By James Caldwell, PWTorch.com assistant editor

WWE Studios is currently working on scripted TV series featuring WWE wrestlers that they plan on pitching to TV networks and cable channels to help promote the WWE brand. The shows would take place outside of the "WWE Universe" of Raw, Smackdown, and ECW.

The goal is to expand WWE's visibility in the entertainment market to help cross-promote WWE's regular wrestling programming, the wrestling stars, and theatrical and DVD movies featuring the likes of John Cena and Ted DiBiase, Jr.

Variety published a report that WWE is developing scripts they hope TV distributors in the U.S. will pick up before they look to international markets.

"To expand its aud(ience), WWE Studios is also branching into television, developing several scripted projects that would feature wrestlers or promote the brand it hopes to start shopping around to not only U.S. networks but overseas channels as well," Variety reports.

WWE is confident they will be successful expanding the brand name with Vince McMahon's dedication to the division. WWE Studios head Michael Lake says they're trying to lay a foundation in Hollywood to push these projects forward.

"You have to back it up with something," Lake said. "With Vince we have a champion who wants to succeed in the movie business."

Caldwell's Analysis: This sounds very much like the idea for a Mick Foley sitcom where TNA could have promoted its brand (or perhaps Foley would have just promoted himself or WCW angles from 1991) in a different setting than a traditional "wrestling universe" that the mainstream public is leery of. WWE has to find a way to get past the wrestling stigma they continue to promote with absurd storylines such as the Big Show-Edge-Vickie Guerrero love triangle if they are going to be taken seriously by movie fans who might be turned off by a John Cena movie simply because the WWE logo is slapped on the trailer.

Then again, the WWE brand could also do more good than harm by adding credibility as a name-worthy entertainment entity promoting a movie. WWE taking its stars into mainstream TV with sitcoms or dramas or action shows modeled after "King of Queens, "24," or "Prison Break," could help break down those self-created walls that could make this WWE Studios investment a worthwhile venture. Otherwise, it will be one monumental bust with the "blowback effect" of McMahon feeding the anti-wrestling stigma for the past 25 years that prevents him from making money with WWE Studios.

Link: Variety report on WWE Studios biz.

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