| I had more of a thought as far as the "bench" goes. They could make that some kind of a tournament, battle royal, round robin, gauntlet, etc. for each division to determine who'd be able to challenge for a spot in the division at the next PPV. If someone was in the I-C division and wanted to challenge to get into the World division, they'd have to earn it by entering the "bench" tournament.
I agree with you, Sabac, I prefer that they actually book storylines, but WWE seems to have a 3-storyline-for-2-brand limit in that department right now, so this would help make the rest of the show not involved in one of those storylines meaningful. But, there isn't any reason that storylines can't center around this.
Say, for example, back about 10 months ago when Evolution was still together and Randy Orton, still in the Intercontinental division after having dropped the belt recently, decided that he wanted to challenge the #10 person on the World Heavyweight roster. He would have to win whatever tournament/etc. that was decided to determine who'd be the next challenger for the bench spot (they could even have the finals for this at a PPV, setting up a match for the next PPV in advance - gasp!). HHH, of course, wouldn't be happy about this at first, until he realizes that he can keep his own score up by having Orton lay down for him. Orton wins the #10 spot on the World Heavyweight roster. Once in the division, HHH would make Orton his pawn, intentionally getting DQ'ed, counted out, and lay down for him to allow HHH to keep his score up when he needs to maintain his #1 or #2 contender ranking. This could go on for a few months, with HHH continuing to be unsuccessful at winning a title opportunity while maintaining a #1 or #2 position in points, and Orton having to fight off a challenger trying to take his bottom spot on the ladder. HHH would eventually win the belt, and like the arrogant heel that he is, stop worrying as much about points because he thinks he'll be champion forever (e.g. Orton would stop doing the job). Gradually, Orton would start to work his way up the ladder to #2, since he wouldn't have to do the job to HHH any more. HHH would drop the strap and be the #3 contender points-wise. He'd need a win over Orton to move back up to the top 2, so he could have a shot at the champion at the next PPV. He tells Orton to lay down for him. Orton acts conflicted over it and acts as if he's going to lay down for him, when he surprises him by rolling him up for the win. Orton would get kicked out of Evolution from that point, obviously, become champion, and then HHH would make it his business to make it back up the ladder to challenge Orton. Wouldn't that have made for a better, less-rushed end to Orton's tenure in Evolution than the shotgun storyline they did? |