The Rebirth of the WWE

[MFKR78]

The wrestling world woke up in shock at the end of July 2011 when it was announced that Vince McMahon had sold the WWE to Col Rothwell...a complete unknown in wrestling. It turns out that Rothwell had been working behind the scenes with WWE for quite some time, building contacts and his reputation and making plans to change the company if he could get into control. When finances became available from well known but anonymous backers to the public and Rothwell had gained the trust of the McMahons, he duly stepped in and got the nod for the takeover.

 

It was thought that after so long and how the economy along with wrestling in general seemed to be falling off that Vince had been finally talked into stepping away, or at least stepping back. Rothwell had convinced Vince and the other people in power that his visions and ideas for the company would take things to a whole new level and bring the glory days back and so with that he got his chance.

 

Not long ago WWE had held the Money in the Bank PPV where the company had seemingly been turned on its head by CM Punk winning the WWE Title only for his contract to expire straight afterwards. It seems that Rothwell had prepared the perfect time to take over and immediately he announced and began working on major changes behind the scenes.

 

We now pick up the news from the 1st of August with seemingly the Raw show being shown live tonight.....only that was one of the first unexpected changes made.

 

Rothwell scheduled a press conference earlier in the day and a lot of announcements were made. Also Rothwell has had no problem in dealing with certain websites and media outlets, stating that "the internet and its community need to be embraced and have valuable opinions" of course some things would and will work better by being kept in the dark for kayfabe purposes, but a lot of things will be talked about and what Rothwell called "old bad habits" changed with regard to looking down on "dirtsheets" and other habits within the company that Rothwell finds outdated.

 

Catch up shortly for the opening press conference which will outline the new WWE era!

[Jaysin]

Mate, Feed, Kill, Repeat? Your username I mean.

 

Interesting start. Look forward to the first show.

[MFKR78]

The new era of WWE begins

 

WWE 1st August Press Conference

 

Earlier today a press conference was taken by new WWE CEO Col Rothwell where he discussed many changes that will happen with the company. Below are outlined some of the changes that are coming into effect immediately, along with plans for the future.

 

Rothwell announced that the company initials will stay the same but changes to TV programming have already taken place. Despite the length and name value that the current shows have, Rothwell has decided to replace WWE Raw with WWE Superstars. The show will still have a 2 hour format and be screened live on Monday nights but everything will switch to the Superstars branding previously used on that show. Along with this WWE Smackdown will be rebranded to WWE NXT. Again the show will be the same 2 hour format but will use the NXT theme and branding. NXT will still be shown on Fridays as Smackdown used to be. For the moment all other shows have been cancelled but Rothwell may bring up more shows in future depending on how the product is shaping up. The thought and general ideas are that the shows need freshening up some. Superstars is felt to be a good name for the main show and NXT will likely showcase more of the younger and up and coming names with the company.

 

It is also announced that the brand extension has now been cancelled and all wrestlers will report to one single roster. It is thought that for the most part a wrestler will only appear on one show per week unless there is special reason to add in more. Along with this all titles will now be free to be defended on any show although some have changed which leads on to the next announcement.

 

The WWE Titles have undergone some small changes. Rothwell has decided to retire the WWE Divas title and bring back the Womens Title in its place. Rothwell stated that he found the Diva name wrong for the "talented" women wrestlers the company will showcase and that the whole division will undergo massive changes which drops the old idea of looks over talent. Rothwell stated that he has studied companies such as SHIMMER in order to get a better and more up to date take on womens wrestling in 2011. Along with this there has been rumour of the WWE World Title and the World Heavyweight Title merging into one world championship. Rothwell was vague but didn't shoot down the idea when pressed by journalists on this issue. He stated "it is a possibility considering we're now back to one whole roster without separate brands. I feel one world champion may work best but let's see" It remains to be seen what will happen if this is true as CM Punk and Christian both hold the titles at this moment in time. There is also rumour of a Television Title possibly being created but this was not really discussed. At the moment the US, Intercontinental and Unified Tag Team Titles will still be used as they were, only with the benefit of being defended on either show at any time.

 

One thing Rothwell was keen to address was the owning of wrestlers names and image. Rothwell feels that name changes were something else which is outdated and irrelevant in todays product, preferring instead to capitalise on known indy workers for their name. This of course means should someone leave and move to another company then they are free to use the same name, but Rothwell feels that the WWE is so far ahead as the number one wrestling company that it's not cause for any concern. As this was stated wrestlers were already being listed under their more known names such as Bryan Danielson, Tyler Black, Harry Smith, TJ Wilson and others.

 

Rothwell has also announced that he has spoken to Gabe Sapolsky about making EVOLVE a feeder company for the WWE. Whilst FCW will still be used for the same thing, Rothwell feels two companies will work better and is looking to use EVOLVE as a place that current well known indy workers will work for as they prepare to move up to life in WWE. FCW would then be used more for the younger wrestlers to train. This is a work in progress with news hopefully to come on the possible arrangement.

 

Rothwell also announced changes to the overall product going forward. An emphasis on workrate and more actual wrestling is about to come into effect. Whilst there will still be storylines it is understood that Rothwell wants more wrestlers and wrestling matches "after all we are a WRESTLING company!" This is one thing which Rothwell feels McMahon didn't have a very up to date opinion on. "I also know of a company where apparently wrestling matters, but I say that we intend to have the best wrestlers and the best wrestling on our product starting from today!"

 

After the press conference ended several websites such as 411mania picked up the details and more news from behind the scenes. Several hirings were said to be in motion straight away and that also included some wrestlers being moved to and from FCW. Also inevitably some firings were also made and listed below...

 

WWE would like to wish the following talent well in their future endeavours...

 

Bill DeMott

Dylan Postl

John Laurinaitis

Noah Wilson

Justin Roberts

Mae Young

Matt Striker

James Maritato

Stephanie McMahon

The Great Khali

Tim White

Tony Garea

Trevor Murdoch

Vickie Guerrero

 

Also FCW suffered these cuts...

 

Brian Jossie (Abraham Washington)

Ettore Ewen

Bill Carr

Tom Prichard

Brandi Reed

Kipp Christianson

Jesse White

Ray Leppan

Max McGuirk

Marquis Youngston

Norman Smiley

APOC

Rod Vista

Thaddeus Bullard

 

It was reported that the following talent have been called up to the main roster immediately and are being prepared to join the main shows...

 

Brett DiBiase

Epico

Hunico

Tyler Black

Ricky Steamboat Jr.

Alex Koslov

Jon Moxley

Dusty Rhodes (as Road Agent)

Mike Rotondo (as Road Agent)

 

These wrestlers were sent down to FCW in order to be assessed for either working enough to come back to the main roster or be released if not enough progress is made...

 

Alex Riley

Alicia Fox

JTG

Tyler Reks

Brodus Clay

Darren Young

David Otunga

Mason Ryan

Tamina

Heath Slater

Also Michael Hayes will work as a road agent for FCW

 

Because David Otunga has been sent to FCW the Unified Tag Team Championships have been vacated. Joe Hennig is dissapointed but will be staying with the main roster and looking to make a fresh start on his own.

 

There is also news that a large amount of contracts have been discussed and sent to various workers from several companies. We'll have more news as things become clear but it is thought that even a few TNA names have been contacted as they were working on pay-per appearance deals thus allowing WWE to offer written deals. With talk of the company becoming more about wrestling, both staff and fans are thought to be excited about the possible signings and what they will bring to the company. Names rumoured include the Motor City Machine Guns, The Young Bucks, The Kings of Wrestling, Cheerleader Melissa, Christopher Daniels, Eddie Edwards, El Generico and more.

 

News has also just come out that certain past names may return to WWE in some way. Again we only have rumours but names such as Paul Heyman, Paul London, Brian Kendrick and even Brock Lesnar have been floating around.

 

Going forward many are excited and looking forward to tonights first show of the new era. WWE Superstars will be on at the usual time in the same place but with a very different and new beginning. Join us later to hear more!

[MFKR78]

Mate, Feed, Kill, Repeat? Your username I mean.

 

Interesting start. Look forward to the first show.

 

You are correct sir! Had this user name for a long time now.

 

This is a work in progress and may take some time seeing as I don't always get the laptop for long periods of time, but I'm determined to stick with it and see this through properly! I'm interested to see what people think of the ideas and general direction I'm going with

[MFKR78]

WWE would also like to wish Billy Kidman, Barry Windham, Averno and Pat Patterson well in their future endeavours.

 

It is thought Kidman didn't feel he had the skills to train people and so was no longer needed. Patterson and Windham were no longer needed as there were already several road agents that Rothwell wanted to use. Averno had recently signed to potentially face Sin Cara but Rothwell did not want to go forward with that plan and didn't feel Averno was someone he saw as fitting in with the company.