What is exactly going over the limit? For that matter, what is the limit measuring? The limit of what?
Since we already have Fastlane, and WWE doesn’t seem to be willing to get rid of that (to my dismay), you shouldn’t have two events in the year where a speeding car is the aesthetic.
Over the Limit could be a subtitle for Fastlane, but I’m not super fond of that. Instead, I think it might work best as a special episode of SmackDown where they’re given an overrun and they go for three hours, basically going “over the limit of the normal two hour show” in a sense.
Payback
Good riddance. There’s no need for Backlash and Payback. I hate the idea of “WrestleMania Backlash” trying to cash in on the WrestleMania name, but I’ll take that over the incredibly bland sounding WWE Payback.
If you want to repurpose the name in some fashion, use it as something entirely different than a pay-per-view. Make it a new mobile game or something dumb like that.
Starrcade
Fundamentally, Starrcade under the WWE banner isn’t the same thing. Fans of the WCW event will never get what they want, which is “another WrestleMania”. It’s just not happening.
They’ve done some Starrcade live event shows in the past and I used to make the argument that this should be another NXT TakeOver event name. I’ve gotten a bit past that by now, since the end of the year is a bit swamped with Halloween Havoc and WarGames. If you had to bring it back in some way, that’s how you’d have to do it, but I don’t think there’s room for it.
Worlds Collide
This one’s a shame. I really liked Worlds Collide for what it was worth. Getting NXT and NXT UK (and at the time, 205 Live, which was its own thing) competing against each other was a lot of fun.
That hasn’t been the case for a while, in great parts due to COVID. Frankly, I don’t think it’ll be coming back at all, because enough time will have passed by that WWE will have forgotten about it.
It should, though, and it should return exactly as it did in the past. Just have NXT vs. NXT UK. That’s all you need. It could be a TakeOver event, a series of extra recordings like how it was in previous years (and like the Mae Young Classic and such), or it can be a special two-episode edition of the weekly programs. By that, I mean call it “NXT: Worlds Collide” and “NXT UK: Worlds Collide” where people go between the two shows and compete against each other. Send some US talent over to NXT UK for some matches and vice versa.
Taboo Tuesday / Cyber Sunday
Both of these names are terrible and have outlived their usefulness for specific gimmick shows. Instead, Taboo Tuesday should be at most a special edition of NXT where fans can vote on something, while Cyber Sunday should just be repurposed as a special sale for WWE Shop prior to Cyber Monday.
Armageddon / Unforgiven / Judgment Day
It’ll come off as blasphemous, but I’ve never liked any of these names. They’re too blah. I’m okay with none of them coming back in any fashion.
If they do have to come back, or if you want to know what I’d do with them if I was told that I needed to find a purpose for them and couldn’t opt for not doing that, I’d make Armageddon the name of a gimmick match of some kind, Unforgiven would be maybe a documentary series about feuds that were never settled, and Judgment Day would be the name of someone’s finisher like a new one for Karrion Kross, I guess.
Breaking Point
This was such a good name and they only used it once! The shattered glass imagery was so perfect for pay-per-view graphics, too.
If they aren’t going to ever bring it back as a generic pay-per-view that could go on at any time of the year, I’d suggest a sort of rechristening of how they name their gimmick matches. WWE can’t keep having “No Disqualification” and “Street Fight” and “No Holds Barred” and “Unsanctioned” matches along with “Extreme Rules”. It should just be “an Extreme Rules match” with a clarification of any special stipulations if it’s different from No DQ and no count-outs, which should be givens.
Likewise, if something is a submission match combined with an I Quit match, instead of calling it either of those, call it a “Breaking Point Match”—the thought being that you have to push the opponent to their breaking point. They can tap out, say they quit, or they can be knocked out.
If not that, keep bringing it back as the submission system in the video games where you can see that you’ve brought someone to the breaking point where they’re going to tap out.
Bragging Rights
Since the brand supremacy angle has been incorporated into Survivor Series, let’s call the elimination tag team matches the “Bragging Rights” matches. Yes, they’re traditional Survivor Series matches, but let’s subtitle them as bragging rights, since nobody actually wins anything.
If not, book a match for WrestleMania that is cross-branded that can be the bragging rights match.
Roadblock / No Way Out
For years, I’ve been repeating the same thing: Elimination Chamber was better when it was called No Way Out, but at the very least, they should refer to it as I do in my articles, as “the roadblock to WrestleMania” because it’s a big obstacle in the way of someone making it to The Grandest Stage of Them All.
Champions can lose their titles and not be in the main event of WrestleMania because of this. It’s definitely a roadblock.
By no means should “Roadblock: End of the Line” return in December anymore. That was a misguided idea.
Battleground
Overall, Battleground works significantly better as that cartoony brawling game rather than a pay-per-view. As simple as it is, keep that going instead of trying to revive it in any other way.
Halftime Heat
Just do it again. There you go. I don’t think WWE will be doing this any time soon while they’re still connected to FOX, but once that partnership dissolves, they should be free again to host some sort of Super Bowl Halftime Heat thing.
I’d love to see SuperBrawl brought back in that capacity, too, by the way. If you want to be cheeky about it, call it “WWE SuperBrawl: Halftime Heat” and really confuse people.
How would you like to see these pay-per-view names be repurposed? Keep the discussion going in the comments below!
Trending Stories
You can keep up with all your wrestling news right here on eWrestlingNews.com. Or, you can follow us over on our Twitter and Facebook pages.
