Hate to bump old threads but this may be useful to someone in the future. My group and I also disliked the shaken/wound system RAW in savage worlds. I designed a solution, it's still green in play-testing but seems to work very well:
Since Toughness is mostly the deciding factor on whether a character takes a wound or not, I'd say the best thing to do would be to just double the wounds a Wild Card can take before becoming Incapacitated. Give All Wild Cards 6 wounds and only count every other wound as a penalty to Trait checks (2 wounds = -1, 4 wounds = -2, 6 wounds = -3, and 7 wounds = Incapacitated).
I took a similar approach because I love wounds in SW, just not how much shaken comes into play. It's downright annoying at times, due to it being able to take PCs pretty much out of action and make hitting and damaging enemies unsatisfying if they recover the next round (this is meant to be blanketed by GM description). It seems to actually slow down play for us, because we like seeing actual incremental results on a damaging hit.
Creatures are no longer shaken when they get hit in combat. If a hit surpasses toughness they're immediately wounded. This wound can be anything from a bruise to a severed head (generally reserving the more gruesome descriptions for extras and minions and heavy hits).
I made this formula for Wild Cards. Each PC has a certain amount of 'wound slots', depending on certain variables.
Wound slots = 1/2 vigor + 3
Wounds now look like this (each [] = one wound slot):
(Incap) [-3] [-2] [-1] [ ] [d4] [d6] [d8] [d10] [d12]
Wild Cards also gain an additional wound slot every time they gain a rank (up to 4 additional wound slots at Legendary). They can also take an edge to get a wound slot (I called it 'Meat Shield' and gave it Novice, Spirit d8+ req's). Max. wound slot amount is 14 (vigor d12, legendary, meat shield edge). Although you don't have to include that edge.
Example: Azara is a seasoned character with a vigor of d8. 1/2 her vigor is 4. Adding 3 she has a base wound slot amount equal to 7. She also gained another wound slot when she became a seasoned hero. Azara has a total of eight wounds she can take before becoming incapacitated.
This system makes PCs more durable, which I think caters more to a D&D style of play. It also increases the power curve slightly as characters gain ranks. I'm undecided on whether or not I want to put raise caps on damage, we'll see how it comes into play.
For NPC's and monsters, I've created a new tier and modified the extras.
Extra/minion: This creature only has one wound slot. Once it's hit, it's incap'ed.
Elite: This creature is a bit more advanced than an extra. It has a number of wound slots equal to 1/2 its vigor die. 'Elite' doesn't necessarily mean it has received more training or is gifted, it merely means the creature is tougher and needs to be concentrated on more than an extra.'
Wild Card: These creatures and NPCs use the same formula for wound slots as the player characters. They can also use bennies.
Hope this post helps a bit.