Booking Wrestling 101: Save Your Money Vince!! If You Want Ratings Up, Starting Reading My Columns!
What’s up guys?
I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day yesterday. It’s tradition that something “big” usually takes place in wrestling on Memorial Day. I can remember it like it was yesterday when Scott Hall invaded WCW on Memorial Day and said they were coming to take over. Last night on Raw, another bomb shell was dropped. Vince McMahon said he will start giving away $1 million dollars every week on Monday Night Raw. If they are searching for a way to get their ratings back up, this way might very well work. It’s a unique approach and certainly different. However, you don’t need to give away $52 million dollars a year to get your television ratings back up again. You need someone on that creative team that could come up with angles that are so good that it will leave the fans wanting more. You need angles so good that when Raw goes off the air, the fans are sitting at the edge of their seats with their mouths open wide. You need angles so good that fans will be counting down the days for Monday to return again so they can see what’s going to happen next. They haven’t been able to write storylines like that in many, many years.
Save your money Vince. I’ll give you just one of many ideas I have to try and spark up some business.
This Sunday it’s Randy Orton vs. Triple H in a Last Man Standing match for the WWE title. I want you guys to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride as I book something that would get their product RED HOT…………………….
Sunday at One Night Stand, Randy Orton is walking backstage and bumps into Batista, who is getting ready for his match against Shawn Michaels. Orton tells Batista he better watch where he’s walking or he’s going to have a problem. The two exchange words and start fighting and a ton of the wrestlers break them up.
During the end of the Batista/Shawn Michaels match, Orton runs down gives Batista the RKO and puts him on the stretcher and helps HBK win the match. HBK, who is upset that Orton interfered in his match, chases him back to the locker room.
During the end of the Orton/HHH match, Orton goes under the ring and comes out with a sledge hammer. He’s about to hit HHH with it when HBK runs out to make the save. HBK grabs the hammer and is about to hit Orton with it, then turns around and smashed it over HHH’s head. HHH can’t get up to the ten count and Randy Orton regains the WWE title. The PPV goes off the air.
The following night on Raw, Orton and HBK come out together to open the show. HBK could talk about how ever since WrestleMania when he retired Ric Flair, he felt different inside. He said the “old Shawn Michaels” has been wanting to come out of him for months now, but he’s been holding it inside. HBK says he’s tired of being a nice guy. He says it made him sick to his stomach having to pretend that he loved all of the fans. He says playing the Mr. Nice Guy role for all of these years was the hardest thing he ever had to do in wrestling. He says he saw a lot of the old HBK in Randy Orton and it made him want to be his old self even more. He said he secretly met with Orton and began sharing all of the tricks of the trade with him. HBK tells everyone to listen to the words in Orton’s song. “The voices in my head, they talk to me.” HBK says the voices in Orton’s head are his!
Batista comes out and says that while HHH isn’t there tonight, he wants to challenge them to a tag team match at the next PPV.
For the following PPV it’s a huge grudge match tag team main event with HHH & Batista against Randy Orton and HBK. At the end of the match, Batista turns on Triple H and the three leave HHH a bloody mess.
The following night on Raw, they announce that Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels, and Batista have formed a new faction called “EVOLUTION X”.
This leads to a huge WAR GAMES match at SummerSlam with Evolution X (Orton, Batista, HBK, and a mystery partner) against Triple H, Chris Jericho, Jeff Hardy, and John Cena. About three minutes into the match, Triple H turns on his team and hits all three of them with a sledge hammer. He reveals himself as the fourth member of Evolution X and they destroy the babyfaces. This would get some SERIOUS heat! No one would see it coming.
Evolution X could be the hottest heel stable of guys in the history of wrestling. They could be a twist between the NWO, DX, and Evolution. It would also totally twist around the storylines. Here you have HHH, HBK, and Batista; all super over babyfaces, now all as heels backing Randy Orton. It would be something new. It would be something fresh. It would be something interesting!
You then build up your babyface side to work with them for the following six months. John Cena, Jeff Hardy, and Chris Jericho could be the three big babyfaces working against them.
While all of this is going on, you are building up Mr. Kennedy on the side to be the ass kicking character that Stone Cold was. When the time is right, you have Mr. Kennedy finally cross paths with Evolution X.
Then it’s time to make that money..money….
This is just the foundation of the storyline. I could get way more into detail on it, but I just wanted to give you guys an idea of it. WWE needs to think outside the box. Is turning their three top babyfaces heel a risk? Sure it is. But it’s something different and it will get people talking. That’s what is missing with today’s product, the element of surprise. I think everyone would be surprised to see HBK turn on HHH and cost him the title. I think fans would be even more surprised to see Batista turn on HHH too and go with Orton and HBK. When HHH goes with them too, after everything that went on for the previous two months, it will leave fans with their mouths open wide and not being able to wait until the next Raw to find out what’s going to happen next.
All the millions that Vince McMahon is going to give away every week on Raw isn’t going to help his product in the long run. All the money in the world can’t buy CREATIVITY! That’s what the product is missing!
Tommy Fierro
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tommyfierro@optonline.net
—NOTES—
***WrestleZone.com Exclusive Fan Slam Super Ticket Contest Winner:
Richard Murphy- North Adams, MA
***Fan Slam Wrestling Fan Festival 15th Anniversary Convention takes place on June 21st at the Holiday Inn in Totowa, NJ from 8:30 AM to 5 P.M. Appearing live at this event include TOMKO, AL SNOW, NICK DINSMORE (Formerly Eugene), SCOTT TAYLOR (Formerly Scotty 2 Hotty), JOHN CENA SR., DAIVARI, BILL DEMOTT (Formerly Hugh Morrus), J.J. DILLON, KEVIN KELLY, HEAD SHRINKER SAMU, and AXL ROTTEN. There will also be a ton of different activities at Fan Slam, including the first ever PRO WRESTLING TRICKY TRAY! A tricky tray is also known as a Chinese auction. Some of the items in the tricky tray that you can win include an event used ladder signed by Jeff Hardy and John Morrison from their 2006 Monday Night Raw ladder match, autographed Bruno Sammartino robe, autographed Jake Roberts tights, Sting autographed chair, autographed “Rowdy” Roddy Piper kilt, autographed Rey Mysterio mask, autographed Iron Sheik head dress, Brock Lesnar signed MMA glove, and so much more. There will also be a very special door prize for anyone that plays the tricky tray–an AUTOGRAPHED PAIR OF YELLOW TRUNKS SIGNED BY HULK HOGAN! That’s right, someone will be leaving Fan Slam with a free pair of signed trunks by the Hulkster. There will also be The John Cena Sr. Show hosted by John Cena Sr. with special guests Scott Taylor, Nick Dinsmore, and Daivari. There will be a live Shoot Interview with Tomko. There will also be a “Developmental Debate” with Al Snow and Bill Demott, a worm contest with Scott Taylor, So You Think You Can Book contest, and so much more. Cauliflower Alley Club and Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame will also be in attendance. Others that will be there include legendary promoter Jerry Jarrett, legendary ring announcer Howard Finkel, Balls Mahoney, Awesome Kong, Angelina Love, Crowbar, Missy Hyatt, Nicole Bass, Danny Inferno, The Zombie, and more. Head over now to FanSlamWrestling.com for all the details on the 15th Anniversary Convention for Fan Slam The Wrestling Fan Festival.
***Speaking of Fan Slam, I am really excited about the new working relationship I have with WrestleZone.com. I’m totally excited to have Fan Slam broadcasted live for the entire wrestling world to see on June 21st. It’s exciting! It’s unique. It’s different. Be sure to check back on WZ.com in the upcoming weeks for more information on “FAN SLAM LIVE!”
***Two weeks ago in my Mr. Kennedy column I talked about how his first program should be with Paul Burchill. Last night on Raw it looks like that is exactly what is going to happen. It’ll be interesting to see if there are “other similarities” like that in the future.
***This Sunday’s PPV looks really good. On paper this is like a “WrestleMania” like card with all of the big matches they are doing. Smart move by WWE. They only had two weeks to promote this PPV and they had to do something big to get people to order it. They are giving you a Last Man Standing match, Stretcher match, First Blood Match, TLC match, Falls Count Anywhere match, I Quit match, etc. Think about that for a second. That’s a HELL of a line-up for a PPV. Taker/Edge in a TLC match should be off the charts. Should be an awesome PPV.
