One thing that isn't talked about nearly enough is how important it is having a reliable and referee in a match. Over the years that I have been watching one of things that is easy to forget is well the referee, because one thing that makes a good ref is that they are seen not heard. Even though having a good referee can make or break a match they aren't suppose to be the main focus of a match for the fans. The crowd is always suppose to be focused on the talent and not the referee. 

In my opinion, this one of the main reasons that we forget how long some referees have been with the same promotion. It is insane that Mike Chioda has been a member of the WWE roster for 29 years and is still going to this day. The amount of classic matches he has been a part of over the years including Rock vs Austin, Lesnar vs Angle, Rock vs Hogan, Michaels vs Cena, and so many others you can lose count. Mike was the referee in the legendary 123 Kid vs Razor Ramon match which was when the kid got the name 1.2.3. To think that Mike has been seen names like The Undertaker, Steve Austin, Warrior, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, John Cena, and so many more come and go puts into perspective just how long he has been dawning those stripes. 

Overall the referee is one of the unsung heroes in wrestling and just like the announcers they get a wink and nod but very little recognition. Thank you for all the work you have done, the travel, the stress, and any injuries you have endured to gives us all the moments and memories we hold dear. It wouldn't have been possible without you. 

Over the last couple of weeks I have been looking at what could help the WWE fix the problems that have been plaguing the company in recent weeks. I have broken down various ideas that could possibly help change the company for the better and generate some interest in the programming. Even though I know the company will never implement any of these ideas as they will not be reading my site, but it would be interesting if they did. 

One thing I noticed about the poor sales heading into this weekends PPV event is that maybe the company should shift away from the PPV formula they have relied on for the last two decades. Back in the 1990's the WWE only had four or five PPV events for an entire year which gave birth to the "Big Four" and then the "Big Five" (Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summerslam, King of the Ring, and Suvivor Series). I know that it was a price of the Monday Night Wars that the company expanded to twelve events, but now things have changed. 

Since the company made the move to giving NXT Takeover events and Supershow events in other countries continuing to have a PPV event every month is a bit of overkill. The reason that this is the case is because there isn't enough time between events to build proper interest for the shows because of the amount of programming the company has at least on the main roster. Think about this there is only five NXT Takeover events for the year and they only have one hour a week to build hype for the events. In my opinion there is been maybe one or two average Takeover events, but for the most part there hasn't been a bad Takeover. 

Overall the WWE needs to pull the events that don't draw and rebuild the bigger events that use to consist of the "Big Four." In modern wrestling I don't think there is a need for a PPV every month of the year and quality is more important then quantity. Basically having less events would give WWE more time to generate interest in events that they want to make mean something again like they use to so at least some PPV's can still draw money other than Wrestlemania. 

Ideal WWE PPV Calendar: 

January: Royal Rumble 
April: Wrestlemania 
August: Summerslam 
November: Survivor Series 

Now I know that the controversial Saudi shows that would take place I didn't include because I'm not sure when they would have them considering the date of the first event was different last year then this year. Either way though I would have at least two Network Special's not PPV's during the year with one likely in between Wrestlemania and Summerslam. The other would be between Summerslam and Survivor Series with both special's being bridges for the bigger events to come in the year. Hopefully this would help bring the audience back for these important events and lessen the over saturation that has been hurting WWE for the last few years. 

The series continues as we try to find another way to help the WWE reverse their current fortunes or just recreate some interest in the product. I mentioned previously that a unification match for the Intercontinental & United States could be something that if done right it would help give the company something for both brands & could regenerate interest in both championships. The next idea is that the company could use the three hour programming block of Raw starting an angle the begining of the show & pay it off in the third hour as a way to keep the fans around for the show. 

Overall if it was me we could do the same idea on either Smackdown or Raw, but it would be easier to do so on Raw with the longer run time for the red brand. One thing that the company would do during the "Era of Attitude" is starting the show hot and would see the angle progress slowly during the show either to pay off that night or adding the show to the bigger picture. This is one small part of the bigger picture of the long term booking mentality that for some reason the WWE has moved away from in recent years. 

Even though having show long angles/feuds seems like a very minor detail in the bigger picture it does matter, because it could add to feuds in the long run and that is one of the reasons long term booking matters. However, having show angles keeps the fans interested and intrigued over the course of shows or at least can show that the company is trying to keep the fans at home interested during the show. I do think that this is something that would need to change over time and couldn't change over night, but I do think if they did shift back to long term booking then it would help the company in the long run. 

It's time for another short series featuring WWE based around the recent problems about the company and their programming. I know that I'm not the only one that thinks that the company has a ton of problems at this point. The real question right now is what will fix the current issues of the company, but for that we have to figure out the problems. Recently I have thought about the possibility of a unification rivalry that could help bring together some interesting television. Now with the brand split still a semi major part of the WWE programming it is extremely unlikely that the World Title will be unified due to the ability to the company running split house shows to maximize financial profits. 

With that being said I don't believe that we would see a World Title unification match anytime soon even though having one World Title would be ideal due to the fact that it would allow fans to know who in fact the undoubtedly best in WWE. However, I do think that if the company really want to strike some energy back into the United States & Intercontinental Championships they could kick off a few where one title will be retired. 

Considering at this point the company does have the Wild Card rule which could allow either the United States or Intercontinental champions to jump between shows if they wanted to raise the intensity of the feuds. Reality is there is so much history tied up in both of the titles that it is pitiful to see just how poorly the titles have been booked in recent years. In my opinion, they own both titles history and don't really take a much as they should based on the feeling that most champions have a creative ceiling. 

The way it would work is just random moments would be recored where both champions randomly bump into each other. Then you can slowly have the intensity raise and things pick up as the weeks go by as action doesn't need to be leaned on so heavily with video footage of the past being the main focus of promoting the feud outside of the ring. Also I think that playing to the strengths of the WWE production team by putting together video packages highlighting the histories of each titles and the reasons why the fans should be paying attention. Overall I think that the company would benefit from this type of feud, but may need an actual main event level feud to build things around as opposed to leaning so much on the mid-card. Most of the under card isn't enough to sell the tickets and that's why it could be a good start but they would need a lot more to re-focus attention change plans.