Rebooking the WWE in 2006

[hb2k]

For this week's podcast we're going to look at the WWE in 2006 and attempt to rebook the year with what they had, and would like to hear what you would have changed if you had control.

Would you have brought back DX? Would you have brought back ECW? How far do you go with Edge? How do you deal with the John Cena crowd issue in its infancy? What do you do with the World Title in Batista's absence? Who do you push and who don't you push? What angles would you have done? It's in your hands.

As always the best contributions/suggestions will be read on the show and you'll be credited accordingly, so in what was a very unique year for WWE, what would you have done differently if you had the chance?

EDIT - Our show looking at Rebooking WWE in 2006, featuring many of your contributions, is now online and available to listen to at the following link: http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/play/edjv6y/SCG_Radio_77_-_Rebooking_WWE_in_2006.mp3

[Big Vic]

I would have let Heyman run his show with out interfering.

[Swiss Ultimate]

Never would have brought ECW back except for pay-per-views.

[The Condor]

I wish I could contribute, but I was mostly MIA from WWE from Orton's 2004 title win through the Miz's title win, with a few watches of some WrestleMania shows and checking in on the ECW stuff.

[Swiss Ultimate]

Miz title win was great. Loved Miz so much back in the day.

[Simple Fan]

Starting with New Years Revolution I wouldn't have had Edge cash in. Rey doesn't win the Rumble instead Orton wins. Taker wins the WHC at No Way Out and faces Orton and Angle at WM. BobbyLashly wins the Money in the Bank instead of RVD. I'd have Edge still have the hardcore match with Foley, JBL still beats Beniot for the US title. Take Flair out of the MitB and have him issue a challenge to anyone on any brand to a match at WM for the IC title that is answered by Rey Mysterio and have Rey win. Taker wins the triple threat and Edge goes to cash in and doesn't when Taker sets up and scares Edge away. Cena beats HHH and Bobby Lashley cashes in his briefcase only for Edge to cash his in at the last possible second. Edge walks away from Mania champion with no one holding a MitB briefcase.

Edge defends the title against John Cena at Backlash and wins by DQ continuing the feud. Rey now on Raw with IC title has progams with RVD and Shelton Benjamin throughout the summer. Still reform DX maybe even right after Mania. Would only do a One Night Stand and not being the ECW brand back. Still have the Foley/Flair feud. Have Lashly win the King of the Ring instead of Booker T. Taker looses the WHC to returning Batista at Judgement Day after Khali interference. Batista beats Lashly at Great Amrican Bash after interference from Booker T claiming to be the true King.

At Summerslam Orton beats Hogan, Flair and Foley have the I Quit match. DX vs McMahons happens. Lashly beats Booker to become WHC #1 contender. Taker and Kahli have the Punjabi Prison match at Summerslam instead of Big Show/Taker at Great America Bash. Batista loses the WHC to Kurt Angle. Edge retains in a match that if he got DQed he lost the title.

Angle retains the WHC in a triple threat against Lashly and Batista. At Survivor Series Angle and Lashly have a singles match for the title and Angle gets himself DQ. Edge continues to run through the Raw roster in a rated R manner. At Amagedon there is a Amegedon He'll in a Cell with Angle, Lashly, Batista, Booker T, Big Show, and Taker. Angle wins setting up Lashly to win the RR and get a fair shot at Angle for WHC at WM 23.


Don't know if that fixes anything but that was fun anyhow.

[Fox]

I would somehow try and stop RVD from getting busted for pot. That really screwed up 2006. Would've loved to see if they were really planning to do something great with him.

[DAMN iNATOR]

Would've just kept the WHC match between Angle and Orton for WM 22, with Orton going over. After his first way too early WHC win in summer of 2004, by spring of 2006, Orton was easily ready to claim his spot as WHC.

[Corkscrewed]

I initially misread the title and thought it was soliciting ideas to rebook this entire year so far...

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

I would go with the opposite of what Damn inator says, just because.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

I would have let Heyman run his show with out interfering.

Yeah, they probably would have if it followed Shane's original plan of it just being a web show. But once they were offered TV money, it had to fall in line.

Probably would have helped if RVD and Sabu weren't booked to drive with weed.... :shifty:

[The CyNick]

Keep everything as is because it led to them continuing to dominate the industry.

[Big Vic]

Really you wouldn't change one thing?

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

Have you ever read a CyNick post Sav?

[Big Vic]

Yes, I am waiting for him to say "no" so I can counter with "So you wouldn't change a thing with December to Dismember?"

[Big Vic]

But you ruined it :(

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

we all know he would pwn us Savio. Thedamndest made that perfectly clear. We all got pwnd via the CyNick.

[The CyNick]

Yes, I am waiting for him to say "no" so I can counter with "So you wouldn't change a thing with December to Dismember?"

Was that the ECW show?

Shocking that a brand built on appealing to the smarks would be an utter failure at the box office.

[Big Vic]

But you still wouldn't change a thing?

[The CyNick]

But you still wouldn't change a thing?

To be honest, I never saw that show. I know it did poorly at the box office. But in the end it led them to not do future ECW PPVs, which was the right move.

So no. Not a thing.

[Big Vic]

Maybe if you rebooked the show they could have made more money at the box office? Maybe ECW could be a huge cash cow.

[drave]

Perhaps if they would have let ECW be ECW it would have stuck. WWECW was doomed to fail by design.

[Big Vic]

They should have went full on ECW, you never go half-ECW

[drave]

They should have went full on ECW, you never go half-ECW


BALLGAME MAGGEL!

[DAMN iNATOR]

I would go with the opposite of what Damn inator says, just because.

You're right, they SHOULD HAVE pulled the trigger on Orton sooner. Have HIM win the SD! battle royal match for the gold and have it be Orton as champ defending against Angle at WM 22 instead of the other way around. Genius idea!

[Mr. Nerfect]

Was that the ECW show?

Shocking that a brand built on appealing to the smarks would be an utter failure at the box office.

That show was definitely not aimed at smarks...

[Mr. Nerfect]

There's so much wrong with this year, now that I go back and look at it. I'll start off with the blue brand:

* The WWE was rebounding from Eddie's death still. That led to that awkward Rey Mysterio push. I get they were best buds, but we'd just seen them in a blood-feud on SmackDown. It created this weird disconnect between wrestling and reality that I don't think people could really get into.

* I always wanted to see Chris Benoit win the 2006 Royal Rumble. It was well known he was friends with Eddie. He had cooled off tremendously from his 2004 push, but he was stuck below the movement to focus on the likes of Cena and Batista. Another Royal Rumble win could have at least built to an Angle vs. Benoit Eddie Guerrero tribute match for the big gold belt at Mania 22.

* They could have put the World Heavyweight Title up in the 2006 Royal Rumble and just had Angle win it.

* Once they went with Rey, they should have gone with Rey. Orton's involvement was weak as piss. Angle vs. Mysterio would have rocked on the big stage. Mania main event worthy? Well, we'll never truly know because they gave Rey that vote of no confidence.

* King Booker was actually a really fun gimmick.

[Mr. Nerfect]

ECW:

* I always liked the idea of giving it a "next generation" ECW feel. You'd obviously have your older ECW guys there, but ECW was always about finding the cutting edge too.

* This might sound silly, but I think the WWE missed a major opportunity when they didn't have Eugene snap out of the retard gimmick at One Night Stand 2006. A great worker in the ring, Eugene actually had a very high profile RAW run, but it was time to move on and as a technical expert in ECW, he could have been their next wave's Dean Malenko-type.

* Chavo could have gone to ECW as their Eddie Guerrero. Obviously he's not regarded as being as charismatic, but his name giving him a chip on his shoulder works fine.

* They could have called Johnny Jeter up (or just had him move away from the Spirit Squad gimmick) as a modern answer to Chris Jericho. Seriously go back and watch his stuff from OVW. He looks and even moves like he absorbed the Chris Jericho bible.

* Brent Albright was a technical machine in OVW, and instead of calling him up as "Gunner Scott," bring him in to ECW with his "Shooter" gimmick as their modern answer to Chris Benoit. Having these four guys as your mid-carders whilst RVD, Kurt Angle and Jericho or whoever run the top of the card would have made the entire show more tolerable.

* I'd have considered Randy Orton for the brand. Something about him is so polished and way too glossy to be loved in ECW; but he's always been at his best playing counterpoint to it (the feud with Foley that basically demanded him the World Title). Orton trying to survive in ECW would have been strangely compelling television.

[Mr. Nerfect]

RAW:

* The Spirit Squad. Basically every member of this group -- besides Mitch -- showed something useful. By the end of the year they were off TV. Nick Nemeth would of course return as Dolph Ziggler, but he shouldn't have needed to.

* I hated DX reforming at the time. And being forced to remember it now, I still do. Remember when Triple H drove that sledgehammer into HBK's back in 2002? Well, that's meaningless. It would have been better if Shawn had turned heel on Triple H and built to a program with John Cena for WrestleMania 23. I mean, that's if you have to go with John Cena as champion anyway. Cena spent way too much time winning and not enough time chasing.

* John Cena. He spent way too much time as champion in 2005 and people were fatigued on him by the time 2006 rolled along. Keep in mind that Cena had only been in the business for six years, and was like 28 years old. By old school logic, he wasn't experienced enough to know how to properly draw money yet. But they jammed him right into that position and we've actually seen Cena grow a lot in front of our eyes. Maybe not as a character, but as an overall performer.

* Edge winning the title got a huge reaction, but he should have been the only Money in the Bank Winner to get away with it. The rules should have been ratified after that. Edge was all set up to be a devious heel, but they had Cena win the title back way too soon. Cena's over-production at the 2006 Rumble is one of the big reasons the teenager in me hated him.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Early 2006 WWE Title booking:

* If you go back to the night Edge won the WWE Title at NYR, I believe he lost to Ric Flair via DQ. On RAW, you could have had Flair challenge Edge for the WWE Title. He's going for #17. Edge warns him not to, but Flair is confident in himself.

* Edge massacres Flair. The crimson mask comes out. Flair won't quit. Edge Spears Flair to finally end it.

* Triple H takes up the fight against Edge, as revenge for his mentor. It's old evil vs. the new evil at the Royal Rumble.

* You probably still go with the SmackDown winner for the Rumble to keep your options open.

* Edge beats Triple H to solidify himself as the heel champion.

* John Cena and Shawn Michaels emerge as the two guys who most want to be WWE Champion. You have Vince there to work a high profile match at Mania 22. Vince vs. HBK was of course well worked, but maybe Vince vs. Cena would have been the better option? Cena could point out that Vince stretched the rules at NYR and clearly doesn't want him to be the champion. Vince says that Cena is trying to blame him for his failures, etc. -- I Quit Match between the two at WrestleMania 22.

* So HBK beats Cena to earn the title shot against Edge with some secret help from Vince. HBK moves up to challenge Edge for the WWE Title, with Edge doing his best to point out that HBK screwed Cena and now he's going to try and screw another great Canadian hero. He promises to do to Michaels what he did to Triple H and Flair.

I think it's important to give Cena some breaks away from the WWE Title at some point over the year to give Edge a chance to stretch his legs as the WWE's new bad guy.

[hb2k]

I want to thank everybody for the contributions, we got to read many of them on the show, which is now available at the following link:

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/play/edjv6y/SCG_Radio_77_-_Rebooking_WWE_in_2006.mp3

Join us as we go back to 2006, looking at the roster to decide who to cut, call up, push, switch brands, and discuss the main directions through to WrestleMania 23 in 2007! Discussing all the moves WWE made instead, such as the return of ECW and DX, we also take your comments on what you felt needed to be done in place of what was a rather awful, regressive year. All that, and the announcement of the first SCG giveaway! A very fun show this week, check it out and let us know what you think!

(P.S - Noid, I'm so absolutely gutted you wrote that like two hours after we finished recording :-(...but I'm going to read it now anyway)

[Mr. Nerfect]

Great show, guys! Love the booking ones you do.

* Man, it never even occurred to me to move Triple H or Shawn Michaels over to SmackDown. I remember pipe-dreaming about HBK moving at the time, but I think the unwritten move was that he wasn't going to be going anywhere, sadly. But in the realm you guys create, you can just force Hunter over, so that's awesome.

* An idea I had for Ric Flair and the IC Title: After he wins Money in the Bank, maybe he actually forfeits the belt? I usually hate title vacancies, but you don't want Flair eating too many pinfalls heading into his shot at #17, so him letting go of one rock to swim to another makes sense. Flair can talk about how the IC Title proved that he can still be a champion, and it meant a lot to be able to keep up with the innovative and hungry talent in that division, but he needs to prove he can be THE MAN again.

Instead of the 2006 King of the Ring, you can do a tournament for the vacant IC Title. Maybe you have Carlito and Chris Masters meet in the finals of that? Or maybe Shelton wins it post-Mania.

* A Bobby Lashley idea: He wasn't the greatest talker, but it's hard to find guys who can be babyface mouthpieces. But after Lashley tore through Regal & Burchill through the latter parts of 2005, Regal finds an appreciation in Blaster? Regal talks him up as this man with giant paws that he's going to help guide to greatness. Lashley can enter a feud with JBL, because if you've got Benoit vs. Orton for the US Title, then you're obviously not running JBL vs. Benoit, and those guys will need something to do.

Mark Henry was doing his prototype Hall of Pain "forced sabbatical" stuff around this time, wasn't he? Seems like a perfect opportunity for a young Lashley to stand up to the bully. Have Lashley beat Henry at No Way Out en route to taking issue with JBL over something. JBL can bring in Henry as his personal enforcer (I think by this point in time he had ditched The Cabinet), which could lead to Henry doing some shit with Regal that no one really wants to see, but would be bearable because it's Regal.

So a random proposed WrestleMania 22 match would be: JBL (w/ Mark Henry) vs. Bobby Lashley (w/ William Regal) or a tag match featuring the parties.

* I like what you've done with Money in the Bank. I like the idea of keeping Lashley out of it, so you can build him separately. I like Masters (didn't at the time), but protection is not as important, and his whole gimmick was basically chasing the WWE Title at this point. Gives him a chance to earn some respect points with fans when he gets knocked off a few things onto a few things.

* Even if you're avoiding the King Booker gimmick, I like the idea of using the spot they would use in the Money in the Bank the following year. During the 2007 edition of the match, it looked like King Booker was about to win the briefcase, but Matt Hardy (a babyface) got Sharmell in position for the Twist of Fate, coercing Booker into jumping down. The heel basically chose his wife over the title shot. It might seem a bit needlessly "blurry," but I really liked that dimension it added to Booker.

* Instead of just doing the Benoit vs. Orton vs. Booker angle, maybe you can spin it out to include Matt Hardy? The guy's not really doing much of anything until Jeff is back anyway. You have the heat between Hardy and Booker coming out of the MITB; the obviously history between Benoit and Booker; the history between Benoit and Orton; the developments between Orton and Booker; and issues between Hardy and Benoit and Hardy and Orton wouldn't be too hard to develop. Matt was pretty over at the time, and I think an eventual Four-Way between them could be of value to a July PPV or something. You get to round robin a whole bunch of televised matches out of those guys too.

[Mr. Nerfect]

It's my bad for getting in late, and my original feedback is all over the place anyway. 2006 was a year that I think I've blocked a lot from.

[The CyNick]

Perhaps if they would have let ECW be ECW it would have stuck. WWECW was doomed to fail by design.

You realize authentic ECW was a failure right?

[Simple Fan]

Yeah after they got on network TV and was watered down.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

Shawn's church celebrates on Tuesdays. No Smackdown.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

You realize authentic ECW was a failure right?

That would be on how you define "failure." The company did go out of business. However they made a lasting impression on the business.

They gave talent the freedom to find their voice. WWE used them to try to get something out of their talent that they didn't discover yet. Al Snow, Jerry Lynn, Raven, Justin Credible all were failures before they got into ECW. They made something of their careers and sold out to WWE and made good money. That's not a fucking failure at all. Stone Cold Steve Austin the biggest money maker in wrestling history wouldn't have drawn jack shit if he hadn't found his way into Mrs. Heyman's basement to cut some promos.

They got on PPV when there was only like two PPVs channels to order from on a cable station. You had to have something good and something people wanted to see to get on PPV in the 1990s. That's not a failure.

They got a national television contract to be on cable TV. It didn't work out the way they wanted it to. The show didn't ever have a chance to succeed because they were just using ECW as a test run for their buy out of Monday Night Raw.

They put asses in seats and gave wrestlers good sallaries for a long time before it all ended.

Not a failure. Just a company that had some things not go their way. They did great for a while. They might have expanded a little bit too fast and they definitely were screwed by WCW stealing all of their talent.

[drave]

You realize authentic ECW was a failure right?

And yet 100000000% better than WWE's version of whatever the fuck they tried there.

[The CyNick]

Yeah after they got on network TV and was watered down.

Riiight. Because before that they were totally profitable. Everyone was getting paid on time and they were not being kept afloat by WWE.

It was the TVs fault, yes it was.

[The CyNick]

That would be on how you define "failure." The company did go out of business. However they made a lasting impression on the business.

They gave talent the freedom to find their voice. WWE used them to try to get something out of their talent that they didn't discover yet. Al Snow, Jerry Lynn, Raven, Justin Credible all were failures before they got into ECW. They made something of their careers and sold out to WWE and made good money. That's not a fucking failure at all. Stone Cold Steve Austin the biggest money maker in wrestling history wouldn't have drawn jack shit if he hadn't found his way into Mrs. Heyman's basement to cut some promos.

They got on PPV when there was only like two PPVs channels to order from on a cable station. You had to have something good and something people wanted to see to get on PPV in the 1990s. That's not a failure.

They got a national television contract to be on cable TV. It didn't work out the way they wanted it to. The show didn't ever have a chance to succeed because they were just using ECW as a test run for their buy out of Monday Night Raw.

They put asses in seats and gave wrestlers good sallaries for a long time before it all ended.

Not a failure. Just a company that had some things not go their way. They did great for a while. They might have expanded a little bit too fast and they definitely were screwed by WCW stealing all of their talent.

Sounds like a failure to me. Especially when Al Snow makes the positive highlights of their existence.

ECW was the promotion today's IWC deserved. Nobody got paid properly, the talent was medicore but thought they were to shelf, and the audience was brain washed.

[The CyNick]

And yet 100000000% better than WWE's version of whatever the fuck they tried there.

WWE was successful with ECW. They sold a couple nostalgia PPVs, got some DVD sales, promoted the library for The Network, and got JBL more over by burying the product and punching the fat dude on their PPV.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

Hey CyNick... what were Jim Cornette's thoughts on it? I figured you would know since you've listened to him more than you have anyone else.

[The CyNick]

Hey CyNick... what were Jim Cornette's thoughts on it? I figured you would know since you've listened to him more than you have anyone else.

He didn't care for ECW because it had a following.

[Mr. Nerfect]

CyNick, you seriously suck, man. Stop being such a prick, dude.

[The CyNick]

CyNick, you seriously suck, man. Stop being such a prick, dude.

Dont make me bump old posts where you were likely saying how great I am.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Before you turned into a douche as opposed to acting all sanctimonious? Righto.

[The CyNick]

Before you turned into a douche as opposed to acting all sanctimonious? Righto.

You feel betrayed?

I didn't change. I thought I knew everything then too.

[Big Vic]

You feel betrayed?

I didn't change. I thought I knew everything then too.
You said before that your view changed when you stopped reading dirtsheets

[The CyNick]

You said before that your view changed when you stopped reading dirtsheets

Yeah but I mean I've always been an arrogant prick.