Would this be possible?

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'm not a television expert, but right now the WWE has 8 hours of WWE programming a week. IMO, four of those hours are wasted at the moment. Heat & Velocity are great shows, but their ratings aren't exactly high at the moment (quite frankly RAW & SmackDown!'s are fairly low at the moment, too). WWE Experience, although I really know nothing about it, to my understanding is a two-hour catch-up show. I think Todd Grisham & Ivory host. Anyway, most people think that the slump of things right now is the residue of lack of build-up or the rushed angles. The original plan for the roster split was to give superstars more exposure, and let's face it, if we still had a one unit WWE, guys like Mark Jindrak, Luther Reigns, Randy Orton would never get a chance to shine. I think for the most part the roster split has been successful.

Anyway to the point. Would it be possible for the WWE to work something out with a television network to have two two-hour shows dedicated to each respective brand a week? Do you think it would work? I'd enjoy maybe a two-hour RAW broadcast on Monday nights, then a two-hour Nitro program on Wednesday nights. For the SmackDown! brand, a live two-hour SmackDown! on Tuesday, and a two-hour Velocity on Thursday or Saturday. This would allow for more of a competition thing going on between the two brands, and could establish more superstars, and inseatd of having the re-bounds air on an opposite brand, RAW can recap Nitro and vice-versa. And using this method, the WWE doubles its time to show off superstars, and build-up feuds. PPVs could be held much more often. I think it would be possible for each brand to have a PPV a month with about 16 hours of build-up a month.

I could see the PPVs being setup like this:

January
Royal Rumble (Both)

February
Road to WrestleMania (RAW)
No Way Out (SmackDown!)

March
WrestleMania (Both)

April
Backlash (RAW)
Judgment Day (SmackDown!)

May
Bad Blood (RAW)
Mayday (SmackDown!)

June
King of the Ring (Both)

July
777 (Both)

August
Summerslam

September
Unforgiven (RAW)
September to Remember (SmackDown!)

October
Halloween Havoc (RAW)
No Mercy (SmackDown!)

November
Survivor Series (Both)

December
Vengeance (RAW)
Armageddon (SmackDown!)

Anyway, do you think it could work. 8 hours of mainstream WWE programming a week, 4 hours for each brand could really re-build interest in the product, IMO.

[Mayo]

This must have been proposed a lot, but here's what my answers are:

Taping shows is much cheaper, so Vince would prefer to save money that way since he favours Raw over Smackdown. This also makes Raw feel like a bigger event since it is live.

More PPV's does not equal better programming. People don't like paying so much money for 12 PPV's a year, and since Vince has incorporated some extra ones in the near future, I don't believe they will have much success. The product doesn't need to be watered down so much, and to many people, 4 hours of wrestling a week plus a PPV each month is quite enough.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by Mayo This must have been proposed a lot, but here's what my answers are: Taping shows is much cheaper, so Vince would prefer to save money that way since he favours Raw over Smackdown. This also makes Raw feel like a bigger event since it is live. More PPV's does not equal better programming. People don't like paying so much money for 12 PPV's a year, and since Vince has incorporated some extra ones in the near future, I don't believe they will have much success. The product doesn't need to be watered down so much, and to many people, 4 hours of wrestling a week plus a PPV each month is quite enough.

They're all good points, but I think that if the WWE did create more hours of programming it would create a sort of competition thing. Vince controls wrestling right now, and the WWE doesn't have any serious competition promotion wise, but by creating more of a independant brands thing, they can set up almost two seperate promotions.

[The CyNick]

I believe WWE TV breaks down like this:

RAW Brand:
RAW (2hr show with A level talent, all angles are done here), Heat (1 hr show with first run B level matches, few if angles are shot here) and Bottom Line (1 Hour recap show)

SD Brand
SD (2hr show with A level talent, all angles are done here), Velocity (1 hr show with first run B level matches, few if angles are shot here) and After Burn (1 Hour recap show)

Then you have the 1 hour Experience show on Sunday mornings which I too have never seen, but understand it recaps both brands with some special packages they used to use on Confidential (ie "SD went to Australia this week here's the highlights")

Now, in theory turning 4 of the 5 hours which are pretty much wasted right now into shows with A-level talent and story progression is a good idea. But in theory communism was a good idea, in theory.

In reality its a really bad idea. First problem is that I doubt Spike TV will give the WWE two more days to show wrestling in prime time. I mean I know they love the WWE for bringning in what little ratings they get, but at the same time I dont think they want to be known as the WWE Channel. They want to build up their reputation, not bring it down.

But even if the WWE could get the better timeslots there would be huge pressures on the already stretched writing team to write 4 more hours of "qaulity" first run TV. I remember a lot of the writers complaining when the WWE added SD to the mix, imagine the problems if they had two more shows to worry about.

Finally in all likelyhood this will burn out the fans. One of the reasons they did the brand extension in the first place was because they felt they were burning out talent by having them on two times per week. Now they have stars who aren't nearly as over and you want them to overexpose them? That sounds like suicide to me.

What I would rather see them do is to concentrate on making RAW and SD consistantly good, and then maybe make Heat and Velocity worth watching. But until they can do that, they shouldn't even give a seocnd thought to adding more A-level shows.

As for the PPVs, I think they are moving towards something like you have listed, where they have shows for each brand every month and then the 4 major shows with talent from both sides. I wouldn't mind seeing KOTR come back, but perhaps only for one of the brands. I say that only because judging from what Vince said at the Mania 21 Press Conference it seems like they want to keep Mania as the only show where RAW guys can face SD in matches (Rumble doesn't count as a macth). If they brought back KOTR as a dual brand show, you would have to make it end with a RAW vs SD finals, and then that hurts the specialness of Mania.

I'd also like to see them bring back more WCW PPV titles, and I actually think they may do that down the line. In 05 they have two PPVs scheduled for January (one RAW and the Rumble obviously). I think that RAW show will get pushed back to December in the future (like at the end of 05) and that could easily be called Starrcade. With all the history of that PPV they really should capitalize on it. Havoc should be brought back as one of the October shows. And there's BATB, and Super Brawl which should be used. The other they shows they add in the future can be given stupid WWE created names like Taboo Tuesday.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I agree, talent would be burnt out, and the fans would have trouble keeping up. I like the idea of having Heat and Velocity more watchable. Velocity actually has some of its major talent on its "B" show occasionally. I'd like to see Heat & Velocity become more of an "A" show, by having it as just an extra hour of RAW that airs on Sunday night. Sort of like it not being an insult to be on Heat/Velocity.

[The CyNick]

Originally Posted by Alienoid06 I agree, talent would be burnt out, and the fans would have trouble keeping up. I like the idea of having Heat and Velocity more watchable. Velocity actually has some of its major talent on its "B" show occasionally. I'd like to see Heat & Velocity become more of an "A" show, by having it as just an extra hour of RAW that airs on Sunday night. Sort of like it not being an insult to be on Heat/Velocity.

You hit the problem with the B shows there at the end. The boys consider it an insult to be there, so in turn the fans feel insulted when they watch it.

Before when Heat first started it was a great show, and I remember it doing 4's. Now granted that was before SD was around, but it just takes a little long term planning and you can make as many shows as you want worth watching. But thats one of the big problems, no planning.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by The CyNick You hit the problem with the B shows there at the end. The boys consider it an insult to be there, so in turn the fans feel insulted when they watch it. Before when Heat first started it was a great show, and I remember it doing 4's. Now granted that was before SD was around, but it just takes a little long term planning and you can make as many shows as you want worth watching. But thats one of the big problems, no planning.

Exactly. Due to the lack of storyline development, and the winners of the matches basically not gaining anything, they feel it is a dumping ground for people the WWE has no direction for. Basically the guys on Heat must feel their careers are slipping through their fingers. I would like to see guys like Chris Jericho, Christian & Shawn Michaels make the show more interesting. Maybe Batista & Flair could add to it, too. They should actually promote some big matches for their brand "B" shows.

[Gouda]

My reason against this idea is simple. It's just too much wrestling. I need days off!

[Mayo]

Originally Posted by Gouda My reason against this idea is simple. It's just too much wrestling. I need days off!

Takes up too much of my time while I'm in school.

[Gouda]

Yes... and on top of that.... all that wrestling would be bound to conflict with my TV watching habits! As it is Raw/Smackdown don't conflict with anything I would watch.

[Funky Fly]

What time are Heat and Velocity even on (Eastern)? They changed their schedule way back, and then I gave up on watching since Ultimo wasn't on.