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People are going to hate this, but when I was thinking about random shit the WWE could do, I had this idea that they could create their own competition in a more "realistic" sense than what they are doing with the RAW/SmackDown divide. I don't know whether you dig up an old property or have NXT play the role, with the story being that Triple H takes his show on the road or whatever, but you'd try and get a two-hour show on opposite to RAW.
Let's just use "Nitro" because fuck it -- I'm nostalgic for that shit and WWE have heeled themselves to me, so WCW are instant babyfaces in the memory. It could also mean a hilarious Tony Schiavone/Kevin Nash commentary team.
You'd have to commit and make sure Vince actually doesn't get a chance to run it. Whether you have Shane or Triple H take the helm is completely up to you. But maybe you try and work something out with Bravo, which are also owned by NBC Universal, so you aren't going to a different network company. Hopefully by putting forward oranges to the WWE's apples, you can bring back some fans of professional wrestling and move the hardcore audience over and hopefully drive up the focus on RAW.
SmackDown would remain SmackDown and just be what it is, but you can try and get Talking Smack onto the air after it in order to get a bit more money from USA, but on Monday you'd have RAW and Nitro, or whatever you want to call it, on at the same time. I don't know if advertisers would like the idea of people being encouraged to flick, but you can schedule it so commercial breaks are always going to match up or whatever.
If E! loses interest in putting out WWE reality content (which is really helping them at the moment), then you can always try and move those shows to Bravo, which has that reality show thing going on. You can even try and do more original content for them like something that follows The Miz and Maryse or Rusev and Lana as further Total Divas spin-offs.
Anyway, a big goal with having this "WWE competitor" that isn't just part of their extended continuity would be to eventually get back into PPV -- which is not a dead business. They've gone dark on traditional PPV for a while now, but I think that eventually you can go back and have your usual WWE canon "Network Specials" (with WrestleMania being the peak show), but then have this PPV series that exists outside it -- or at least one PPV show that exists as this massive show, not bigger than WrestleMania, but separate to it.
If there is this separate company running around that exists outside traditional WWE, you can exclude them from the Network and have their big shows be sent out via online PPV streaming or something. There must be a way to keep the revenue in-house without simply throwing it into the Network package.
I think it would be great for certain talent too. A guy like Dolph Ziggler could quit, jump ship, go by Nick Nemeth and be less sports entertainmenty. A guy like Cesaro could stop forcing personality out in WWE and go and be Claudio Castagnoli on the other Monday show. The cruiserweights aren't getting over on RAW? Have them jump to this new place and have the angle be that they are sick and tired of being a sideshow attraction at the WWE circus.
In my mind, even if you don't call it WCW, it would have a very WCW-like presentation. It could be aimed at a slightly older audience -- one that might stay up and flick over to that final hour of RAW when they are done. I'd probably keep most of the women exclusive to RAW and SmackDown, and maybe keep the more sports entertainmenty types on those shows too. I doubt a working relationship with them is possible, but having a small amount of crossover with New Japan, as they did with Tyler Breeze and Jushin Liger in NXT, would be awesome. Ideally, I'd have the first match of the first show be Jushin Liger vs. Brian Pillman, Jr. as a throwback to the very first Nitro match.
It's just a pipe-dream, but there are loads of potential benefits to it -- including giving Shane or Triple H some more practice running live television without a safety net. I think it could maximize some talent that have just been exposed so much in one environment, reinvigorate PPV as a revenue stream, generate more revenue from the television deal(s). The biggest obstacle would be it possibly upsetting the USA Network for potentially driving viewers away from RAW to another network; but I'm sure there is a way to frame it that points out that it will ultimately generate higher ratings for RAW, and for stockholders it could be explained like Coca-Cola having Coke and Fanta.
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