#3 – Interesting Stories
#2 – Wrestling
When I asked what people wanted to see from Global Force Wrestling, the biggest key words by far were "good", "wrestling", "story" and "talent". And that's pretty obvious, because story-telling and in-ring competition are kind of the bread and butter for professional wrestling. That's how it's always been, that's how it's always going to be. You can present that in different ways, be it family-friendly programming or extreme violence, but the formula remains the same.
WWE has done a great job making their in-ring product better of the past two years. Monday Night Raw consistently has two or three lengthy matches that are worth watching. But by and large their stories are AWFUL – I'm bored by 40 minutes into the show most weeks. I don't remember the last time I sat through Raw from start to finish without checking the scores of an NBA game or falling asleep.
On the other hand, TNA is very story driven, and their matches are good (when they actually have them), but I think they need to adjust the levels because both aspects can be tuned just a bit differently. The wrestling isn't quite where I'd like it to be, and the drama and stories are a bit too crazy some weeks, but if you just turned those knobs every so slightly, I think they'd have a very solid product.
What I'm hoping for out of GFW is the best of both those worlds. Figure out the formula, and dial it in correctly. Some weeks are going to be better than others. You are going to have a show that sucks once in awhile. Some matches won't deliver like you want them to. My suggestion is to keep the creative team as simple as possible. Raw was the best it will ever be when Vince Russo, Ed Ferrara and Vince McMahon produced 95% of the product. You start involving a committee of people and a gaggle of creative writers, and it mucks up the process. KEEP. IT. SIMPLE.
