Here’s How WWE Could Incorporate An Offseason

Each year members of the WWE Universe keep raising the question of whether WWE should have an off-season or not.  A bigger question might be, how would it even be possible to implement an off-season for a company that prides itself on going all year around?

First let’s discuss some of the current issues with WWE’s superstars performing all year round, which will set the scene for when we discuss solutions later on.  The first major problem with the current WWE schedule is injuries.

Most full-time (healthy) superstars are usually approaching the 150-250 match mark each year.  A major concern going forward is the tread that will be left on these superstars’ bodies in the latter part of their careers.

For football fans, this is like the franchise running back getting 25-30 carries every game.  The number of times that running back must carry the football will eventually take a toll on him, and injuries are likely to pile up a lot quicker because of it.

While injuries will always be the most serious concern, another concern is the staleness in the product.  The staleness of WWE television includes both the characters and the direction that is written for them.

If we just include WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown Live, that is a whopping five hours of television that must be written each week.  Because of that large commitment, there are a lot of times where the script appears to have been rewritten five times in the hours leading up to the show.

This is where an off-season would benefit WWE, give their creative team an opportunity to hit the reset button and build more complex storylines going forward.  One of our readers Jake, actually came up with an interesting solution:

This idea would allow WWE to keep their all year round mentality while giving superstars not only a mental and physical break, but a reprieve from the audience as well.  The two WrestleMania events idea is interesting with the reports that WWE is considering having a two WrestleMania year similar to this year’s two Royal Rumbles.

With a WrestleMania in October to rival the one already in April, it would fit perfectly with Jake’s format.  The only downside would be the recent contracts that WWE has agreed to for the rights of Raw and SmackDown play a huge part in the company’s ability to write superstars off the show.

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It would be next to impossible to keep SmackDown and Raw both going each week and split the roster in half once again.  Raw is already having a difficult time stretching the show to three hours, at that point expect Roman Reigns to wrestle five matches a night!

But Jake did construct a pretty solid template to work from, and actually mentioned two words that might be the key to everything, “live events”.  “So, crazy writer guy, you are telling me you want to eliminate live events in general?”

Not so fast.  I am talking about cutting the number of live events down from the current number.  Yes, I understand that this is a business and taking away money from Vince McMahon is a hard sell, but it is the obvious move to cut back on the alarming rate of injuries.

Imagine if every superstar is booked to appear on television each week, but that Raw and SmackDown alternate doing live tours.  This could mean alternating months or quarters, but something that gives these superstars an opportunity to rest their bodies.

Yeah, that might be a tall task, but this also prevents the debacle that was the WWE WrestleMania 32 injury bug.  Don’t you think WWE wanted Seth Rollins, Randy Orton, John Cena (did participate, but was not advertised) Neville, and Nikki Bella in matches for their biggest event of the year?

Superstars sell much more merchandise when they are active, and ticket sales go up when marquee superstars are advertised.  So before we talk about all the money that a small city in Indiana will bring in for a live event, also remember the money that is being lost when superstars get injured at these same events.

As for keeping characters fresher, it will be a lot easier to write a healthy superstar off of television when there are less injuries.  Obviously when there is a laundry list of injuries it is difficult to write those same healthy superstars off of a show.

The rest of the onus falls on the creative team to find ways to keep characters fresh, instead of writing half of the locker room off of the show for six months.  If WWE wants to invest in their superstars of the present and future, they must sacrifice some of their live events now.

Next: WWE SmackDown Grades For July 10

The best WWE, is the one where we get to see all of our favorite superstars healthy and doing what they love to do.