It’s completely wild that in 2024 wrestling has by no means been broader, extra accessible, and higher produced — but neither of professional wrestling’s megaliths have a clue the way to placed on a pay-per-view that’s pleasant to audiences. In back-to-back weeks each WWE and AEW have run their very own exhibits, each utilizing their very own distinctive approaches to what they assume wrestling followers need, and on each events, they’ve missed the mark.
The AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door present ran first, and whereas there was all the time the expectation it might be an extended tremendous present, in complete we acquired a ludicrously overblown 15 match card with 205 minutes of in-ring wrestling, and a complete run time of over 4 hours. PPV pacing has lengthy been a problem for AEW, who frequently take a “extra is extra” strategy, cramming as many matches as humanly attainable right into a card in a approach the place there’s a lot to soak up as a viewer that it’s not possible to completely recognize anybody match in isolation. Burnout is actual consequently, and most of the time a number of the prime matches on an AEW card are met with “I simply need this to be over,” slightly than the thrill they warrant.
On the opposite finish of the spectrum is WWE, and its blatant disregard for viewers as something however shoppers. Saturday evening’s Money within the Bank was one of the vital missing, clear, and terrible exhibits the corporate has ever produced, with extra in-show promoting than precise wrestling. In complete their card was solely 5 matches, for a complete of 86 minutes of wrestling in a three-hour present. It was an limitless suite of advertisements for Prime Hydration, The Boys streaming on Prime Video, and Wheatley American Vodka — served advert nauseam to make PR executives in a boardroom pleased, at the price of followers of their dwelling rooms.
How are each firms screwing this up so badly?
Corporate tribalism is fueling the stupidity
It wasn’t way back that each firms had been operating tight, tidy, three hour exhibits with sufficient wrestling to make everybody pleased with out feeling prefer it overstayed its welcome. Now it’s as if each WWE and AEW are so determined to show their individuality that they’ve swung to ridiculous extremes.
AEW retains branding itself as “the actual wrestling firm,” and dammit if that doesn’t imply cramming a present so packed filled with wrestling that nothing has influence anymore. Forget these eight-match playing cards of the previous, we’re doing 10, 11, 12 — how about 15? The shorter WWE runs, the longer AEW will get, and there’s seemingly no one within the constructing who understands pacing or viewer burnout. Sure, it’s good to say “We’re supplying you with 15 matches on your $50,” however enhancing is an artwork — and AEW is in dire want of it on the subject of their playing cards.
Conversely, WWE has by no means been extra transparently within the enterprise of commodifying its viewers and disrespecting them within the course of. Putting on a three-hour present with only one hr and 20 minutes of wrestling is a travesty, one that’s clearly rooted in boosting share costs and delivering a return to advertisers. At no level did somebody step in and say “this present is mild,” and in the event that they did then had been shouted down. It’s an extension of what we’re seeing each week on Raw and Smackdown, the place wrestling is a distant reminiscence rather than promoting and vignettes.
What did PPVs was?
If we return to wrestling’s most profitable chapter, “The Attitude Era” the place each WWE and WCW had been firing on full cylinders, each firms had been way more able to placing on a cohesive present. Going again to Summer of 1997 every firm had very tight sub-three hour exhibits that didn’t really feel missing or overblown.
- WWF King of the Ring: 2 hr 46 minutes, 8 matches (103 minutes in-ring)
- WCW Bash on the Beach 2 hr 45 minutes, 9 matches (110 minutes in-ring)
Neither of those exhibits felt missing for both in-ring motion, or storytelling — and each fell inside 10 minutes of one another in precise wrestling, whereas having nearly an identical runtimes. A big a part of this was how pay-per-view slots had been booked, with every firm solely having three hour blocks to e-book and run a present in, as mandated by cable firms.
Now, with streaming taking on, there’s basically no grownup within the room to inform an organization what they need to or shouldn’t do. AEW feels prefer it has to run these large four-plus hour exhibits to justify their $50 price ticket, whereas WWE is aware of it doesn’t even must attempt anymore as a result of its media agreements with Peacock on PPVs, which merely mandates they placed on exhibits with nothing being stated in regards to the high quality.
Without the stress to truly promote the present, WWE can pull stunts like spend the vast majority of its time on promoting, slightly than wrestling.
Can we ever get again to having a balanced present?
Perhaps. The back-to-back weeks of Forbidden Door and Money within the Bank has wrestling followers speaking greater than ever about how these firms are operating their exhibits, and what they’re doing mistaken.
This actually shouldn’t be that sophisticated. We’re not asking both AEW or WWE to reinvent the wheel, simply give us a present that lasts 3 hrs or much less, with about half of the present being precise in-ring wrestling. Something that’s concise sufficient to completely get pleasure from in a night, with out being so skinny it feels prefer it was produced by a TikToker on Adderall.
WWE already has it proper with their NXT exhibits. On Sunday Heatwave was a damn-near completely paced present. Now they simply must extrapolate that over to the principle roster.
AEW must study that much less is extra. WWE must study that the naked minimal feels just like the naked minimal. Just give wrestling again to wrestling followers, and never in service of petty wars or company overlords.
