman Reigns is a special case that should’ve been solved a long time ago. Roman Reigns is arguably the most hated man by the fans in WWE and they’ve done absolutely nothing to change their situation with Roman Reigns. The most they did was place him slightly below the card when he won the United States Championship from Rusev, but Roman Reigns would win non-title matches against him, the PPV match, and the rematch, along with coming out on top in most segments. They have simply shut out the fans’ opinion completely WWE doesn’t even necessarily have to take him out of the main event scene. They can turn him heel. Either way, the fans want his character and spot on the card to change. That’s not going to happen because WWE won’t listen. Besides Roman Reigns, there isn’t any major cases the fans are that passionate about except for maybe Bray Wyatt’s character use but they don’t chant anything at shows to express their deep passion for the mishandling of his character. Although that is a popular topic within the internet wrestling community. Also, there’s always time to address the Roman Reigns situation because he’s still booed by every live crowd he sees. When a situation like Roman’s comes across the fans once again, I strongly hope WWE will make life easier for everyone and listen to the fans.