No Chance – 2015 Wish List (Paul Heyman, WWE Network, Smackdown)

Columns, Top Story

Last week we took a look at the wish list that I made at the beginning of 2014 and saw how close (or how far away) WWE got to fulfilling those wishes. This week we make a similar list for 2015, but just to quickly establish some outlines for the following wishes. First of all, nothing to specific. No long form, armchair booking that unfolds a plot involving extreme slow burn over six months. Also nothing too outlandish like getting the Rock the title again, while simultaneously making peace with Punk so he can come back and claim the WWE and we can undo that 2013 Royal Rumble main event. While I would love for something like that to happen, what I want this list to be is a few things that WWE can conceivably do in the next 12 months that will improve their product and make it more enjoyable for us all to watch on a weekly basis.

Make someone WWE champion for the first time: I asked for this on my wish list last year. Didn’t seem unreasonable then, doesn’t seem unreasonable now. But it just didn’t happen. But while John Cena and Randy Orton are getting into the double digits with their number of title victories, there are plenty of people who have earned a title shot that haven’t even gotten a single chance to hold the belt. We are fast approaching the two year mark of the last time someone won the WWE title for the first time, and even that was Daniel Bryan holding the title for just seconds before Randy Orton cashed in MiTB and won it from him. So please, at some point in 2015 let somebody who has never been the champion before, finally get to hold that title.

Be ready with something for Paul Heyman to do: CM Punk is gone. And it looks like Brock Lesnar might be gone by the end of the year as well. While I’d still like both of those guys to be here at the end of 2015, I can eventually come to terms that they will have left the company. But since returning to the WWE, Paul Heyman has more or less been attached to one of those two guys during his time with the company. And the few times he branched away from those two (Ryback, Curtis Axel, Cesaro) all kind of fizzled out into nothing. So this year when Brock finally does leave the WWE, do not let Paul Heyman leave with him. Have somebody waiting in the wings ready to be the next Paul Heyman guy. Or give Paul Heyman Smackdown control again, or put him on commentary. Whatever you do keep the guy busy and in your employment for as long as possible.

Make me interested in Smackdown again: This was another wish from last year that WWE really failed to grant. And the way things have been headed I almost put down “Make me interested in Raw again” for this year. But Smackdown will be moving to Thursday this year and so for the first time in a long time, I’m going to tune into an episode not because the internet told me there was “that one great match that I really had to see” but because I just want to see if moving to Thursday actually means anything different for the Blue Brand. (I don’t think it will but I am curious) I don’t think I’ll be the only one to do this, so this is WWE’s chance to really do something that will make me want to tune in the next week for Smackdown and hopefully make that a trend that will continue.

Have one great show on The Network: While it’s great to have The Network for the PPV events, and while NXT really makes the whole thing worth the purchase by itself, the out of ring original programming offered on the Network has been meh to ok at best. Monday Night War was the most exciting show that was revealed during the initial press release, but it turned out to be a lot of revisionist history full of interview snippets I had seen on other DVDs. Countdown was fine, but it was a half hour concept at best that’s been stretched into an hour long show each time. So what I would like to see is one show that I’m actually looking forward to watching on a weekly basis.
Whoever Beats Brock Lesnar for the title, don’t have them drop it to Cena: Somebody is going to beat Brock Lesnar this year. It might be Cena and if that’s the case then this wish is null and void. But then again it might not be Cena. It could be Bryan or Roman Reigns, or Ziggler or whoever you want it to be, that’s not what matters right now. What is important is that whoever does finally take down the beast, not get feed to Cena four weeks later at the next PPV. Nobody on the roster needs that boost in credibility less than Cena and to just get the championship back on Cena right after Brock, even it their is an interim champion between the two does a great disservice to whoever is the one to actually pin Brock. Beating Brock Lesnar for the championship will be a feather some wrestler can wear in their cap for a long time to come. Don’t squander that.

Joel Leonard reviews the latest movies each week for Inside Pulse. You can follow him @joelgleo on Twitter though he's not promising to ever tweet anything from there. Joel also co-hosts the Classy Ring Attire podcast and writes the No Chance column on Inside Pulse as well.