Develop a Strategy to Compete with the WWE

[Swiss Ultimate]

I'm going to let you decide where you're going to start from to make this more interesting.

Billionaire backer like WCW or indie-company with a die-hard following like TNA was in 2004, or completely internet funded ROH/Dragons Gate.

How do you get to the level where you can compete with Vince McMahon?

[ooTin]

Build a Roster of youngsters
Get a Following of freaks
Get on TV
Go head to head on Monday Nights
Fail Horribly
Hire a bunch of Washed up Wrestlers
Reuse old WCW Story Lines
Sit Back and Watch My Company Go Down The Drain

[The Naitch]

train the wrestlers to become c-fedders and tell them to PM Jabba for more info

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

Don't compete with the WWE is the best way to compete against them. Get their attention in any way and WWE would crush TNA.

[Xero]

You compete with WWE by not competing with them.

Edit: lol same time.

[Schlomey]

1. Get a rich person who will give you full creative control with no "yes men" or "suite" sticking their nose in to the equation.

2. Scour the internet for writers by posting on all of the popular message boards. Put a "Writers Wanted" ad out there to send resumes and sample writing. Hire 2 financially minded guys and hire the internet guys for the creative team.

3. Rape FCW, TNA, ROH, & all foreign markets for any and all young talent.

4. Focus on CM Punk style wrestlers with average body types. No fatties or giant guys needed.

5. Create 3 divisions. X division style, Intercontinental division full of the young guys. World title division. You have to graduate from IC to get to World division.

6. Focus on creativity and skill and being original.

7. Focus on WWE's weaknesses to try and corner a small market. That is good wrestling, tag teams & average/small guys.

8. Create PPV events and original gimmicks.

9. Get TV rights similar to ECW to get on the map without having to much overhead cost.

10. USE the internet to its full extent. Get ideas from the smart people off the internet...make it user friendly and let the audience help make decisions. NO KAYFABE. Necessary to know we are not pandering to the audience and that they are a small part of the company.


thats a good enough start.

[Lock Jaw]

Mafia backing to eliminate the competition.

http://englishvg1.wikispaces.com/file/view/168px-PDVD_000.jpg/33665209/168px-PDVD_000.jpg

[thedamndest]

WWE is as much about entertainment as it is about wrestling, if not more. If you're going to attract their audience you need to do that and not look like an American Gladiators arena because that is what their market wants and expects to see.

[Rollermacka]

Fire Hogan, Bichoff and Russo. Go back to your roots of high flying X division stars, old school tag team wrestling and main events featuring both recognizeable veterans and promising young wrestlers. Thats how TNA... I mean indy promotion, could compete with WWE

[JimmyMess]

You need a billionaire backer with a never-ending wallet. Other than that no company will ever compete with WWE.

[dhellova guy]

You have to have money, a love of the industry, and a disguntled WWE star (Batista?)

No one will watch a bunch of people they have never heard of. You have to have some established stars , but they must also be willing to put the younger talent over to a degree (so maybe not Batista!).

Schedule your shows around WWE schedule, do NOT go head to head. If you want to be on monday nights, go on before Raw.

Advertise during big events: the Super Bowl, March Madness, that kinda thing.

Lots of hot, barely dressed women.

Focus on wrestling, but have logical storylines.

Thats all I can think of.

[Nicky Fives]

1. Find a billionaire
2. Join TPWW
3. Observe and take notes
4. Create show that focuses on wrestling, that can be edgy at times, yet still relatively appropriate for the 10-14 year olds

[Rammsteinmad]

I'd hire Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo.

I'd also hire Paul Heyman, because we need someone in catering.

[Razzamajazz]

light tube scaffold matches

[whiteyford]

Be an alternative, book the product with a sense of logic, use older established stars to create new younger main eventers, tell Hogan to fuck off he's not getting a pay day and don't go head to head with Raw.

[TheAdamEvansFan]

I'd start by setting up shop in Maximum Security Prisons.

Have a fight to the death, winner gets out, type of deal.

Then gradually work to PG.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

I'd start by setting up shop in Maximum Security Prisons.

Have a fight to the death, winner gets out, type of deal.

Then gradually work to PG.

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[Anybody Thrilla]

NO KAYFABE.

That's where you fucked up.

[screech]

STD, please stop trying to be funny. You're no good at it.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

Yes I am. My rep sheet is full of lmao's and lol's. I just haven't figured out to post rep sheet without it looking weird and changing the dimensions of the thread.

[BizarroKing]

-Possibly invent a Internet title: Defended only in matches that are aired on the internet
-Push smaller guys to the moon/give everyone a equal opportunity
-12 ppvs per year or less (at least 1 per month) and not to have them focus on gimmicks as much. Perhaps include a tournament in one.
-Have the girls/divas wrestle in less clothing and bring back rip off the clothes matches (let's face it, fans could care less about the women wrestlers any other way sad to say...)
-Air our show on Wednesdays; the only day without competition. Make it 2 hrs with equal amount of time of promos and wrestling

I'm sure there's others I could add but that's about it for now.

[MoFo]

Buy the rights to the name 'WWF' from the panda savers.
Hire old school 1980's wrestlers like Roddy Piper and Randy Savage.
Buy the Pontiac Silverdome.
Run Wrestlemania rematches on cards under dubious copyright infringing names such as 'WWF Messlerania'.
Try and sell tickets for this shit, or give away 80,000 tics to paper the crowd.

Profit.

[Outsider]

Focus on financial stability and profit rather than competition.
Use market research to focus on markets where the WWE is weaker and target these rather than competing for the same market.
Ignore the WWE on TV and use narratives based on our own products and characters.
Develop ways of making the promotion attrative to talent disenfranchised with the WWE, but be selective over hiring.
Look at how social media can be intergrated into product development and create a sense of ownership by consumers.
Keep ticket prices low to maintain interest in live products and focus on bringing income in through sponsorship and merchandising.

[Johnny Vegas]

And for God's sake, have at least ONE your main eventers actually know how to wrestle a damn good match for the first main event. First impressions are everything.

[DLVH84]

I think that's the problem with TNA.

Jeff Jarrett did it right, before partnering up with Dixie Carter.

The trick is you don't think about competing with WWE right then and there and just take the time to build the company up right, so eventually you might have a chance to compete with them when the time is exactly right.

[Gertner]

Don't hire anybody under 220 pounds. Small wrestlers outside of Rey Mysterio don't draw.

Ah fuck it, just do what the Attitude Era did. That seems to be everybodies bitch point here.

[Swiss Ultimate]

Don't hire anybody under 220 pounds. Small wrestlers outside of Rey Mysterio don't draw.

Ah fuck it, just do what the Attitude Era did. That seems to be everybodies bitch point here.

Small wrestlers don't draw unless they're in the WWE...

[Gertner]

Small wrestlers don't draw because people don't watch wrestling to see someone smaller than them win.

[Gertner]

Here's what I'd do:

Have a mixture of different types of wrestlers. Some big men, some regular sized men, a couple fat guys, some cruiserweights, although if you're a cruiserweight you HAVE to be able to cut a promo. No vanilla fucking midgets. Guys like Rhett Titus and Kenny King would be welcome. Guys like Rodrick Strong and Davey Richards would not. These stupid indy feds that focus on workrate DO NOT draw worth shit.

Open a wrestling school with established trainers to groom talent. Just like my wrestlers, I'd have my a big man trainer, a cruiserweight trainer and a trainer good at teaching promos.

Have some established talent to get my fed off the ground of course.

Fuck the internet because nobody cares what the IWC thinks and it shows because none of today's indy feds will ever grow.

Hire Paul Heyman and Dean Malenko. Malenko did great work in WCW wilh the cruisers.

No women's wrestling. Nobody cares about chicks wrestling. I'd have valets, but no women's wrestling. It's a waste of time.

My fed will be storyline driven.

Working agreements with overseas feds to bring in new talent from time to time.

Focus on television, not the internet.

That's about it.

[DLVH84]

Here's what I'd do:

Have a mixture of different types of wrestlers. Some big men, some regular sized men, a couple fat guys, some cruiserweights, although if you're a cruiserweight you HAVE to be able to cut a promo. No vanilla fucking midgets. Guys like Rhett Titus and Kenny King would be welcome. Guys like Rodrick Strong and Davey Richards would not. These stupid indy feds that focus on workrate DO NOT draw worth shit.

Open a wrestling school with established trainers to groom talent. Just like my wrestlers, I'd have my a big man trainer, a cruiserweight trainer and a trainer good at teaching promos.

Have some established talent to get my fed off the ground of course.

Fuck the internet because nobody cares what the IWC thinks and it shows because none of today's indy feds will ever grow.

Hire Paul Heyman and Dean Malenko. Malenko did great work in WCW wilh the cruisers.

No women's wrestling. Nobody cares about chicks wrestling. I'd have valets, but no women's wrestling. It's a waste of time.

My fed will be storyline driven.

Working agreements with overseas feds to bring in new talent from time to time.

Focus on television, not the internet.

That's about it.

I like Womens' Wrestling, but Americans' perception of mainstream Womens' Wrestling had gone downhill. The American Indies and everywhere else around the world are doing Womens' Wrestling right, the way it should be.

[TheAdamEvansFan]

yea like Heyman and Malenko would just sign up for that.

[Gertner]

Lol which is exactly why I wouldn't even bother with it.

[Gertner]

Oh and no Adam Evans. Wait, we could use a mentally retarded greeter like they have at Wal-Mart. Adam, you've got yourself a job.

[Fox]

Step 1: Hire the best hitmen in the world to kill the following people:

1) Vince McMahon
2) Stephanie Levesque
3) Triple H
4) John Cena
5) Undertaker
6) Randy Orton
7) Rey Mysterio
8) The Miz
9) Brian Gerwitz
10) Shane McMahon

Step 2: Buy out TNA and get rid of Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo, and do everything in my power to hire Paul Heyman to run the company with me overseeing production.

This would hypothetically lead to Linda McMahon panicking and hiring Bischoff, Russo and possibly Hogan to help "save the WWE", which would cause it to implode indefinitely.

[Gertner]

Fox's idea is probably the only one that'd work lol.

[Theo Dious]

I have trouble with the notion that Linda McMahon would, in the wake of the deaths of her husband, son, daughter, and son-on-law, worry about running a wrestling company.

[Fox]

I have trouble with the notion that Linda McMahon would, in the wake of the deaths of her husband, son, daughter, and son-on-law, worry about running a wrestling company.

The show must go on.

[Theo Dious]

yea like Heyman and Malenko would just sign up for that.

I don't know about Malenko, but if you offered Heyman a booking position with a decent paycheck I don't doubt he'd sign on.

[DLVH84]

Step 1: Hire the best hitmen in the world to kill the following people:

1) Vince McMahon
2) Stephanie Levesque
3) Triple H
4) John Cena
5) Undertaker
6) Randy Orton
7) Rey Mysterio
8) The Miz
9) Brian Gerwitz
10) Shane McMahon

Step 2: Buy out TNA and get rid of Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo, and do everything in my power to hire Paul Heyman to run the company with me overseeing production.

This would hypothetically lead to Linda McMahon panicking and hiring Bischoff, Russo and possibly Hogan to help "save the WWE", which would cause it to implode indefinitely.

Don't forget Johnny Ace.

[CSL]

No way would I put Heyman in control of a company, only guy in the history of wrestling except McMahon that could bankroll that kind of risk is Turner and he's just about broke now. In charge of creative at most. I don't ever really see WWE being challenged in the near future, the best bet is TNA with new creative that wants to improve the product with '101 booking' and get the talent over (Heyman could help out here) and a huge money backer that will happily take a huge loss for the sake of elevating his wrestling company. And even that would probably go south in the long run. Hook me up with a billion dollars and I'll do it.

[bince2200]

have Chris Jericho as a booker/writer

[The MAC]

1. use established stars wisely.

Have new talent matches sandwiched between established stars segments. This is so people would see them rather than tune in for the last 5 minutues of each show.

2. Hollywood writers are not bookers but they can co-exist. Hollywood writers can write out the feud while bookers ( who were storytellers in the ring in their time) can fill up the actual match time.

3. Scale back the amount of gimmick matches. Gimmick matches are meant to be something special and not one after the other.

4. Hit the road. Grow a following by touring and making a connection with the fans.

5. You don't have to follow WWE's Lead. they do what works for them. You have to do what works for you.

6. cut down the swerves. they are predicable and annoying. Surprises are great but only work when no one is expecting them.

7. Dont hype things you cant deliver.