WWE: 10 Ideas To Improve The Current Product

1. Branching Storyline Narratives

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60pU-fAcLdk Take a look at this classic from the Attitude Era. In it, we have Mankind vs The Rock for the WWF championship. Mankind and The Rock had had a rivalry going strong since Survivor Series, when Mankind was betrayed by Vince McMahon, who had up until now treated him like a surrogate son, and screwed out of a Title win in favour of The Rock as the corporate champion. The previous night, Mankind had beaten The Rock by knockout, but screwed again. So he kidnapped Shane, Vince's son, and tortured him until he got a rematch at the title. DX were at ringside, having allied with Mankind for a few weeks by this point due to a mutual feud with The Corporation (Shawn Michaels, their former leader, was now the corporate commissioner). Then at the end when all hell breaks loose between DX and The Corporation, out comes Stone Cold Steve Austin to hit The Rock with a steel chair and puts Mankind in a cover over him, so Mankind wins the championship, which Austin did purely to piss off Vince McMahon, because THEY had been feuding for months *exhale* At the Royal Rumble... Brock Lesnar feuds with Big Show. Just 'cos. Cena feuds with Randy Orton over the face of the WWE. Just 'cos. Maybe those are bad examples, but the point is once upon a time, WWE had a rich and complex narrative. The above match was still at the beginning of the Corporation storyline, we still had a ton of Rock/Mankind matches, Rock/Austin matches AND the whole Corporate Ministry chapters to come, and the angle wouldn't end for another seven months. McMahon and Austin had been feuding for a good 16 months by this point, and would continue to do so until Wrestlemania X-seven in 2001. Many Superstars, including Austin himself, have gone on record as saying this was one of Vince's strengths back then, that he "had everyone's story planned out three years in advance" and I believe it. What I don't understand is why today, this attitude isn't prevalent. Feuds are thrown together for the sake of it, then forgotten about. The Wyatt Family took Kane out and kidnapped. He comes back, its never spoken of again. The Rhodes Brothers had a rivalry against The Authority for a while, then they won their jobs back and that was it, never bothered with again. Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow dissolved their tag team last year at Money In The Bank and had a feud for a month, then when they met in The Royal Rumble match, sure they traded punches, but you'd think they'd never met each other before. And lets not START about Daniel Bryan again..... So those are some of my ideas. Some are presentation of the tv product and some are to do with actual competition, but most are to do with character and narrative, which is one of the WWE's biggest current weaknesses, and one that DESPERATELY needs addressing. What do you think?? Feel free to share your thoughts on WWE in the comments below. Thanks for reading!