10 Ways To Refresh WWE's Stale Television Product

10. Switch The Format

You can set your watch by Raw and SmackDown these days. Both shows invariably begin with a lengthy in-ring talking segment, usually starting with one or two superstars, before a host of others filter out from the back. These usually serve no purpose other than to book something that could've been set-up on WWE.com before the show, and tend to drag on for 10-20 minutes rendering the opening stages of the broadcast entirely skippable.

The night will progress with the usual blend of action and segments, with at least one lengthy bout towards the middle of the night, and another in the main event. Sometimes, as was the case on this week’s Raw, WWE will close things with another talking segment, ending with a significant storyline development.

This has been the formula for years, and it’s one of the main factors contributing towards the product’s crippling staleness. It feels as though WWE have one set show layout that they just paste different segs and matches into every week, and on the rare occasions they do deviate, it feels like a revelation. Doing this more often would help differentiate one show from another, and restore an element of unpredictability that has been missing for a long time.