Weight divisions

Hello board, first topic I've written so have a look and let me know what you think.

I've seen a lot of chat on the board lately about wanting the WWE to re-introduce the cruiserweight divison. This led me to wonder what it would be like if the WWE introduced kayfabe weight divisions. For arguments sake you could have a middleweight, cruiserweight and heavy division (or perhaps WWE would rather promote it as cruiser, heavy, superheavy).

I think this would add a level of realism towards the WWE and address the apparent decline in the appeal of the product towards older viewers. It would obviously be akin to UFC or professional boxing.

So, imagine a crusier divison headed by the likes of Ziggler and Del Rio with the top prize in that division given equal status to the other weights. I think in the promos they could put more emphasis on weight, size, winning streaks etc and just dress it up as a more realistic spectacle. This way the PPV matches would seem like a bigger deal ('Ziggler is on a four match PPV winning streak' 'How can Del Rio overcome the 10lbs weight disadvantage' etc etc).

I also think this would give scope for catchweight matches in between divisions on very rare occasions. Imagine a middleweight challenging a heavyweight. From a promotional sense a throwaway match on Raw at present could be Ziggler versus John Cena but in this model this could be sold as an underdog Ziggler stepping up a division to take on the dominant champion.

This could also solve the current dilemma that the WWE faces that their faces are simply not being cheered by the audience. In my opinion the days of good guy vs. bad guy are gone, the current audience just isn't interested and the WWE struggle to create faces the audience empathises with and supports. If we had weight divisions in my example we could see audience members backing the middle weight underdog and some others backing the heavyweight to toss the little upstart around and putting him in his place. The writers would see the reactions of the crowd and base the narrative around this.

The WWE would be able to put the propaganda machine in place and revise history too, I imagine they'd want to mention things like 'middleweight Shawn Michaels frequently challenged heavyweights such as The Undertaker and Kevin Nash.'.

Overall I think the WWE is ripe for a change right now as their age old strategies of heel v. face aren't succesful in this age and I think the realism of this model would breath some fresh life into old match-ups and angles.

I quite like the idea. I'm not sure about Ziggler and Del Rio being cruiser weights and Shawn Michaels being a middle weight though.

I honestly think that making WWE more like UFC is a very bad strategy as they're competing with a real sport. There is no issue with 'heel v face', it has evolved over time and it's a perfectly fine foundation for stories. It's the writing of these stories that's the issue and the short term attitude of the WWE creative, not writing shows until the night.

I think if you want to see something like this, you are better off watching UFC or boxing, it would take away what makes WWE unique.

I think you're correct when you say short term planning is harming WWE. This would obviously take a lot of planning to implement, I'd be worried they'd give up heavyweight versus middleweight every week on Raw.

I definitely think the WWE need to look at what's happening with their heels and faces. They seem lost and the supposed heels are getting the biggest cheers

I just don't think trying to make WWE seem real is in anyway a good idea, it'd just come across as weird, particularly after 40 years of it being one way. It'd also mean they'd get more comparisons drawn with UFC, which they wouldn't want.