The v2 wrestling brain of the year - fight one - round 1

Please vote for your favourite response to the question at hand. The judging will be open until Tuesday and further rounds will be published as and when.

To avoid bias, the contenders are not revealed.

How can wrestling break the main stream again?

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Contender 1

Wrestling can break into the main stream by becoming relevant with modern trends.
A major way would be to remove the stigma of wrestling being a child’s programme and "not real" but this can only be done by developing story lines that people can relate to and by developing a character so much, that the viewer can see parts of themselves, in that character.

Wrestling could work on current news storylines in order to develop its own storylines.
The WWE are trying it by using Rusev as a Russian guy battling true Americans like Jack Swagger as what is happening in the Crimea at the moment makes it relevant.

To bring it back into the mainstream public eye, they need to be able to interact with what the crowd wants to see. Granted, wrestling will never be back on one of the main stream BBC channels because simply people are not that interested in it but if they could develop wrestling so much that it became like a soap opera, it potentially could get aired on one of the main channels.

Another way would be to bring back the “highlights” of wrestling that we don’t get nowadays. When you look back on what you deem to be wrestling, it no doubt includes memorable shows like Mankind being thrown of the top of Hell in a Cell and Stone Cold’s beer shower. These moments simply don’t happen anymore.
Bringing wrestling back to the mainstream would have to mean surprising the audience. Week in week out we know what to expect from shows such as the WWE. We expect Cena to come down the ramp, rant and then clear the ring; simply put, if the user was surprised every now and then by something out of the blue, they would be more likely to tune in.

Another way of bringing wrestling to the main stream is for backing between the factions. More fans behind TNA, ROH and GFW would resurrect the TV wars of yesteryear. If people could watch wrestling on normal TV without having to pay, they could form a particular allegiance to one brand and the debates in normal day to day life could be expanded between new people

Also by having wrestling on normal TV channels it opens the genre to new viewers and children alike.
Simply to conclude, wrestling can break the mainstream by becoming more relevant to its target audience and by developing a bit of spontaneity between shows instead of running through the same old story lines, re hashing them and repeating them week in week out.

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Contender 2

“Isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different...” C.S. Lewis

Change.

The only way for wrestling to go mainstream is to change.

When we look at wrestling today compared to its peak in the attitude era, there is no doubt things are different. Now I am not talking about any myths that it is down to a PG era product. That’s baloney.

Attitude is the reason. The product at that time had an attitude and self belief that is not seen today. It was doing something different to what had gone before. It was pushing boundaries. It was being pushed to new levels by competition. It was mainstream. A film with a WWF star was big news back then (hell even Suburban Commando was a relative hit), these days they are straight to DVD.

By killing off the competition, Vince effectively killed off the drive that made WWE what we all loved. It has become complacent. WWE is in the old peoples home at the moment and what it needs is a shot in the arm of adrenaline. And that can only come from growing the industry as a whole. WWE consolidated the market and then proceeded to make it niche.

Until a competitor can come along to start pushing WWE again, it will continue to plod on.

Some of the indie (and TNA for that matter) promotions have some great ideas but unless they can get them to the public at large, they are many, many years from helping the greater cause.

So how does the status quo get rocked?

Vince has to take the biggest risk of his life. He has to help the competition.

Call me crazy but this is the only way that wrestling will grow and this is the only way it will come back to the mainstream.
Vince has to look at the health of the industry and realise that he has won the war. But he needs a new one. Help TNA. Help ROH. Help Preston City Wrestling. Share talent. Don’t waste the talent you have got to spite others.
Once others get a foothold, they will create waves that the WWE can ride on. Let them tackle the markets you don’t (the non kids market). Get people talking about good old wrestling again.

Of course, the WWE product has to improve as well, as you cant draw a new audience in and then feed them rubbish. And Vincent, you have done it before. Even recently. But you must become more consistent. It can be done.
Vince I implore you for the WWEs long term future. Stop fighting the war you have already won. Help create a new one for us all.
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Vote for your favourite above!

A good set of opening debates - thank you for the submissions!

Feel free to add your own comments on the posts and how you would all make wrestling mainstream again!

Hmm, I think option 1 is the better and easier to implement idea, but I think option two is better presented. Going to mull it over for a bit while I think about it.

It's a really tricky question isn't it. WWE Creative mulling over it sounds a bit similar to a lot of suits mulling over how to make a viral.

I think the most important factor is to make a product that doesn't make you embarrassed to admit to watching it. I'm not talking about the "yeah wrestling is fake", I think we can all answer that. But does anyone want to stand around a water cooler saying "did you see Raw last night?" "Yeah, I flicked around and caught something about 2 sisters and Jerry Springer, how can anyone watch that?"

I mean, I'm not going to spread the word of watch WWE when they have such crass angles, I've a modicum of a reputation to uphold.

There are other issues I'd address, but to me that is the major one. That a product that a lot of people are conditioned not to like, will only be as good as it's weakest link.

I think wrestling can be mainstream without resurrecting the Monday Night Wars like both of these suggest. I think at the moment wrestling is actually over-saturated and creating more programming wouldn't be a good thing, whether WWE produced or not. There needs to be less wrestling for me, it's simple supply and demand in my opinion and right now WWE is providing far too much supply for the demand there.

Hmm, both well written but I don't fully agree with either. People seem to forget that wrestling was at it's most popular during the 80s (have a look at the buyrates for the early WMs) so if you were to copy any era it would be that one.

Vince has also got plenty of competition for eyeballs. There is a lot more choice on TV now and WWE have probably taken one of their biggest risks in the companies history with the WWE network which isn't quite meeting targets presently. If that doesn't motivate them to create a better product I'm not sure much else will.

I'm gonna go for arguement 2 though - as I do agree the wrestling (or WWE) needs to change (or maybe tweak is more suitable) just not exactly as it's argued.

The winner of Round 1 by a 63% to 37% vote in me! Hard luck to DrDeath who leaves us at this stage of the competition.