Hi Scott,
What do you think the reaction would be if the WWE ran a G1 type tournament after WM with the winner getting a title shot at Summerslam or leading up to Survivor Series so the MITB matches mean something? They have enough talent to have two 8 man brackets and could have the matches on Raw and Smackdown and as part of a PPV. If each wrestler has 1 match a week, that gives them roughly 7 weeks of matches booked ahead of time. Figure out who should be in the title match and work backwards. Every week would be important so ratings should be solid. A win is worth 2 points. Draws earn 1 point each. They don't have to be clean finishes and could lead to some interesting directions for the coming months.
Thoughts?
onestly, I think they'd consider it too close to the BFG Series and would avoid doing it just because of the instant "You're stealing from TNA" reaction that might follow. I think if they were going down that road, reviving King of the Ring and having it mean something again would be far more productive, because they already have the brand recognition and won't have to explain rules. In fact, given that MITB has become the pre-eminent B-show of the summer, they could even slot King of the Ring into fall instead, replacing Survivor Series. Or maybe just do Survivor Series as a KOTR-like tournament for a Rumble title shot.
Either way, tournaments are always awesome.
Total Divas is such bullshit.
ReplyDeleteSorry. And tournaments are always awesome. Bring back King of the Ring.
The name "Survivor Series" lends itself to a tournament show. I'd like to see an annual tournament rather than the King of the Ring randomly popping up when they want to put a silly crown on someone.
ReplyDeleteThere should be a tournament for one of the championships always going. This just makes me want to go re-watch some of the matches from the AWESOME 2005 RAW Gold Rush tourney.
ReplyDeleteTournaments rule!
ReplyDeleteThey should go back to the all team elimination matches format at Survivor Series. Then do a 'sole survivor' match with the winning faces against the winning heels at the end of the night. Then all of the Sole Survivors engage in a battle royal immediately after the match until only two guys are left. Then those two guys wrestle one-on-one in a 2/3 falls match where each fall is a different stipulation chosen by the top 3 runners up from the Sole Surviving battle royal. The winner gets a shot at a Money in the Bank briefcase, if he can defeat either of the 2 previous winners in a ladder match. I guarantee this would garner all if the buys.
ReplyDeleteMan, that was harder to follow than The Architect's speech in "Matrix Reloaded"
ReplyDeleteThat would make WWE more like a sport.
ReplyDelete2 Points for a pinfall/submission win, 1 for a DQ/countout win. Apply to all matches including houseshows. With a legit top 10 ranking. The guys getting pushes have the most points so what's the problem right?
ReplyDeleteMajor problems i see right off the bat is top heels & faces who lose on the house show circuit in title matches. Their point totals would be weak despite getting top level pushes. How do you work around that? I dont know, i'm just desperate for some real actual change. Everything feels the same as it did 15 years ago just with some fresh faces mixed in. 1983 WWF and 1998 WWF are fucking miles apart yet the last 15 years or so is all the same from a booking and tv perspective. Part of the problem is the roster, with no true competition the top guys and even most top mid-card guys all get 5-10 year runs now.
I almost miss unprofessional lugs like Sid and The Warrior who kept everyone on their toes.
They could work around it by just lying about house show results.
ReplyDeleteThe Wrestling Blog also made the case for a WWE Tag League, which allows for more flexibility in who can get some shine.
ReplyDeleteKing of Cable.
ReplyDeleteThey should bring back the Crockett Cup.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see a tournament span multiple PPVs, similar to a playoff. It would automatically set up several matchups for the next PPV and allows for sabotage. I could see Wade Barrett repeatedly jumping Kofi Kingston in the weeks prior to their matchup to soften him up. Or Fandango intentionally staying away from tough matches all month because he knows he has to face Sheamus in the next round. Or Damien Sandow knowing Cody Rhodes is likely to be his next opponent if both win so he tries to screw over Cody.
ReplyDeleteIt essentially gives a lot of guys something to do without a whole lot of work.
Did you just get possessed by the evil soul of Vince Russo?
ReplyDeleteThis is the BFG series and actually, it's the best contribution TNA has made to THIS BUSINESS.
ReplyDeleteReally? I've rarely watched any TNA since every time I do, it turns me off almost immediately.
ReplyDeleteI understood both perfectly:
ReplyDeleteHe stumbled upon a solution whereby nearly ninety-nine percent of the test subjects accepted the wrestling program provided they were given a choice - even if they were only aware of it at a near-unconscious level. While this solution worked, it was fundament recieve ally flawed, creating the otherwise contradictory systemic anomaly, that, if left unchecked, might threaten the system itself. Ergo, those who refused the program, while a minority, would constitute an escalating probability of disaster. Ergo, the buys justify the amount of time spent on the matches that happen after the teams eliminate each other.
The function of this PPV concept is now to return to the source, allowing a temporary dissemination of the PPV concept, reinserting the prime program. After which the winner will be required to select from the match results 23 individuals, 16 female, 7 male, to decide the official number one contender. Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash causing the PPV to receive negative buyrates and thus sending the WWE into oblivion.
I like the way Snrub thinks...
ReplyDelete*mind fucked*
ReplyDeleteA good way to revive/keep the SurSer gimmick without copying BFG, MITB or Royal Rumble would be to have the survivors face off in an elimination match at the end of the night.
ReplyDeleteNo teams (kayfabe has changed since Hogan and Warrior having to be on the opposite team from DiBiase just because), every man for himself, maybe 8 or 9 guys all trying to get falls on each other until there's one left.
Same potential for subplots and storylines, a bit of an advantage for tag teams and stables to work together etc, and the 'Survivor' has earned his title.
The BFG series is a great concept because wins and losses MATTER for months. It's usually the best time of the year for the company and usually well-booked, and of course, there's stakes on the line every week, as opposed to WWE's 50/50 booking and giving people who have done 50 jobs in a row a title shot just cause. I'm not much of a TNA fan either, but the Bound For Glory set-up is something they do very well that WWE does not have in their product.
ReplyDeleteI never liked tournaments where the prize was a title shot simply because it made the tournament winner look stupid when the guy who talked shit about the champ got his shot without the long slog. Tournaments ought to be for belts or money, a la the Crockett Cup.
ReplyDeleteDisagree, if only because CMLL always seems to have a tournament going, which muddies the waters. And now they've got a variant of Gut Check with guys who are already on the roster which is supposed to be about building lower mid-carders but is a mess in practice.
ReplyDeleteSome of their ideas, though, I think are adaptable in a one-night format: Veteran/Youngster pairings or trios for a cash prize (a good way to give some NXT guys an early shot with Raw and Smackdown crowds) as well as a regional tournament pitting, say, wrestlers from New York vs. Florida vs. Texas. You could even do qualifiers at shows in the designated areas.
I never understood why they took the Elimination Chamber out of Survivor Series to begin with. It seemed like the perfect evolution from the original format. You still have the eliminations and the "sole survivor" concept that made Survivor Series unique to begin with.
ReplyDeleteclearly you forgot about the reverse battle royal
ReplyDeleteThey'll never do it because their product is simple and paint by numbers. That, and random wrestling matches don't do well in the ratings. They don't think their audience has the buy-in or the attention span to follow something like that. WWE is the the "entertainments" business and that's why the snarky faces always talk about how they're WRESTLERS.
ReplyDeleteI usually hate fantasy booking, but I do love annual tournaments that help elevate a guy so I'd love it if WWE brought back a gimmick. KOTR was too inconsistent, they finally made winner get a SummerSlam title shot in their last year on PPV when they should have done it from the start.
ReplyDeleteI would personally have Ted DiBiase Sr. come out and announce the Million Dollar tournament for ever male wrestler to compete in and to cover all of December (Raw, SD, Superstars, house shows, etc.) with the winner getting $1m, the Million Dollar belt or a trophy kinda like the current G1 trophy but a huge dollar sign instead and his pick of title shot at Royal Rumble. Basically if the Royal Rumble starts the Road to WrestleMania, then the Million $ Tournament starts the Road to the Royal Rumble.
I'd also have both champs enter so that they can theoretically have a unification match but they have to face each other in the first round. Then you can have interference or whatever to protect the losing champ and send him off on their own program for the rest of the month.
Anyway I usually hate fantasy booking so diss and downvote if you wish...
Make tv wins worth more, and ppv wins worth even more than that. Then just have them win enough on tv and ppv to counteract the house show losses.
ReplyDelete"Ah, god damnit. Tournaments don't draw money. That's gotta be Kane!"
ReplyDeleteThey think they're the entertainment busssiness. No matter how hard they try, they'll always be a wrestling company. I'd love to see a tournament just to see if they can still do it
ReplyDeleteI always thought they don't make enough stink about things like the "winner's purse" and putting money on the line as a challenge in a match. Makes random ass tv matches mean more if they make it clear they're fighting to bring home more money.
ReplyDeleteWWE has really lost all creativity for presenting new match types and situations. They are dead set on presenting "WWE Brand" matches (Chamber, Heck in the Cell, MiTB, Triple Threat Match, Last Man Standing, Royal Rumble etc.), and there can never be any variations. God forbid they use something from WCW like War Games or Battle Bowl. Something different just to shake things up would be fun and exciting television. Ultimately I think something like a BFG series or G1 Climax style tournament would present WWE as being too much like a real sport. In a tournament wins and losses are very important, WWE has worked hard training the audience that they no longer are important. At the very least it would be cool if they did KOTR on Raw once a year or vacated a belt once in a while.
ReplyDeleteToo similar to the BFG series. They should have done it first.
ReplyDeleteRusso has a good soul?
ReplyDeleteWill the winner have to immediately face John Cena again?
ReplyDeleteAlso, how many points for a distracted rollup finish?
I've ALWAYS said that a tournament format should be the case for the WWE when they go to Europe and do a RAW taping. Winner of the tourney gets the Euro title and defends it the length of the tour at house shows. Whoever has the belt at the END of the tour gets a WWE title match. (In a perfect world they would have another RAW/SD in Europe)
ReplyDeleteThey finally have enough Euro wrestlers to pull this off. It would be a nice push for Barrett or Cesaro. (or imagine a farewell tour for Regal if he was retiring.)
The European title tournament on Raw in 97' was so bad, and so poorly rated, McMahon handed the reigns over to Vince Russo right after that show.
ReplyDeleteJesse Ventura put over the winner's purse all the time.
ReplyDeleteThe month leading up to Survivor Series, every Raw main event is a traditional 8 man elimination tag, with the survivors being placed in a tournament to be held at the PPV.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but one of the reasons the show was so awful was because production-wise, it looked TERRIBLE on TV. Visually it looked like it was from 1983 and the sound was all muffled. It was just a totally awful presentation.
ReplyDeleteThe matches themselves weren't too terrible and the card was actually quite solid, but the presentation was so bush league.
I think the general public thinks wrestlers makes tons of money as opposed to back in the day when even Dusty Rhodes was seen as a working stiff.
ReplyDeleteKing of the Ring was cut because Tournaments don't do good PPV numbers because of the lack of a concrete card.
ReplyDeleteStill they have 3 hours of Raw to fill each week, seems like they could do it to kill so time one week.
The Bulldog-Owen match is possibly the most over rated match of all time.
ReplyDeleteThe whole BFG Series structure needs a LOT of work though. The point distribution setup is ridiculously stupid, and there are about 4 too many people involved in it.
ReplyDeleteCut it to 8, put all the matches on TV, and stop doing ridiculous bonus point matches that negate the entire concept of winning consistently mattering.
For as well-booked as you say it is, can you list the standings as they are right now off the top of your head? Not the point totals, just the current rankings.
There was a tournament just last fall. 8 tag teams vying for a shot at Team Hell No.
ReplyDeleteThe workers they would have for the tournament are better than the ones they had then...not to mention they are all European. Also it was put together and treated poorly.
ReplyDeleteTournaments always look great on paper. They rarely, if ever deliver the desired results. Fans usually sit on their hands due to the no ryhme or reason for the match up. An after Mania tourney is not a good idea IMO.
ReplyDeleteWell I haven't watched TNA for quite some time, so I wouldn't know. If I was following as closely as I did last year, I probably could know the top three or four. I will say counting points from house shows is dumb to say the least.
ReplyDeleteThey should just make it 1983-1993 again.
ReplyDeleteIt was an awesome match.
ReplyDeleteI watched it for the first time on 24/7 a couple of years ago and thought it was fantastic. I didn't know beforehand that it was some critically acclaimed match so I was shocked at how good it was and how I managed to never even know about it.
ReplyDelete