10 Simple Ideas From The Past That Would Save WWE In The Present

We’ve all been there. At the family dinner table or in a hazy pub vault when someone utters those enduring words, “Things were better in my day.” Heck, you might even be guilty of saying it yourself. It’s OK. You’re among friends here.

While healthy discussion about how life and culture was finer “when all this was just fields” is fine and dandy, it's always entirely subjective. Your grandma probably thinks Neil Diamond was better than Lady Gaga, and your Uncle Brian prefers his footballers to look like butchers rather than Burberry models. The same goes for your average wrestling enthusiast. Every fan has their preferred era, and that inevitably fosters criticism towards the current product.

Of course, it goes without saying that WWE have vastly improved many areas of their output over the last decade or so, be it the wellness policy, an immeasurably superior treatment of female talent, or storylines that manage to dodge the omnipotent bullet of having the boss’s son-in-law pretend to sleep with a cadaver at a funeral home.

That said, there’s always room for improvement, so let’s jump in our DeLorean and poke around in the past to salvage some simple ideas that can help turn the ‘good’ into ‘gold'...

There’s a reason some of the most famous wrestlers of all time have, at some point or other, been associated with a manager.

An effective pairing guaranteed success and intensified the heat they were due from the attending crowd. A quick glance at some of the Heenan Family alumni should give you an idea of just what a manager do in terms of getting a performer over, and a revisit to the feud between Miss Elizabeth and Sensational Sherri highlights how pivotal these women were in making The Golden Era succesful.

But that was then. With the notable and very welcome exception of Paul Heyman, managers are a rarity. It could be because wrestlers’ overall ability on the mic is better now than it ever used to be, or there simply isn’t room for managers in Vince’s Big Storyline Cupboard. But the fact remains that a good manager serves the company and the talent they represent so well that it’s baffling they were ever phased out in the first place.