Str8Shooter wrote:If they're not going to shorten the show or split it into 2 nights, couldn't they just move the start time up a bit?
The preshow started at 5 Eastern in NY, main show at 7. Couldn't they move the preshow to like 2 Eastern and the main card to 4 Eastern? The even if it's 7 hours long it's still over by 9 local time. Part of the problem is it's late and people get tired and are worried about how they're getting home if they're taking transit that late or if if they have to get up early.
The show is on a Sunday, are people less likely to watch Mania in the afternoon as opposed to the evening? I feel like if people want to watch it they'll do it anyway.
I think you would see a decrease in the number of people that watch it for sure, especially if you move it that much. For one thing, people are typically more busy during the day on a Sunday than they are in the evening, so if you aren't a serious follower of WWE you're less likely to tune in. Especially when you consider people can now watch WrestleMania on the Network for free, they probably get a lot of casual viewers that way. Also, if you start Mania at 2 eastern, that means it starts at 11 am on the west coast where a huge portion of America lives and that's way early, there's people that aren't even home from church at that time.
AkydefGoldberg wrote:I got a sense from browsing through a review report that the showed went and flew by but it seems watching it, that folks got tired and gave up. Having a shorter card packed with quality is a much more favourable outcome than cramming everyone into it, but why use common sense eh Vince?
Eh, I don't know that this is really the case so much this year. I mean I actually think for myself I would have missed a little something if any of the matches were left off the card. That's not to say there's not a way to trim more than an hour off the show though, even by keeping all the people on the card that were there:
- I didn't need Alexa Bliss introducing the show and certainly didn't need Hulk Hogan coming out just to mess up the name of the stadium twice. That plus Paul Heyman meant that we were 15 minutes into the show before Lesnar and Rollins were both out there.
- They took too much time playing out the stuff with Miz's father in his match with Shane. That 15 minute match would have been much cleaner and more concise without and better at about 10 minutes.
- The women's tag match was terrible and probably could have been left off the card, but I understand why it was there with those being new belts. However, it still could have been cleaner if it was just Bayley and Sasha vs the IIconics and have the IIconics win by dirty means quicker in the match.
- The Cena-Elias segment could have been shorter too, Elias took too long to get to the inevitable punchline moment when Cena came out.
- No f'ing dance breaks at Mania
- No Ron Simmons DAMN jokes at Mania
- HHH vs Batista should have been at least 15 minutes shorter.
- They should have cut 7 promo videos for matches.
Conservatively, that cuts at least an hour off of that show and a show that ends at 12:30 am (1.5 hours later than PPV's used to end) would have ended at 11:30 pm and I think people would have been much happier.