What Would a WWE League Look Like and Could it Work?
The WWE has a very fluid approach to its matchmaking and events schedule. Of course, there are staple inclusions, like WrestleMania and the Royal Rumble, that highlight the pay-per-view calendar, but in between, the company can and will run a formula that follows the most intriguing conflicts and builds towards the big events.
Keeping the show rolling in this way has worked for decades, but what if a more traditionally sporting WWE league were to be introduced? How would that work, and would it force the team to change the formula?
Daily Leaderboards Building Towards Playoffs
To ensure that every meet for the league has meaning, the WWE could run a kind of daily leaderboard format. This is used in some sports, but is best demonstrated by the game of skill that users can play for free online. In this tournament, the Run Royale, players run through a fast-moving course to collect coins, points, and a ranking.
So, those who demonstrate the most skill in the game each day will climb the daily leaderboard to get better rewards. To use this in the WWE context, the contenders in the league could meet in the squared circle for the matchday and achieve greater points and ranking for their performances on that night.
These nights then build into the overall league standings while making it so that each night matters and can crown winners. It’s similar to how the Premier League of Darts works, with each night on the schedule crowning a winner with more perks for essentially topping that daily leaderboard.
In traditional American sports fashion, the overall league standings would culminate in a playoffs of sorts for the top four, six, or ten wrestlers. The playoffs could follow the same formula as the league matches or culminate in an all-in rumble where everyone piles in to find a winner via battle royale.
Adding a Bit of Structure to the Fluidity
Having a league structure would make it somewhat easier for outsiders to understand what’s at stake, who the best wrestlers are, and get a sense for the inherent drama of each matchday. After all, the league standings would show all of this in an instant, telling fans where it’s tense and where upsets can occur.
While a league format could include just about any standard match type, it would take away from the fluidity of the WWE and set some matches above others. The team couldn’t make matches based on trending popularity or strong performances beneath the set league selection for the current season.
Relegation and league turnaround could be a feature, but again, it’d be setting some WWE products and matches as lesser to the big league meets. What would be interesting to see is how the booker deals with such a long-running story with multiple moving parts within a league structure.
Restrictions can lead to a lot of creativity, and with the top wrestlers in the WWE meeting regularly to tussle for position, the rivalries and grudge matches could heat up tremendously. As mentioned, it’d also add clarity for viewers who, perhaps, aren’t as closely following the way that each story is heading.
It seems very unlikely that the WWE will change the way it shows its wrestling, but there’s certainly potential for league-based play to be a significant draw if executed well.
