Since it has apparently become chic to make a music-related comment to kick off a wrestling comment I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and say that I saw Fuel play live last week and they absolutely rocked.

Now that I have that out of my system I can move on to what I really want to talk about. I think it is universally acknowledged that the wrestling industry is a highly cyclical business and I think that it is also agreed that a downturn will occur sooner rather than later. The current Austin-MacMahon/NWO/competition induced boom will not last. Now whether this will be merely a minor recession or a devastating crash depends on what the companies do right now.

Now for the purposes of this argument I split wrestling fans into two generic groups - one is hardcore fans who will watch wrestling regardless and the second is the casual fan who watches wrestling because it is currently cool to do so. I would definitely include myself amongst the former group, I kept watching wrestling through such atrocities as Sid title reigns, the Hogan and friends masturbation era in WCW, the MacMahon steroid trials and even the current 'sports entertainment' shenanigans. I say all of this not to brag but to paint the picture of what a hardcore fan will put up with if they love the sport. Its the same concept which keeps me going back every week to watch my local basketball team even during seasons when they won less than 30% of their games. Marketers refer to this concept as 'brand loyalty' and it is the key to ironing out the natural rise and fall of the business cycle. This is the challenge that I currently see for the WWF, trying to convert as many of the casual fans that they have attracted to wrestling into hardcore fans as possible. The more successful they are at this, the more the anticipated wrestling crash will resemble a minor downturn. I have a plan that could help WWF achieve this. Note: This concept just discussed applies to both of the Big Two but I will focus on the WWF because the WCW seems content to piss on their loyal base of fans who are hardcore wrestling fans.

The key to WWF converting these fans is to get them hooked on wrestling. Currently most of the casual fans watch because of the hook of the characters in the WWF. But if this is what the WWF relies on in the long term the crash will be devastating. The evidence of this is every other popular TV show reliant on characters for its success - once the characters get stale the downturn comes quick and ugly usually resulting in the termination of the show. I'm sure the WWF does not want this - so what can they do to get this captive audience addicted to wrestling? Three words - Light Heavyweight Division.

Now I can picture you all rolling your eyes and moving your pointer over towards the Back button on your browser but just listen for a minute. Everyone remembers the WWF's half-hearted attempt at a LH division previously. It was pretty shabby - it consisted of less than five competitors and degenerated so quickly that the belt just ended up being a prop for the Gillberg skits. But under my plan the LH division would not just consist of a token belt to act as a prop for a curtain-jerker matchup, instead it involves a shift in philosophy for the whole company.

Okay here is my plan. The LH division needs to be equal, or as close to equal as possible, in standing as the heavyweight division. There would be a LH championship belt as well as LH Tag Team champions with the possibility of a LH version of the IC title to come in the future. I would retire the Euro and Hardcore titles so the fans don't get confused following too many different belts. Most importantly the LH division has to be promoted as a prestigious and important part of the company. There are several ways to achieve this. First the key is the commentators - they need to promote the division and its participants and not use the match to just speculate on what Austin and MacMahon are currently up to. Another key point is the positioning of the matches on the card. The top LH match on any given card needs to be placed near the top of the card and even main event some shows. Most people are probably thinking right now 'but what about the ratings' and to them I say think back about 5 or 6 weeks in WCW just before Russo got the book to the Kidman/Psicosis mask vs. hair match. This was a great match. It did comparatively very well in the ratings even though it was placed on the card as the semi-main event, in fact it scored better than everything else on that Nitro that week except for the over-run. This was even considering the two wrestlers had minimal push at the time and the angle had only been built up for 1 week prior. I guess my point is that LH wrestling can be commercially viable even at the top of the card if it has angles and good characters built around great matches.

This brings me to my next point. Given the fact that LH divisions are currently afforded a much lower status many of the most talented and over wrestlers who could enter the division have resisted. By pushing the division to the top of the card I think you can overcome this and get guys like X-Pac and Chris Jericho to become part of the LH division and right there you have your first major feud for the World LH Title. No-one in their right mind could suggest that X-Pac-Jericho isn't a box office feud and that it would not be feasible as a main event on either Raw or Smackdown.

It has always been a complaint about the WWF that it has a thin roster lacking in quality wrestlers and that this is the major stumbling block for a high profile LH division. But I think many people underestimate the WWF's strength in this area. For arguments sake lets set the weight cut-off point for our new LH division at 230. The WWF could have X-Pac, Jericho, Christian, Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, Brian Christopher, Scott Taylor, Crash Holly (although granted his gimmick would have to change, super-heavyweight in LH division probably wouldn't work), Papi Chulo/Mr Aguila, Jason Arndht (I think WWF still has him under contract, he is a very good wrestler), Reckless Youth, Taka, Dick Togo, Sho Funaki. That gives the WWF a 15 man division without even looking at potential free agents or indie stars. Exactly how many 'piņata on a pole' matches and Sid run-ins do you think guys like Juvi, Psicosis, Blizkreig etc. will tolerate if they know a legit LH division exists in the WWF?

Initially to promote the quality of the athletes in the division I would have the LH competitors notch clean and comprehensive wins over various heavyweight midcarders. Have X-Pac beat Boss Man, Hardys beat the Acolytes, bring back Taka and put him clean over Prince Albert. Obviously you don't want to unnecessarily harm your big heavyweight draws but the top LH guys need credibility and all the heavyweight guys I mentioned are really just time-fillers anyway. This is just for the short term however because once the LH division is established as legit then LH wrestlers would very rarely fight heavyweights. There would be an occasion of a mixed tag match when it fits an angle. For example if HHH and Edge were feuding and X-Pac and Christian were feuding then a tag match would be logical but this would be the exception.

Well there you have it, my plan to save the WWF and avert the armageddon of a post boom wrestling crash. The bottom line of all this is that the LH division must provide very fast-paced and exciting action littered with highspots because this is the hook to get the attention of casual fans. The Hardys and Edge and Christian proved that with spectacular action that they can win over today's wrestling crowd, drawing two standing ovations for their ladder match. Now if the WWF takes that level of unbelievable action, moves it up the card, has the announcers give it credibility, build compelling angles around it and make the matches mean something they can gain both critical acclaim and commercial success. And most importantly make hardcore wrestling fans out of sports entertainment fans.