WWE's five top challenges of 2008

By Rick Morris

If you believe the generally accepted notion that the last wrestling boom ended somewhere in the implosion of the horrible "InVasion" of WCW/ECW in 2001, the WWE has now endured a trough longer than the one between the end of the first national boom and the start of the second -- assuming, again that we stipulate that the first one ended somewhere in the middle of the steroid scandal/Hogan "retirement" of 1992 and the second one picked up during the ascension of Steve Austin's character in 1997. While this fact doesn't seem true, it is. It doesn't appear to be the case because the programming style on RAW and Smackdown has changed little since the days when "crash TV" was the official mantra of the company (granted, the worst excesses of that era like uniformly short matches have gone by the boards and the in-ring product is now "WWE style" without any trace of "hardcore").

As such, in the interest of hopefully being provided compelling television like it was in the late '90s (and in the naive hope the company might aspire again to maximize its potential), here are the five challenges of 2008 that, if met, could conceivably pave the way for a big upswing in business.

1. Sort out the muddle of top stars on RAW, especially the faces. Ever since the brand split began in 2002, RAW has clearly been the "A" division. But with all of the injured stars of the last year back (at least the ones who are coming back, so we're not including Bobby "we wish him well in his future endeavors" Lashley here) on the roster, the upper echelon is too crowded, especially on the face side of the ledger. Jeff Hardy needed to be elevated to WWE Champion status already, as we have documented. Chris Jericho was justifiably treated as a big deal when he came back, then his return was wasted on a one-month hot-shot program that even Helen Keller could have told them was going to bomb. HHH and Shawn Michaels are always going to be pushed heavily for reasons documented all over the Internet. And now John Cena is back in action and he's the man who has been pushed as the face of the company since coming over from Smackdown in the summer of '05. Most of these stars are being wasted if they're not at least on the periphery of the WWE title picture at all times, and most can't be, especially when a fellow babyface is holding the title. As for elevating a worthy mid-card face to this level (such as Finlay, assuming he stays on RAW to pursue a Vince McMahon feud) -- you can forget it with this logjam in the way. On the heel side, there's not nearly the same depth with Randy Orton far and away #1 on the depth chart, a recently returned JBL (out of action for nearly two years, don't forget) #2 by default and some suspect performers behind them -- Umaga has been "returning favors" to main event faces on his way back down the ladder since his "unbeatable savage" persona peaked with the Cena title feud and Mr. Kennedy's push to the main event became much more gradual after his drug suspension. RAW is in the same boat WCW was in 10 years ago when it had a ton of wrestlers worthy of being in the main event based on name value (just to name a few: Hogan, Hall, Nash, Sting, Luger, Savage, Hart, Flair, Goldberg, Piper, The Giant) but not enough spots to go around. Call it the "Portland Trailblazer Effect," referencing the period about five years ago when that NBA squad tried to buy every big-name star it could only to find out that it could not effectively use them all. Unlike the now-defunct WCW and the Blazers of recent vintage, RAW has an answer right under its nose: send over some stars (realistically, Hardy and Jericho are probably the only ones who wouldn't balk) to Smackdown in this year's "draft" -- but given that the company has used that device every year with the sole goal of strengthening the star power of the "Monday Night Flagship," don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen.

2. Get John Cena over with the ENTIRE crowd. After receiving the mother of all surprise pops from the Royal Rumble crowd last Sunday night, Cena returned in record time to getting split reactions from the crowd that night and the next evening on RAW from the notoriously rough Philly crowd. We have already enumerated the problems with Cena's presentation since he first came to RAW in '05 and they roughly coincide with the subtle adoption of some of the straight-laced dynamics of Cena's character in "The Marine" movie. The answer to the problem of Cena's rejection by large parts of the young male audience is simple: to paraphrase a political cliche of the 1980s, let Cena be Cena. The John Cena of early autumn 2003 was a cocky, funny, appealing character ripping off wild, entertaining freestyle raps. The crowd, including and especially the element that loathes him now, was dying to get behind him. It's impossible to reconcile his place in the hearts of the fans just over four years ago versus where he is right now. Bring back that John Cena and dump the current lackluster persona somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

3. Capitalize on the WrestleMania momentum. While this might seem like a simple concept, the WWE has not been able to build off of great 'Mania business this decade. The company relentlessly pushed WrestleMania 20 for an entire year and was rewarded with a great buyrate, but it didn't lead to a big lasting uptick in business. Last year, the Donald Trump angle was arguably the biggest celebrity participation since Mike Tyson gave the final boost to the young boom back at 'Mania 14, but Trump was out of sight, out of mind right after the event and Lashley did not benefit from a lasting "rub" from the billionaire. Keep the momentum rolling through the year and the push of WrestleMania 25 may end up solidifying a new wrestling boom.

4. While Edge should be used to elevate others, don't let him lose heat from his associations. Giving the World Champion two "Edgeheads" as sidekicks was a horrible idea -- wrestlers should not be immediately elevated from the lower-midcard to status as associates to Edge, even in the role of flunkies. Edge appears to be on the verge of presiding over a heel group that will dominate Smackdown and ECW and presumably, his new sidekicks will have the WWE tag titles in short order -- but they are going to have to be believable champs. JBL suffered for being surrounded by nobodies (in the eyes of the fans) when he assembled his infamous "Cabinet" of 2004-05. Edge is the first legitimate franchise main event heel created by the company in years and is arguably the best since the emergence of HHH in that role in 1999 and Angle in 2000. They can't afford to defuse his heat with associates who do not reflect his true worth to the company.

5. Find at least a semblance of justification for the continued presence of ECW. The storyline submersion of ECW into Smackdown is picking up more steam with each week. Sharing talent back and forth between the shows does make sense and is logical logistically since the company films the shows on the same night and the talent tours together anyway. But in a reality where "ECW rules" matches are the "extreme" exception to the rule, Joey Styles' character has made his peace with the term "sports entertainment" during the Sci-Fi broadcasts and most of the "Originals" have been run off capriciously, remind me again what relevant place in the world the letters "E," "C" and "W" have in the year 2008! The company's booking of the ECW Title (the same belt known in a better time and place as the "ECW World Title") hit a new low when the belt was placed on a wrestler just elevated from the midcard, Chavo Guerrero. Now, I think Chavo is a great wrestler and speaker and is hugely underrated because he's always been in Uncle Eddy's shadow. But the reality is that he's been a midcard player for his entire WWE career. While he is an appropriate choice to be elevated to the main event scene, the company should have done that in an orderly manner rather than just throwing him haphazardly into a feud with C.M. Punk. This booking reeks of how the WWE had JBL as a beer-swilling tough guy face in the midcard one week and a rich, dastardly main event heel literally the next week wrestling Eddy Guerrero for the big prize. Chavo isn't off to a great start as a credible franchise player as someone never even remotely booked as such a threat previously, and his recent adoption of the persona of another of Edge's lackeys is not going to redound to the benefit of the ECW brand. Viewers need to be given a reason to take the ECW brand seriously. Even if the virtual merger with Smackdown continues to gain momentum, what remains of the brand needs to be given at least some credibility -- because at this point in the eyes of the fans, RAW still outweighs the impact of Smackdown and ECW put together. At the rate ECW is degenerating and risking bringing down Smackdown's value with it, the brand split is degenerating into a de facto three-tier feeder system -- and that doesn't do the company any good at all.