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hey SO, as great as some of your ideas sound there is no way in hell the WWF would concider hireing you as a writer if you have no experience. Its great to hope but it wont happen.

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A) Vince has no desire to promote stars that other companies built. Under your idea he would be doing that nonstop. Also, he has never really promoted a strict "wrestling" show and that would be a stray from the norm for him. If you want to run with this idea than you might need a new figurehead for this group.

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B) Sure pure wrestling is all well and good but what are the peak ratings this show would get? 3.5 - 4 tops? And that would be in a wrestling boom ala '98. It might fly in Japan but would only cater to the smart fan here. Just look at WCW in the 80s. Sure the wrestling was good but to the general fan the WWF was still tops and the only wrestling that mattered. So, I still think you need to mix sports-entertainment stuff in there as well. Focus on the wrestling but have other stuff as well to try and lure the common fan. The goal here is ECW '95.

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3) You need more big names in there for the launch. You have only 4 people that people will care about (Angle, Jericho, Flair, Benoit).

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No one really cares about Anderson anymore and no one will ever care about Regal. I think he's a great wrestler but his style hasn't ever caught on here. Making him a member of the Horsemen would be pretty weak. If you were to reinvent the Horsemen you would need to get a really dominant group there. You want to be able to tell the viewer that this is going to be the "real" Horsemen and not the awful incarnations that plagued WCW on and off for its last few years. You would need a Horsemen stable circa 1987.

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And AWF? But wasn't that the name of the syndicated league from 1996 or so? The one with Slaughter, Missy Hyatt, Tom Zenk, and the matches broken down in rounds? I think it was. Need an original name.

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"My political opinions lean more towards anarchy....The most improper job of any man, even saints, is bossing other men."-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 1981

"Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker and Tits"-George Carlin

"Now you listen here to me, you horrible little creature"-William Regal to X-Pac

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Of course, for any of this to take place would require Vince McMahon to keep his ego in check. But after the disasters that were the WCW/ECW invasion and the XFL, I think it's time for a more humble, restrained Vince. He could be the owner of the federation, but not involve himself in the on-air product any more than just being an commentator, like he was in the WWF up until 97. If they need a figurehead president/commissioner (a la Gorilla Monsoon and Jack Tunney), then Mick Foley would fill that role perfectly, having been fired by Paul Heyman. He could also bring in Terry Taylor and Johnny Ace as bookers, since they both have experience booking wrestling promotions, and concentrate his off-air energy on marketing and talent relations, and his involvement with the WWF (which he still owns in real life).

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Well, they'd certainly do much better than the current WWF Excess is doing (0.6 rating), with minimal startup costs. The goal here is not necessarily to build the biggest wrestling promotion on earth, because he still has the WWF for that. But as an alternative product, even a 3.0 could be consicered a huge success. I think a wrestling promotion presented in a legit way could do well, maybe not as well as the WWF, but well enough to make money and justify it's own existance.

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A hybrid of ECW 95 and NWA 80's, with attention to old-school wrestling and angles but a more modern approach, elimination of backstage vignettes and soap-opera storylines, meaningful finishes to matches, and focus on title belts, would be very successful with fans who just don't like the current WWF product or simply want an alternative. Monday night ratings peaked at a 10.1 combined, now WWF is drawing a 3.9. Where do you think that 6.2 went? Fad-fans found something else to watch, while many wrestling fans stopped watching altogether. There is much money to be made in bringing back the fans who stopped watching, but it won't happen overnight. And with the roundtable format of the first few months of programming, it gives them a chance to re-educate people to a different style of wrestling.

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It's all about the build, and creating new stars. WWF in 97 really only had 4 guys fans cared about in Austin, Hart, Michaels, and Undertaker. But you can't deny they built new stars in Foley, Kane, HHH, and Rock. Same deal here.

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Anderson can still cut one of the best promos in the business, and Regal could be over huge with wrestling fans, as he's a throwback in every sense of the word. He'll never be over with sports-entertainment fans because they don't understand his style, but people who grew up watching Dick Murdoch, Harley Race, and Dory Funk Jr., would buy into him in a second. Again, it's alternative programming, not another federation for WWF fans. And we're not exactly talking Mongo McMichael here.

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AWF is just a name I thought of, but it's the least importand aspect of my plan. It could be anything really, it's the product that matters.

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I sense an elitist attitude towards "sport-entertainment fans". You can't just cut part of your audience off. They represent a vast majority of the fans.

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Well it's always time for Vince to check his ego at the door. The only time he ever did something like that was when he admitted that wrestling was "fake". Granted, he was basically forced, but still.

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What I meant though was that you need somebody to replace him in the introduction angle. It would just be out of character for Vince to care about pure wrestling. I don't know who I would pick to replace him since the other primary option is Shane McMahon and that wouldn't be good either. Maybe something where Linda McMahon helps Ric Flair splinter off into a new federation (although that could hurt your Horseman angle). Basically, I don't want to turn into a new program and see Vince talking about pro wrestling like he's a huge fan of it. And the fact that he doesn't really a damn thing about it as evidenced by his commentary doesn't help matters.

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Well, any show that features actual live wrestling would do better than Excess so that's not the point. The long-term goal should be to build up the company to be on par with the WWF for the inevitable showdown with them. And you need that for the average fan to take them seriously

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Well, out of that 6.2 I think the vast majority of the lost ones were the fad fans as you call them. The actual number of actual wrestling fans lost is probably represented by the WCW rating at the time (3.?, I don't keep accurate track of the ratings) less the ones that are currently watching the WWF. The defectors from the WWF product who are actual pure wrestling fans in my estimation would be pretty minimal (just look at the ratings of the "Rock, this is your life" segment for proof. That's why you need to try and cater to the fad fans a little too. I think a pro wrestling show should be able to reel some in if done properly.

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Great point. But you need someone to create the initial buzz, someone with the name value to get the fans back. The WWF at least had their history and name value.

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No, and Regal is much much better than Paul Roma as well. I sense an elitist attitude towards "sport-entertainment fans". You can't just cut part of your audience off. They represent a vast majority of the fans. That explains why the angles that Russo always tried to use to cater to the "smart fan" didn't work. You make good points about Regal but it doesn't change the fact that he will never be over.

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It's very important from a marketing aspect. You can't forget that part. The obvious goal of this as long with any venture (especially considering this all falls under WWFE, think stockholders) is to make money. A bad name could deter from this. Obviously, it's not important to your purpose here but it is important to the company.

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I think the idea S.O. is trying to present is that the casual fans will still have the WWF to watch for their sports entertainment needs, while vince's new federation will provide something solely for the 'smarts'..vince, in reality owning both companies, wouldn't really give a damn which does better in the ratings..the only purpose is to provide something different, not win ratings

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Oko, you still have to figure out what you're going to do with all the extra guys. The WWF has such a huge roster. You should use some guys in your story lines, maybe as jobbers or you could make a guy like Mike Awsome or Jerry Lynn back into something valuable.

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"My political opinions lean more towards anarchy....The most improper job of any man, even saints, is bossing other men."-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 1981

"Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker and Tits"-George Carlin

"Now you listen here to me, you horrible little creature"-William Regal to X-Pac

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But would the avearage WWF fan take another sports-entertainment federation seriously? It would most likely be seen as a "minor league" if booked that way, which is a stigma that should be avoided at all costs. Consider the the MTV/VH1 situation: both channels have their own audience, both are owned by the same company, both target different parts of the same basic demographic, and both are successful.

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