wrestling / Columns

The Magnificent Seven: 7 Prospective WWE Network Tournaments

September 5, 2018 | Posted by Mike Chin
WWE Network - Flashback Friday Survivor Series, Top 10 Image Credit: WWE

WWE has used its Network to launch a variety of original programming since its inceptions, but one of the staples, best received by hardcore wrestling fans has been original Network-exclusive tournaments.Whether it was the Cruiserweight Classic, The UK Championship, King of the Ring, or the Mae Young Classic, this was the kind of programming that may have been too much or too technical for a general audience, but that thrived among fans already familiar with indie talents and craving longer, more purist in-ring action.

So what new ground might WWE break with its Network tournaments? This week’s column is taking a look at seven possibilities. I’ll openly admit this one is rooted almost entirely in my opinion and I what I personally be intrigued to see, though I aimed to also make it mostly realistic to ideas I could see WWE pursuing, and that I thought would be reasonably well received by other wrestling fans.

#7. Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal

As fantasy booking goes, consider this entry my pet project. Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal was a WCW Halloween Havoc tradition and is one of my great guilty pleasures as a fan, as I was always captivated by the potential held in the wheel, and the Halloween-inspired, campy fun of the ominous device determining the gimmick for a match. Sure, Raw Roulette recaptured the gimmick in spirit, but I was never as inspired by that more polished, sanitized version.

In any event, the concept for this tournament would be a limited bracket—eight competitors at most, competing in serialized episodes with every match type determined by the wheel. With one match per episode, a la the Mixed Match Challenge, the set up of for different gimmick matches wouldn’t be too hard, and it could be fun to see some oddball gimmicks that aren’t in the everyday WWE vernacular put to use, like a Dog Collar Match, the Punjabi Prison, or even a nod to hokey tradition with a Coal Miner’s Glove Match in the opening round. Have the finals at a Halloween Havoc Network special, with the type of old school campy set WCW used to employ, and you’ve got me, for one, hook, line and sinker.

Wacky alternative variation on the concept: film the whole thing from the Hardy Compound with Matt Hardy as host and wheel master, and let the chaos really ensue unbridled.

#6. The Super Heavyweight Challenge

WWE has featured its Cruiserweights via a tournament and their own one hour weekly Network show. I wouldn’t suggest a similar breakout for super heavyweights, who have less depth in their talent roster, and less unique spectacle to show off—particularly up against one another—but having a few-week single elimination tournament could be a fun spectacle to show off the monsters still roaming the wrestling landscape.

Such a tournament could be a fine way to spotlight the Authors of Pain as individual entities, using part time special attractions like The Big Show and Mark Henry to draw more casual viewers to single episodes, bring back a guy like Brodus Clay for a one or two night stint, try out new monsters like Bad Luck Fale or Brian Milonas, and a fresh way of ultimately pushing someone like Braun Strowman as the winner. (I recognize I’m playing fast and loose with the term super heavyweight, but the intention is to demonstrate the diverse potential at hand.) All in all, this would be a nice homage to the business’s history by playing up old school spectacle and assembling some fun, short hoss wars to entertain the audience.

#5. Round Robin

WWE has subscribed almost exclusively to the single elimination tournament set up, with occasional opportunities for fans to vote someone in for a second chance, or for someone to fill in for an injured party. The round robin represents another traditional, straightforward tournament set up, under-utilized in WWE.

A conventional round-robin entails every competitor facing off with everyone else once, with the winner boasting the best win-loss record at the end of the competition. A round robin wouldn’t necessitate any special apparatus or venue, and perhaps best of all would lend meaning and purpose to a bunch of mid-card or even lower talents mixing it up in various pairings over a period of weeks.

#4. Debate

While the be all, end all of wrestling is and will remain what happens during actual matches, there’s no denying the importance of the promo. Indeed, it’s not unusual for an episode of Raw or SmackDown to spend as much, or even more time on talking as it does on in-ring action. Promos are a vital part of storytelling, and if you need to see the difference between a match grounded in a story versus one purely rooted in in-ring action, you need look no further than the WrestleMania weekend encounters between Johnny Gargano and Tomassao Ciampa, and the one between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura. All four men are world class performers, and you might even argue the latter two are more polished than the former. Yet, by virtue of the story behind the match, I defy anyone to suggest Styles-Nakamura was better than Gargano-Ciampa.

But I digress. The idea of this tournament would be to have stars wage wars of words. While the idea of a debate is a little silly, it’s a clear and familiar enough format to make promos into competitions. Better yet, WWE seems tremendously vested in letting its fan vote and shape the trajectory of booking, right up to having them pick the winners of matches, which would totally break the illusion of wrestling as actual competition. But having fans pick the winner of a debate or promo battle? That seems far more reasonable. Moreover, with only talking at stake, there’d be little real need to protect anyone, but rather fans could straight up pick the winners. Go one step further, and even the promos themselves could be wholly unscripted to let true talents shine, and perhaps even let new stars emerge, with the fans picking the winners along the way. Alternatively, without any physical toll taken, a legends bracket with guts like Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, and Shawn Michaels would be on the table.

#3. International Competition

Whether it was the AWA’s Team Challenge Series, TNA’s World Cup, or any other number of variations on similar themes, there’s something alluring about the idea of teams of wrestlers competing against each other in series of matches and contests to build toward a championship. It’s the kind of kayfabe competition that lends meaning to mid- and even lower-card matches, while giving talents of lesser stature the rub via association with better established stars. Add in some international flair with representatives of different countries competing with each other, and there’s an opportunity to play into old school jingoistic wrestling sensibilities, too.

On one hand, I can see WWE feeling reluctant to pursue this kind of competition given its international presence and trying to appeal to diverse markets rather than offend anyone, or necessarily prove American superiority. On the other hand, WWE has more access to international talent than ever before in this moment, with easily enough assembled teams, in house with very few imports, from the US, Canada, Mexico, The UK, and Japan, not to mention the capacity for combining representatives from other regions into teams.

Moreover, WWE also has a more diverse roster than ever before, with meaningful competitors in not not just men’s singles ranks and among tag teams, but from different weight classes, and from the women’s rosters.

An international competition could be a fun diversion, and in particular a way of spotlighting underutilized talents from 205 Live, Main Event, and NXT.

#2. Battlebowl

Four times throughout its history, WCW staged Battlebowl competitions. The concept was fun enough with the entire roster submitting themsleves to a randomized lottery to determine tag team partners for matches that granted the winners entry to a battle royal.

WWE understandably has its reservations about concept PPVs and even tournaments like this for the inability to promote matches in advance, but Battlebowl could be a fine fit for the hardcore fans on the WWE Network, and particularly those with a nostalgic bent toward WCW. Better yet, WWE could space out the concept, with the random draw tag team matches happening over a period of weeks, and perhaps with fans voting in a second-chance team before arriving at the battle royal finale a month or more later.

The winner of this competition could naturally enjoy a push—maybe a title shot associated with emerging victorious—while Battlebowl could also be used to create new makeshift tag teams as well as start or further rivalries between partners who both can’t get along and blame one another for getting eliminated from the competition. I’d argue that WCW underplayed most of these dynamics most years it staged its own Battlebowls, but there would be plenty of room for WWE to capitalize and use it as a real storytelling device.

#1. Trios

With the emergence of trhee-man groups like The Shield, the original Wyatt Family, 3MB, the reunited Evolution, and New Day came rumblings that perhaps WWE should take a stab at a Six-Man Tag Team or Trios Championship. (It may or may not be coincidental that this movement wasn’t too far removed from Lucha Underground’s successful Trios Championship catching fire, particularly with the team of Son of Havoc, Ivelisse, and Angelico). For the record, I’m not among those in favor of WWE actually creating such a title which would risk diluting the traditional tag team championship scenes, and inviting makeshift teams for the sake of filling the titles consistently. I do, however, feel that a one-off tournament on the WWE Network could be a lot of fun.

Between the main roster and NXT, it wouldn’t be too difficult to fill up this bracket, throwing into the mix established factions like The New Day, Sanity, The Undisputed Era, makeshift teams of stars with nothing better to do, and perhaps even taking a page from Chikara’s King of Trio and establishing themed or reunited crews like representatives of The Spirit Squad or ECW alumni. At the least, WWE has a pretty strong record of booking fun six-man tags to make this an entertaining tournament. Better yet, new factions or partners who fight among themselves could invite brand new stories.

What tournaments would you add to the list? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.