Indifferent Clox
02-05-2007, 02:30 AM
This week I'll be looking at some past mistakes, in WWE, and how I, Indifferent Clox, would have booked things differently. I also will discuss the future of WWE and how it might rectify some of it's mistakes. At the end I'll even add my Wrestlemania Card and it won't include RVD, you'll find out why in today's edition of Clox's Counsel!
But first a word about Clox's Counsel. These weekly editorials are meant to encourage discussion and some green rep for myself. I find it increasingly disturbing that I am not able to properly give back to TPWW for all it gives to me. I also believe it is time I stepped up my game and joined the ranks oft he elite posters here on TPWW. I've been in stables, mocked as a jobber, despised as a heel, and now I'd like to turn face and really take full advantage of what TPWW has to offer: An eager ear for my opinions and educated mouths to answer back. Now that the mission statement is out of the way here's my column!
I'm gonna stick to mistakes that either looked promising, or could be fixed even now perhaps.
Mistake 1:
The Invasion
I refuse to speculate as to what talent WWE could have purchased so I will simply work with what talent they had (or very soon acquired). The stage was set, WCW had been purchased by WWE and a few weeks later so had ECW. What went wrong? They had all the material, but a refusal to use the talent and make WCW appear as an actual threat made the invasion angle look just stupid. Entertaining, yes, but not nearly up to it's potential.
Here is the Top 5 guys I would have pushed as WWE, WCW, and ECW guys. They would have been heels and faces, not just heels. And they would have, however, joined forces for a greater cause.
WWE
1. The Rock
2. The Undertaker
3. SCSA
4. Kurt Angle
5. Triple H
WCW
1. Big Show (or Benoit)
2. Booker T
3. Chris Jericho (or Guerrero)
4. Kevin Nash (or Goldberg)
5. DDP
ECW
1. Raven (or Mike Awesome)
2. Dreamer
3. Sabu (or Mysterio)
4. Sandman (or Justin Credible)
5. RVD
The rest of each group would have been more midcarders and jobbers but these guys would be automatic main eventers. I wouldn't have had ECW and WCW team up either. I'd have Bischoff or Shane as the leader for WCW and Heyman as the leader for ECW. But that's just speculative. And that gets me nowhere.
Why not have a second invasion where Bischoff and Heyman want to destroy WWE but aren't fighting with each other but against each other. They Fight for Supremacy.
Mistake 2
WWECW
I was in the Navy when ECW came back the second time and the TV show began, but I've watched the first episodes and.. ugh...
First and foremost I would have made Heyman the head writer and given it the same rules as original ECW. Just better production. I'd have just had Joey Styles (and maybe Joel Gertner) as the Announcer. And I'd have brought it as 2 hours. I'd have not brought in Kurt Angle or the Big Show. I'd have had new talent, of course, but not new talent that doesn't even make sense in ECW.
Here is how I'd rectify these mistakes. I'd have Bischoff come back and start discussing stuff and mention how bad ECW has become. He's also talk about how McMahon has been one upped by the Donald. This would bring out McMahon who was Irate how Bischoff was coming on his show and talking down about it. He'd propose, do you think you could do better? Bischoff would of course say give me a chance! Mcmahon would say he wouldn't risk his flagship show raw on it but he'd send him to Smackdown. Long would be pissed of course and would then go to Raw to be the GM there or perhaps stay on Smackdown to keep Bischoff in line. But then Heyman would come out and say why don't you give me actual reign of ECW, I've figured out what I did was awful and I had the wrong intentions. McMahon would say no.later Donald Trump would come on the air and say he had purchased ECW, Smackdown, and the rights to WCW and he'd given them to Heyman and Bischoff!
Smackdown was now WCW Smackdown and ECW was now run by Bischoff!
Smackdown would continue much the same as now but ECW would become more like the old days.
The PPV schedule would be like this
January: WWE Royal Rumble
February: WCW Souled Out
March:WWE Wrestlemania
April: ECW Barely LEgal
May: WCW War Games
June: WWE King of the Ring
July: WCW Great American Bash
August: ECW HeatWave or Cyberslam/cybersunday
September: Survivor Series
October: Halloween Havoc
November: November to Remember
December: Starrcade
I'd then end the brand split and have the shows just be run by different companies but all the talent be available to each show just have certain belts only available on certain shows so you still have some variety. Also ECW would be more hardcore, Raw would be more storyline related, WCW would be more wrestling related.
Ok so that's the long version and the kind of sketchy version.
The Real way I'd do it is just to Give ECW Heyman as a writer and make it what it was. Talk about how Cena sucks and Booker T is stupid for thinking he's some king. Talk as real as the original ECW did, or at least as real as you can in WWE. That's part of the ECW appeal.
As for WCW at least give them a stable.
Mistake#3
The Roster Split
WWE needed a 3rd television show a long time ago. A two hour show. This show could be ECW but it doesn't matter. The split allows for more talent but less development. We don't need less PPV's we just need more development and beter writing. If you have 3 shows two hours each you get all your roster displayed. If you get 4 hour PPVs and 5 for mania (some football games go 4 hours.) You have better entertainment! Each Show can be different without a different roster.
Mistake #4
The nWo in WWE
Bringing in nWo to kill off WWE was interesting, but where was the threat? When Triple H and HBK joined and then Booker T joined, it was getting there but by then it had lost all purpose. I seriously didn't see the SCM on Booker T coming. The Goldust stuff was brilliant. What they could do now, is have Bischoff say he's bringing in the Four Horseman on Smackdown Benoit, Finlay, Flair, and Regal would be great! Or what about Booker T being the first black member? It works so well on smackdown that he decides to try it on Raw. But who to use? Orton, Edge, Carlito, and Hogan. He now has 8 guys who eventually take all the belts. But ECW is left, and Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie bring back the bWo to of course make fun of this. ECW somewhat stays immune because it considers all this stuff stupid, but then McMahon banishes both nWo and Four Horsmen to ECW. It's then ECW v. WCW. WCW wins and gets control of Tuesday nights for a while. But an ECW member still holds the ECW title and the WCW guys still hold the belts. So they hold a big PPV where WWE guys fight WCW guys for the belts and WCW guy fights the ECW guys for their Belt and Show. Of course now everyone is taking sides and very few people are left out. ECW wins the show but WCW isn't satisfied, they want Smackdown, so Bischoff fights Mcmahon. Bischoff wins gaining Smackdown. He gets all the WCW guys who had chosen WCW over WWE and ECW and there are now 3 shows. Then it gets really interesting. Because Vince still wants to have a say in all the shows. So he sends people to sabotage each show. Eventually he gets his title holders from Raw to get the titles from Smackdown by cheating, straight wins, and interference. He unifies the titles, Bischoff says it's unfair so he allows the champs to go on both WCW and WWE shows. But Heyman says he wants his guys on WCW and WWE to. So his champion can go to WWE and WCW to defend as well, but under those people's rules. Eventually, all the titles are unified. We have 3 seperate shows again and 3 seperate unique brands but one main champion and three uppermidcard champions (ECW TV, US, and IC) along with Speciality Titles (Crusierweight on SD, Women's on SD). The Tag teams would be unified on all 3 shows. And ECW would come up with a new title of some kind.
But again that's just far fetched. A cool thing to do with the nWo would be to have them fued with DX and then join DX for a while or something. Just have hogan come in and say that he and Orton and Edge could bring DX down if they assembled under the nWo Banner.
Lastly, I'd like to present my WM card, notice that RVD isn't a part of it because well... He's not going to be in WWE by then more than likely.
(No Particular Order)
1. Cruiserweight Battle Royal
2. Kennedy v. Benoit (US)
3. Kane v. Booker T
4. Orton v. Carlito v. Nitro v. CM Punk v. Hardcore Holly v. The Miz (MITB)
5. Shawn Michaels and John Cena v. Hogan and Austin for the tag team titles
6. Edge v. Undertaker(WWE Title)
7. Sabu Sandman Dreamer v. Striker, Test, and Thorn (Barbed Wire Match)
8. Batista v. Finlay (WH title)
9. Matt and Jeff v. Paul London and Kenderick v. Cryme Tyme v. Regal and Taylor (tag team titles TLC)
10. Lashley v. Marquis Cor Bon (ECW title Extreme Rules)
11. Khali v. That Russian Guy (IC title)
That's not what I'd like to see but given the current storyline that'd be I guess better than what we will probably get.
That's it for this week. Clox Out.
Edit: By the way.
If I owned WWE, I'd play every episode of Raw from the beginning on syndication on some network. That'd be kick ass. However it would bring light to old storylines and wrestlers who may be on opposing shows.
I'd definetly release all of Raw and Smackdown, Thunder and Nitro on DVD...
Or at least a History of them, recapping every match.
But that's just me.
But first a word about Clox's Counsel. These weekly editorials are meant to encourage discussion and some green rep for myself. I find it increasingly disturbing that I am not able to properly give back to TPWW for all it gives to me. I also believe it is time I stepped up my game and joined the ranks oft he elite posters here on TPWW. I've been in stables, mocked as a jobber, despised as a heel, and now I'd like to turn face and really take full advantage of what TPWW has to offer: An eager ear for my opinions and educated mouths to answer back. Now that the mission statement is out of the way here's my column!
I'm gonna stick to mistakes that either looked promising, or could be fixed even now perhaps.
Mistake 1:
The Invasion
I refuse to speculate as to what talent WWE could have purchased so I will simply work with what talent they had (or very soon acquired). The stage was set, WCW had been purchased by WWE and a few weeks later so had ECW. What went wrong? They had all the material, but a refusal to use the talent and make WCW appear as an actual threat made the invasion angle look just stupid. Entertaining, yes, but not nearly up to it's potential.
Here is the Top 5 guys I would have pushed as WWE, WCW, and ECW guys. They would have been heels and faces, not just heels. And they would have, however, joined forces for a greater cause.
WWE
1. The Rock
2. The Undertaker
3. SCSA
4. Kurt Angle
5. Triple H
WCW
1. Big Show (or Benoit)
2. Booker T
3. Chris Jericho (or Guerrero)
4. Kevin Nash (or Goldberg)
5. DDP
ECW
1. Raven (or Mike Awesome)
2. Dreamer
3. Sabu (or Mysterio)
4. Sandman (or Justin Credible)
5. RVD
The rest of each group would have been more midcarders and jobbers but these guys would be automatic main eventers. I wouldn't have had ECW and WCW team up either. I'd have Bischoff or Shane as the leader for WCW and Heyman as the leader for ECW. But that's just speculative. And that gets me nowhere.
Why not have a second invasion where Bischoff and Heyman want to destroy WWE but aren't fighting with each other but against each other. They Fight for Supremacy.
Mistake 2
WWECW
I was in the Navy when ECW came back the second time and the TV show began, but I've watched the first episodes and.. ugh...
First and foremost I would have made Heyman the head writer and given it the same rules as original ECW. Just better production. I'd have just had Joey Styles (and maybe Joel Gertner) as the Announcer. And I'd have brought it as 2 hours. I'd have not brought in Kurt Angle or the Big Show. I'd have had new talent, of course, but not new talent that doesn't even make sense in ECW.
Here is how I'd rectify these mistakes. I'd have Bischoff come back and start discussing stuff and mention how bad ECW has become. He's also talk about how McMahon has been one upped by the Donald. This would bring out McMahon who was Irate how Bischoff was coming on his show and talking down about it. He'd propose, do you think you could do better? Bischoff would of course say give me a chance! Mcmahon would say he wouldn't risk his flagship show raw on it but he'd send him to Smackdown. Long would be pissed of course and would then go to Raw to be the GM there or perhaps stay on Smackdown to keep Bischoff in line. But then Heyman would come out and say why don't you give me actual reign of ECW, I've figured out what I did was awful and I had the wrong intentions. McMahon would say no.later Donald Trump would come on the air and say he had purchased ECW, Smackdown, and the rights to WCW and he'd given them to Heyman and Bischoff!
Smackdown was now WCW Smackdown and ECW was now run by Bischoff!
Smackdown would continue much the same as now but ECW would become more like the old days.
The PPV schedule would be like this
January: WWE Royal Rumble
February: WCW Souled Out
March:WWE Wrestlemania
April: ECW Barely LEgal
May: WCW War Games
June: WWE King of the Ring
July: WCW Great American Bash
August: ECW HeatWave or Cyberslam/cybersunday
September: Survivor Series
October: Halloween Havoc
November: November to Remember
December: Starrcade
I'd then end the brand split and have the shows just be run by different companies but all the talent be available to each show just have certain belts only available on certain shows so you still have some variety. Also ECW would be more hardcore, Raw would be more storyline related, WCW would be more wrestling related.
Ok so that's the long version and the kind of sketchy version.
The Real way I'd do it is just to Give ECW Heyman as a writer and make it what it was. Talk about how Cena sucks and Booker T is stupid for thinking he's some king. Talk as real as the original ECW did, or at least as real as you can in WWE. That's part of the ECW appeal.
As for WCW at least give them a stable.
Mistake#3
The Roster Split
WWE needed a 3rd television show a long time ago. A two hour show. This show could be ECW but it doesn't matter. The split allows for more talent but less development. We don't need less PPV's we just need more development and beter writing. If you have 3 shows two hours each you get all your roster displayed. If you get 4 hour PPVs and 5 for mania (some football games go 4 hours.) You have better entertainment! Each Show can be different without a different roster.
Mistake #4
The nWo in WWE
Bringing in nWo to kill off WWE was interesting, but where was the threat? When Triple H and HBK joined and then Booker T joined, it was getting there but by then it had lost all purpose. I seriously didn't see the SCM on Booker T coming. The Goldust stuff was brilliant. What they could do now, is have Bischoff say he's bringing in the Four Horseman on Smackdown Benoit, Finlay, Flair, and Regal would be great! Or what about Booker T being the first black member? It works so well on smackdown that he decides to try it on Raw. But who to use? Orton, Edge, Carlito, and Hogan. He now has 8 guys who eventually take all the belts. But ECW is left, and Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie bring back the bWo to of course make fun of this. ECW somewhat stays immune because it considers all this stuff stupid, but then McMahon banishes both nWo and Four Horsmen to ECW. It's then ECW v. WCW. WCW wins and gets control of Tuesday nights for a while. But an ECW member still holds the ECW title and the WCW guys still hold the belts. So they hold a big PPV where WWE guys fight WCW guys for the belts and WCW guy fights the ECW guys for their Belt and Show. Of course now everyone is taking sides and very few people are left out. ECW wins the show but WCW isn't satisfied, they want Smackdown, so Bischoff fights Mcmahon. Bischoff wins gaining Smackdown. He gets all the WCW guys who had chosen WCW over WWE and ECW and there are now 3 shows. Then it gets really interesting. Because Vince still wants to have a say in all the shows. So he sends people to sabotage each show. Eventually he gets his title holders from Raw to get the titles from Smackdown by cheating, straight wins, and interference. He unifies the titles, Bischoff says it's unfair so he allows the champs to go on both WCW and WWE shows. But Heyman says he wants his guys on WCW and WWE to. So his champion can go to WWE and WCW to defend as well, but under those people's rules. Eventually, all the titles are unified. We have 3 seperate shows again and 3 seperate unique brands but one main champion and three uppermidcard champions (ECW TV, US, and IC) along with Speciality Titles (Crusierweight on SD, Women's on SD). The Tag teams would be unified on all 3 shows. And ECW would come up with a new title of some kind.
But again that's just far fetched. A cool thing to do with the nWo would be to have them fued with DX and then join DX for a while or something. Just have hogan come in and say that he and Orton and Edge could bring DX down if they assembled under the nWo Banner.
Lastly, I'd like to present my WM card, notice that RVD isn't a part of it because well... He's not going to be in WWE by then more than likely.
(No Particular Order)
1. Cruiserweight Battle Royal
2. Kennedy v. Benoit (US)
3. Kane v. Booker T
4. Orton v. Carlito v. Nitro v. CM Punk v. Hardcore Holly v. The Miz (MITB)
5. Shawn Michaels and John Cena v. Hogan and Austin for the tag team titles
6. Edge v. Undertaker(WWE Title)
7. Sabu Sandman Dreamer v. Striker, Test, and Thorn (Barbed Wire Match)
8. Batista v. Finlay (WH title)
9. Matt and Jeff v. Paul London and Kenderick v. Cryme Tyme v. Regal and Taylor (tag team titles TLC)
10. Lashley v. Marquis Cor Bon (ECW title Extreme Rules)
11. Khali v. That Russian Guy (IC title)
That's not what I'd like to see but given the current storyline that'd be I guess better than what we will probably get.
That's it for this week. Clox Out.
Edit: By the way.
If I owned WWE, I'd play every episode of Raw from the beginning on syndication on some network. That'd be kick ass. However it would bring light to old storylines and wrestlers who may be on opposing shows.
I'd definetly release all of Raw and Smackdown, Thunder and Nitro on DVD...
Or at least a History of them, recapping every match.
But that's just me.