What I would do with WWE's PPV Schedule, and WHY

[kiel297]

Okay, so I've put quite a bit of thought into this, but I know that one of you (or some of you xD) is gonna poke holes in this anyway. But that's what makes it fun!

Anyway, so my WWE PPV schedule is as follows:

January: Royal Rumble
February: No Way Out
April: Wrestlemania
May: Backlash
June: The Great American Bash
July: Money In The Bank
August: Summerslam
September: Vengeance
October/November: Survivor Series
December: Unforgiven

Okay, so to begin, the shows I've replaced/axed.

Elimination Chamber has been replaced by No Way Out. I feel that a gimmick pay per view right in between Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania isn't a good idea. For one, Royal Rumble is the ultimate gimmick pay per view, and then you've got Wrestlemania, the biggest spectacle in professional wrestling. A gimmick pay per view isn't needed in between those two. What needs to happen there, is for a normal PPV like No Way Out to take place, simply to exist merely as part of the build to Wrestlemania. Instead of having a load of pay-offs at the February pay per view, book them so they can pay off at the Rumble, and then start fresh (with exceptions) in February. It's the perfect point to wipe the slate, so to speak, and start delivering something new. Use No Way Out as the gateway PPV, and have the fueds reach their high point at Wrestlemania. Have a couple of return matches at the PPV, and you're good. The fans aren't left feeling like there hasn't been enough build for the fueds and you get some well timed pay offs.

Next, Extreme Rules has been replaced by Backlash. The reasoning here is simple; a PPV where the focus is on weapons isn't necessary. It was brilliant for ECW, because it was focused on resurrecting ECW for one night a year. What I don't like is that now every fued needs to accommodate a violence driven match because of the PPV. Violent matches should be there for when the fued gets personal enough that it calls for them, not happen just because. For that reason, Backlash is perfect for some nice Mania return matches, and some new fueds.

In June, Capitol Punishment is replaced by The Great American Bash. Because I miss The Great American Bash. Note that it is TGAB, NOT The Bash.

In December, TLC gets replaced with Unforgiven. Simply, I don't think we need two ladder based Pay Per Views, nor do we need PPVs where every match is a gimmick. Money In The Bank is good, because only two of the matches are gimmick based. Although, I would give it only one MITB match, have it be all rosters included, have qualifying matches in the weeks beforehand, and have it be the main event.

Now, we move onto the timing of each PPV. It'll sound odd at first, but just keep reading and it'll work itself out.

Royal Rumble will take place in mid-January rather than at the end of January. The same applies to No Way Out being in mid-Feb. This leaves us with an adequate amount of small build time between Rumble and NWO, and gives us enough time to turn it all up to eleven between NWO and Wrestlemania. Make people wait for it, the suspense gets bigger, and there'll be a better buzz going into Mania.

After Mania, we have all PPVs taking place at the end of the month, until we get to October. This one will either take place on the final Sunday of October, or the first Sunday of November. Whichever one falls closest to November 1st. This is so that we can then have Unforgiven take place in early December, giving us adequate time to get some decent story build in while accommodating the holiday specials in the build to the Royal Rumble.

This way, we're one PPV down, but we've got adequate time to build angles between PPVs. Feel free to begin poking holes... NOW

[Rabid619]

I was never a fan of them shortening The Great American Bash to just The Bash. It started in 1985 and the name shortening just felt like them taking a leak on the history.

MITB i definitely agree on both the fact that there should be only ONE match and it should be the main event.

Backlash was PERFECT for following Mania while Extreme Rules seems stupid because as you said it takes a feud and just inserts a weapon of some sort, damn it making any sort of sense in the feud. Plus the name was great, it's the Backlash from Mania.

[Big Red Machine]

All of the annual talk about replacing Survivor Series/bringing back War Games/why the Hell in a Cell PPV is bad got me thinking about this, and I knew we had done a topic on it at some point, so I figured I’d dig it up and here it is:

January- Royal Rumble, of course. Its got history behind it, it is always a HUGE event, and does a great job of officially kicking off the Wrestlemania season.

February- not sure what I’d call this, but if the gimmick is going to be saved, then the Elimination Chamber PPV has to go.

Late March/Early April- Mania. DUH.

Late April- Backlash
It’s a good name, and I have always loved thematic names (as anyone who remembers the EWA names or knew of my future plans for show names can attest to).

May- Unforgiven
Another cool name, which could work thematically if you have feuds that started at Mania/as a result of Mania and are continuing after Backlash

June- Payback
It’s generic, but it works

July- Money in the Bank
This is a hard one to place, but I like it here for two reasons. If you really don’t have plans for someone after Mania, you can job them out on PPV for a few months, and then can use MITB to turn them into an instant main eventer again. It also lets you do whatever standard 3-month feud you want after Mania, and then you can build up the wrestlers’ next feuds starting after Payback and use the MITB match(es) as a way to continue the feud while saving the first big one-on-one encounter for Summer Slam

August- Summer Slam

September- Fall Brawl
I always thought that Fall Brawl was a cool name, so just don’t book this PPV in early September and you’ll be fine. Having a WCW PPV name here helps build that history up as important, too.

October- King of the Ring (At least the Finals and Semifinals)
KOTR was always fun, and the TV pretty much writes itself. I also like the idea of the winner getting a title shot at the next PPV, and with MITB right before Summer Slam and Royal Rumble serving that function for Mania, I figured this would be a good place to put this one.

November- Night of Champions-
In some ways I don’t like the gimmick because shouldn’t every belt always be defended on PPV? I do think it has a place, though, and you could buff it up with some more #1 contendership matches, too, to give it a more “championship” feel. It’s also nice to have it here because it is very likely that many of the titles will not be on the line at…

December- Survivor Series
As I said before, I like thematic names, but it is important not to get too narrow-minded in your application of those themes. Yes, the history here is about big eight or ten man elimination tag matches, but that shouldn’t limit your possibilities. An elimination Fatal 4 Way (or some other number), Elimination Chamber, a tournament (or at least the finals & semifinals of a tournament), turn War Games into an elimination match like ROH has occasionally done… anything that makes one guy (or team) have to SURVIVE.
Doing this PPV a month before the Rumble will also allow it to be a place to blow-off big feuds, so people can be fresh going into Wrestlemania season.