The Business of WWE

Rob Gronkowski has also officially retired from the NFL. It was thought, by most, that this was a possibility, especially after the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl. Gronk also talked about retirement after last year’s Super Bowl. It is a real possibility he could turn his attention to WWE, since he has expressed interest in the business in the past.

He also has a good buddy at WWE in Mojo Rawley. It can’t be forgotten that he made an appearance at WrestleMania 33, helping Mojo win the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Since he has already had so many prior injuries in Football, even if he threw himself into WWE full force, he may only stick around until 37 or 38 years old at most (it also can’t hurt that he has more money than he knows what to do with).

His first storyline could be that he forms a Tag Team with Mojo Rawley and they win the Tag Team Titles. This would also be a perfect scenario for Mojo’s career as he has become lost in the shuffle for quite some time now. Right now, he is doing promo’s that are pretty funny to watch when as he yells at himself in a mirror.

Before Monday Night Raw airs this week, the Intercontinental Championship scene deserves mentioning. Right now, the situation surrounding that Title is going through a rough patch, but the Intercontinental Championship always tends to gain prominence right after WrestleMania, particularly in recent years.

I am not exactly sure who will have the distinct honor of holding that Title, but the situation surrounding it fluctuates a lot, and doesn’t always entirely depend on who holds it. This might be a sign that Bobby Lashley is not necessarily the man best positioned to hold this Championship. He still may be poised to one day win the Championship, but he may not be a great holder of it (maybe a Greek God is a little too much for the Intercontinental Title).

Personally, I would have Finn Balor win it back and defend it at WrestleMania, then go on to hold it for several more months, losing it perhaps at SummerSlam or even holding it until October or so. Finn has more than proven that he both can, and deserves, the opportunity to have an extended run with a Title in the WWE. If anyone doesn’t believe me, look at what he did to elevate the NXT Championship back in 2015 – 16 when he held the Title for 292 days (officially recognized as 293).

A potential booking strategy for the situation surrounding the Intercontinental Championship in the interim leading up to ‘Mania is for the relationship between Lashley and Lio Rush to become contentious (Vince can get creative in terms of exactly how this transpires), leading to a match between the two for the Title. Rush somehow miraculously wins it from Lashley and holds it for less than a week until WrestleMania, where he ends up losing it to Balor, which would give Balor a proper coronation.

Before SmackDown Live begins this week, a Kofi Kingston pre-WrestleMania booking proposal is in order (not that Vince has to listen to it, or see it, or even be aware of its existence).

Vince could tell Kofi that he has one more opportunity to earn a WWE Championship match at WrestleMania, but this time he would have to beat one of his fellow New Day members and if the other New Day member who he wrestles (or entertains with, because I know WWE likes the term sports entertainment as opposed wrestling) loses, then he is fired.

Personally, I would choose Xavier Woods to be the main to get fired, leaving Big E to be the middleman. This would also plant the seeds for dissension to erupt with the New Day, leading to the group splitting. Vince may have to go back on his original plan to have the New Day break the Dudley Boys record of nine Tag Team Title reigns with WWE.

I would like to talk about a topic I feel is very pressing for this week. The fact that Roman Reigns would like to experiment a little bit with the versatility of his character and show more of his personality. He has claimed that his off-screen personality is very similar to that of his cousin’s, The Usos. Roman claims that all three of them are “big kids” and that all three of them like to goof off and have fun. I personally would be excited to see Roman broaden his horizons and include other elements to his character besides the “stoic brawler.” It would be refreshing to see him add another layer of depth to his character, perhaps a comedic one, and have the ability to entertain the WWE universe in a completely different way.

To sum it up, it’s different but I’m all for it. Here is a business idea for WWE: since Dean Ambrose is leaving after WrestleMania and WWE could be left without The Shield (although I have heard that Braun Strowman is going to be an honorary Shield member for at least a short time after ‘Mania), WWE could form a new Shield not involving Seth Rollins but instead form a Samoan Shield and involving Roman Reigns and the Usos. If their personalities are that similar, why not?

I could see the WWE universe getting behind it right from the get-go. It would also be a perfect way for Roman to expand his character and add yet another dimension. I can’t remember exactly where I read this, but I know for a fact that I’m not the first person to come up with this idea. It’s always hard for a company to move on from their bread and butter, but it has to be done at some time, why not now right after WrestleMania.

Let’s talk about the length of WrestleMania. First of all, I thought it became too long starting with WrestleMania 32 in 2016. Fans were just wiped out by main event time when Roman Reigns and Triple H came out for their match. I was very surprised when WWE decided to continue this format for the next two years.

This year however, they may be taking it even further. WrestleMania is set to be as long as a typical workday. There are 17 matches that are going to be on this year’s card, and there have only been seven officially announced. This is not a big deal for the die-hard fans, but I’m worried this could turn away casual fans because they are going to deem that they have better things to do than to watch wrestling for eight hours.

I read an excellent point on thesportster.com talking about how Vince McMahon has developed the idea ever since the inception of the WWE network, that nearly every superstar needs to be included on the WrestleMania card, and that’s just not the case. One aspect of an event like WrestleMania that makes it special is that not everyone gets featured on the card, so superstars feel really valuable to the company if they have a big match at the biggest show of the year. It’s just a note for Vince and Triple H to be careful; they have a great product that isn’t going away anytime soon but, making sure fans stay engaged is critical to long-term success.

From a business standpoint, WWE should maybe look into pairing up two superstars from opposing friends (could be men or women) in a match to freshen things up for the show of shows. One example of this occurred in 2017 when Bray Wyatt was supposed to have a match with Finn Balor, but Bray was sick (Roman Reigns was forced to miss this pay-per-view too with a case of the mumps), so he was replaced with AJ Styles. Styles put on a great match with Balor that night, probably the best of the night. It may be a way to freshen things up for WWE aside from the superstar shakeup every year after WrestleMania.

Keep your attention on the new AEW (All Elite Wrestling) organization. They are reportedly seeking a TV deal with either TNT or TBS and they are reportedly targeting WWE talent whose contracts are expiring soon. They have also recruited Chris Jericho and former WWE announcer “good ol’ JR” Jim Ross to perform significant roles for them in the coming months, so neither man will be able to devote much time to endeavors relating to WWE. It’s just something to keep an eye on. I am not worried about this new organization threatening the future of WWE (I am confident that the genius known as Vince McMahon is more than capable of coming up with a solution for this problem), but it will be interesting to see how it all plays out because they are targeting WWE talent. It is also rumored that Vince McMahon could be stepping away from his role as the chairman of WWE and handing the reins over to Triple H so that he can devote more time and energy towards making sure that the second launching of the XFL is successful.

As I have mentioned once previously, I think the inception of AEW (All Elite Wrestling) will be excellent for WWE in the long run. Competition can bring out the best in companies and proven complacency, and I think it will do just that for WWE. It has already done a little bit of that. The recent pushes of superstars such as The Revival and Finn Balor are evidence of that. This new company could turn into this generation’s version of WCW.

Proposal: Now, rather than taking the Avenue of complete competition as WWE did with WCW, here is what I am proposing: I feel WWE should also look to maybe do some cooperation with AEW and possibly even share some talent across the two promotions. I think it would make the wrestling industry as a whole more interesting. I’m not talking about a full-blown merger here, but I do think the two companies should explore the possibility of cooperating to make the experience of Wrestling as a whole more entertaining for fans.

I know that Vince McMahon and the entire WWE creative team view Ronda Rousey as their biggest draw, but I just don’t buy it. Not that I don’t like her, I really do. I really want to buy her wrestling persona, but something is holding me back from doing that. Maybe it’s her terrible entrance music, or the fact that she is always punching the air when we all know that she is not a boxer. I just don’t buy her wrestling persona as much as I buy that of Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch or Alexa Bliss.

It looks like Vince McMahon is seeking Triple H’s opinion more with regard to creative planning for the main monster as maybe he is starting to see that the Game is more attuned to what this generation of fans wants from the WWE product. If you want proof, just look at how NXT and 205 Live are doing under the guidance of Triple H. NXT has been getting better and better with regard to their product over the past four or five years, and they are arguably coming off their best year in 2018, and 205 Live was a disaster and surely headed for cancellation had Vince McMahon not ceded control of the show over to his son-in-law.

I am very optimistic about the future of Monday Night Raw in the coming year as the creative team is already changing things a little bit, and none of the new superstars that are promised have debuted yet.

I know I said originally that this blog would be for WWE only (and it still will be for pretty much everything), but I also absolutely love the NFL and figured that I could do a post about the Super Bowl (or “Big Game” for whatever you want to call it). I’ll start by claiming how I’m a huge Tom Brady fan and I’m ecstatic that he won his sixth championship (I’m not a huge Belichick fan although he seems like a quality guy. He’s just a total introvert, but so am I). I admire Brady so much from his level of professionalism and diligence with which he approaches the game to his workout habits to his diet. I gained a lot of insight into these habits of his after reading the TB12 book, which was released in 2017.

I couldn’t be happier for Julian Edelman finally winning a Super Bowl MVP. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen another wide receiver who is as quick as Edelman in terms of cutting (not pure speed, just quickness). He’s definitely a Hall of Famer who is second all-time in postseason receptions behind Jerry Rice. What is so amazing about that stat is that he has done it by being a dink and dunk receiver. He’s not doing that like Jerry Rice or Michael Irvin (who is third on the list) who had the ability to beat you over the top. He has done it seven or eight or twelve yards at a time (I got this small piece of information from Colin Cowherd’s radio show The Herd. I am not worried at all about Tom Brady retiring, as he said he is fully motivated for next season. I do, however, think that Gronk will retire. He has seriously considered it before, and he has many other options in terms of what to do with the remainder of his life.

I think one of those options is with WWE as he easily has the personality for it and he is good buddies with Mojo Rawley. He even helped him win the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33. When you think about it, Gronk is only 29 years old which is still relatively young for WWE. He’s already got a catchy nickname too and that would make it easier on the creative team. He could make a very similar transition to what Ronda Rousey did last year. I just wanted to put that possibility out there (I’m not saying it will happen, but it very well may). I just wanted to put a little something into this blog expressing that I also love football, because you never know where that may lead you. The primary focus, however, is WWE.