What if the WWE booked tv shows old school?

[corndog]

In the 80s the WWF and NWA mainly featured mid carders in main events and more low end guys in the rest of the show. The WWF had alot of tag team title matches with a solid competitor, say the Hart Foundation vs the Killer Bees or the Can Am Connection, or even the occasional IC title match. But I wouldn't mind an NWA twist where once or twice a month you would get a main event with say CM Punk defending his belt again Kane or a top contender, but not THE top contender. Also for the most part the top stars would make appearances and do interviews, but not as much backstage stuff as now(not doing 20 minute segments unless it was a huge point of a storyline, like creating a match for a ppv). I would like it because you would get to see alot more of the young talent, and the low end talent is much better than it was back then. I also think it is a good business move because guys like Cena don't get stale as fast and people have to pay to see him wrestle. Plus it would make shows like Saturday Nights Main Event mean more. Remember getting excited because you would get to see Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage wrestle big names on tv? That feeling is gone now with things the way they are.

[boomhauer20055]

I dont want to watch a show full of squash matches ! Tha was the best thing about the Monday night wars is we finally got something other than star beats up jobber matches on WWF weekly programs. Hulk Hogan was really the only Champ they kept off TV. So no for old school way. LOL

[justinqx]

Star vs. Jobber matches can help the main eventers look more powerful. This should work as long as the matches are extremely short (no longer than 5 minutes).

[Cyno]

It would not work in today's post-Monday Night Wars wrestling world. People are used to better and take seeing main eventers like John Cena, Edge, Triple, H, etc. wrestle against each other every week for granted.

[Single H]

It would be a good idea but there's no way the fans would except stars vs jobbers on a weekly program and basis anymore as we are to used to Raw Smackdown and ECW being a b class weekly PPV and stars vs stars and big matches on a weekly basis. WWE would lose money and ratings a lot doing this and would not get into a weekly mainstream recognition with stars vs jobbers
It would however cut down on story lines burning out fast.keep the stars a lot fresher (instead of having to wrestler big matches on a weekly basis) and more reserved so they could really step up to the plate on PPV. It would give the under card and mid card a lot moire exposure. Would give the top stars more of a build up for there PPV's and be able to hear them speak and build up a feud and big match properly again for a change. There would be a lot of positives coming form this but it wouldn't be accepted by the fans I don't think anymore as that's not what is expected of them. Especially if TNA kept stars VS stars and WWE went back to the old format they would risk losing the majority of there fans to TNA this way. There already struggling for ratings and buy rates enough without resorting top totally changing there product up in such a dramatic manor

If they did however they could have the jobber vs stars on Raw Smackdown and ECW and keep there monthly PP V's without going back to the big 4 I feel.

[Jtre]

Are you serious? The majority of the IWC bitches and moans about TV ratings not being where they were during the Monday Night War, and you think going back to "Wrestling Superstars" and "WCW Saturday Night" is a good idea?

The WWE is making more money than at any point in its history. That means its making more money than any wrestling promotion ever.

The company also draws about 15 million viewers each week.

Showing five hours filled with squash matches will probably cause that number to drop significantly.

[corndog]

15 million viewers? Raws ratings have consistenly been around 3.0-3.2 mark, that is 4 million viewers tops. But yes you guys have good points, this could definitely hurt the ratings. But honestly most of the matches are only three minutes long anyways. Would Kane squashing Santino be any worse than Jamie Noble beating Santino is 2 and a half minutes? The only difference is now there are no clear cut jobbers like there used to be. Guys that never get to talk and come out to lose to the Red Rooster. I agree the NWA had a better system of keeping squash matches short. Instead of a 20 minute match between Rick Rude and one of the Executioners. Also have a couple of solid undercard matches, the WWE has alot of young talent. Those matches could occasionally excede 10 minutes and be competitive. I am saying maybe not go completely old school, but having a ppv main event every week will burn out the top stars fast. You can have a great main event without pitting Cena/ JBL or Batista against each other in a tag match every week. Why couldn't CM Punk vs Regal have main evented(even though that wouldn't have been on old school WWF tv)? Or Pricele$$ defending their tag belts against a top team? That is what made the old school tv programs possibly better, they legitimized all of the belts. The tag belts and IC title were main event material, now they are barely midcard(although with Pricele$$ things could change). The world title was something you were lucky to see defended once a month on tv and was extremely important.

[Lawless66007]

I liked the 80's format better because you wouldn't see certain wrestlers wrestle off until pay-per-veiws and you couldn't wait to see certain wrestlers wrestle each other. Now you see the same wrestlers go against each other, every week and it gets stale. By the time you see them wrestle in the pay-per-view you are tired of seeing them against each other. That's what I miss about the 80's format.

[Jack]

It would be an idea. If WWE pushed it's lower-level top talent on TV so you'd still see the likes of Kennedy, Mysterio etc perform on TV but the really top talent would only perform on PPV

[pezsoup]

I would like to see a return to this format for a saturday morning show and keep the others the way they are.

I miss Saturday morning wrestling.

[Tapout]

I would've liked to see more squash matches (and they still happen every so often) to help make holding a title seem more special. It also encouraged PPV buys. I have to imagine that the wrestling industry would be very different if you saw Hogan defending the title on free TV every week back in the 80s.

Still, this seems like one of those cat-out-of-the-bag things. It's really hard if not impossible to go back to the way things were. Kind of like kayfabe dying.

[Jtre]

Aug 4, 2008 12:42:19 GMT -5 corndog said:

15 million viewers? Raws ratings have consistenly been around 3.0-3.2 mark, that is 4 million viewers tops. But yes you guys have good points, this could definitely hurt the ratings. But honestly most of the matches are only three minutes long anyways. Would Kane squashing Santino be any worse than Jamie Noble beating Santino is 2 and a half minutes? The only difference is now there are no clear cut jobbers like there used to be. Guys that never get to talk and come out to lose to the Red Rooster. I agree the NWA had a better system of keeping squash matches short. Instead of a 20 minute match between Rick Rude and one of the Executioners. Also have a couple of solid undercard matches, the WWE has alot of young talent. Those matches could occasionally excede 10 minutes and be competitive. I am saying maybe not go completely old school, but having a ppv main event every week will burn out the top stars fast. You can have a great main event without pitting Cena/ JBL or Batista against each other in a tag match every week. Why couldn't CM Punk vs Regal have main evented(even though that wouldn't have been on old school WWF tv)? Or Pricele$$ defending their tag belts against a top team? That is what made the old school tv programs possibly better, they legitimized all of the belts. The tag belts and IC title were main event material, now they are barely midcard(although with Pricele$$ things could change). The world title was something you were lucky to see defended once a month on tv and was extremely important.

The estimated 5 million or so range that Raw draws, plus what Smackdown and ECW draws hits into the 15 million range. That was not including International viewers, though.

[Loki]

I've been saying that forever...

It should have to be made slowly, not to "shock" the crowd, and in a way that would actually make the fans "learn" how when it comes to main eventers Less Is Good.

If done in the right way, I think weekly shows would manage to keep the same ratings, with PPVs becoming more meaningful and probably getting more viewers.

Sure RAW's main event can't go from Cena-Batista v JBL-Jericho to Cade v London, but using main eventers sparingly would help business in so many ways: longer feuds, better "no contact build-up", better midcard and lower-midcard exposure, decreasing of injuries and fatigue...

The MNW-style booking has been made obsolete and redundant by the total lack of competition. Fans who want to watch wrestling will have to stick with WWE, and I doubt not watching Cena or Triple H wrestling the umpteenth "transitional" match on a weekly show will make the ratings plummet.

Moreso: older fans would and will probably bitch and moan regardless of who's wrestling who and when, as long as it's not Rock v Austin anymore.

Younger fans would be "reprogrammed" in a matter of a few months of new format.

Old school fans would watch it anyway, because it's wrestling, and some sparse "lost" fan could even enjoy it more, because of the good ol' days vibe.

[Big Daddy Bad Booking]

Unfortunately, most of those shows were like squash, interview, squash, interview, a bigger interview, squash, interview, then a squash main event with someone in the upper card. I don't think we need that today.

[Cap'n Crud]

Aug 4, 2008 5:29:13 GMT -5 boomhauer20055 said:

I dont want to watch a show full of squash matches ! Tha was the best thing about the Monday night wars is we finally got something other than star beats up jobber matches on WWF weekly programs. Hulk Hogan was really the only Champ they kept off TV. So no for old school way. LOL

Co-signed. I almost got sick of wrestling watching nothing but jobber squashes and every big match ending in schmozzes, disqualifications, the show ending, or every other non-finish you can think of.

Not everything old school is good.

[Deleted]

I don't think this would work if it was all mid-carder vs. jobber squash matches. However, if it was all high-quality mid-carder vs. mid-carder matches, main-eventer vs. mid-carder matches with no endless run-ins, and so forth, it could be better.

Essentially, just cut out the 30 minute promos and the hot-shotting, give all levels of the roster some good TV time (wrestling, mind you, and not talking except for interviews), and it could work.

[corndog]

I have an answer to my own question. If WWE booked the tv shows old school, we would have tag team champs, THAT WERE AN ACTUAL TAG TEAM!

[Supersmark is a Troll]

Only on weekend syndicated shows.

[Garee]

I don't think that would work

[RatedRKoffee]

Going back to the squash format would be a disaster but I agree that seeing a world champion wrestle should at least feel somewhat special.