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They have to do something about the length of WrestleMania

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They have to do something about the length of WrestleMania

Postby Everlong » Apr 08, '19, 6:25 am

It was like 7.5 hours from the start of matches to the end of the show. Just absolutely ridiculous. The crowd was dead by the end of the show, Coles voice was totally gone, I couldn't even make it through the whole show sitting and watching it at home.
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Re: They have to do something about the length of WrestleMania

Postby The Legend » Apr 08, '19, 7:53 am

Everlong wrote:It was like 7.5 hours from the start of matches to the end of the show. Just absolutely ridiculous. The crowd was dead by the end of the show, Coles voice was totally gone, I couldn't even make it through the whole show sitting and watching it at home.


Yeah, ignoring the pre-show (because me and my friends did), Mania lasted 5 1/2 hours and had 2 1/2 hours of wrestling on it. I was actually surprised a bit by how little wrestling, because there didn't seem to be as much fluff as there usually is on PPV's to drag out the time.

There are definitely some things they need to do to shorten the time frame of PPV's, Mania included. The first is, when did every match on a PPV warrant a 2-3 minute promotional video hyping the match? That needs to be reserved for the 3-4 most important matches of the card. HHH needs to be told whenever he works more than 10 minutes his matches suck so hard.

The WWE did a decent job mixing in some shorter matches on this card (it really could have easily been at least a half-hour longer). However, they really could still step up the storytelling in those shorter matches and make for more entertaining moments.
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Re: They have to do something about the length of WrestleMania

Postby prophet » Apr 08, '19, 8:02 am

I didn’t watch the pre-show but called it a day after the Elias concert. I knew HHH/Batista would be a slog and just didn’t have the energy for it. PPV’s are just too long nowadays it’s exhausting.

Going to sleep when I did was absolutely the right call. I watched the rest of the show this morning when I woke up and man, HHH/Batista was just long and terrible wasn’t it?
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Re: They have to do something about the length of WrestleMania

Postby Messiah » Apr 08, '19, 10:36 am

If the goal is to make sure as many deserving guys get on the show (which I mean isn't terrible logic because they DO have a lot of deserving wrestlers, although the WWE doesn't create enough compelling stories for them), they need to split into two nights. I know there are a lot of logistical things they would have to overcome, but I don't see why it couldn't be done if they planned it out right.

There were 16 matches this year. Day One of WrestleMania (Saturday) could have had this as a card:

Cruiserweight Championship
Women's Battle Royal
RAW Tag Team Championship
AJ Styles vs Randy Orton
Roman Reigns vs Drew McIntyre
Samoa Joe vs Rey Mysterio
Kurt Angle's retirement match
Kofi Kingston vs Daniel Bryan (Main Event)

Day Two of WrestleMania (Sunday) could have had this as a card:

Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
SmackDown Tag Team Championship
Shane McMahon vs The Miz
Triple H vs Batista
Women's Tag Team Championship
Finn Balor vs Lashley
Seth Rollins vs Brock Lesnar
Becky Lynch vs Charlotte vs Ronda Rousey (Main Event)

And if you think one of those cards are lacking in star power or potential match quality? Then you could literally choose from dozens and dozens of guys who weren't involved in anything major on the show and build something for them. Instead of a 4-Way Tag Team Title match, you could have had Ricochet, Nakamura, Rusev, or Black do something else. You could have taken several guys out of the battle royal and did something with them - Almas, Hardy Boyz, Ali, Roode, Gable, Harper, Strowman, etc. Kevin Owens and John Cena didn't even have matches! So they absolutely have the roster to create two strong shows on separate nights. And wrestling fans fucking love wrestling and those who are attending WrestleMania are usually there for the entire weekend so I definitely think that you wouldn't have a problem filling out both shows.

Otherwise as it stands, you are not only ruining your own quality because it's impossible to keep up the momentum for a 5 hour show (I was barely conscious by the conclusion of HHH/Batista), but it ruins how the fans react to the match as well. I can't be the only one who thought Lynch/Rousey/Charlotte didn't feel like a main event going off the fans reactions? And obviously it wasn't the performers who were the problem, the fans were just burnt out. Lynch's win should have gotten a huge reception and it was flat (partially because the ending sucked too). Separating it into 2 events gives you the ability to have big moments without wearing out the audience. And with the WWE Network, it isn't like fans would have to worry about buying two separate PPVs.

If the WWE isn't going to shorten their shows, then this is the route they need to go. They already moved NXT Takeover to Friday. I'd move the Hall of Fame to the middle of the week, WrestleMania I on Saturday, and WrestleMania II on Sunday.
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Re: They have to do something about the length of WrestleMania

Postby Messiah » Apr 08, '19, 10:48 am

^ For reference, those cards are 8 matches long. That is only one less than what WrestleMania 24 had and that was an all-time great Mania. And the #2 card looks as good as the WM 24 one (on surface anyway, WM 24 had stronger stories going in - Edge/Taker, Flair/HBK, Mayweather/Show, Cena/HHH/Orton was fun too for what it was). The #1 card is kind of weak, but LIS you can always add a Cena match. Or Almas match. Or Owens match. Or a bunch of other guys. The roster is stacked, your options and potential are endless. Hell NXT Takeovers be putting on all-time great shows with like 1/4th of the roster and 5 matches! And they make sure their events feel special.
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Re: They have to do something about the length of WrestleMania

Postby Hanley! » Apr 08, '19, 12:47 pm

I think they need to let go of the idea of getting everyone on the card. It's a terrible idea. There are probably wrestlers who only appear on one pay per view a year and it's Wrestlemania. How does that make any sense? What is it ultimately doing for them? I know part of the reason they used to do it was so talent could get their Wrestlemania bonus, but the pay per view bonus model has changed since the Network and there's no reason they can't just pay the talent that gets left off the show.

They should also be cutting some of the bullshit from these cards. John is right, three or four video packages is enough. We don't need a segment announcing the (fake) attendance to the show. We don't need hosts. We certainly don't need any dance breaks, and we don't need Ron Simmons to appear to repeat a joke that everyone has been done with for a decade now.

I saw a stat elsewhere online that there was only 30 minute more wrestling on Wrestlemania than on NXT Takeover. If you don't include the pre-show, Takeover had MORE wrestling. In a show that was two hours shorter than the main Wrestlemania show. That's crazy.
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Re: They have to do something about the length of WrestleMania

Postby Str8Shooter » Apr 08, '19, 10:11 pm

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.
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Re: They have to do something about the length of WrestleMania

Postby AkydefGoldberg » Apr 09, '19, 5:07 am

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?
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Re: They have to do something about the length of WrestleMania

Postby The Legend » Apr 09, '19, 8:04 am

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.
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Re: They have to do something about the length of WrestleMania

Postby GameDesigner14 » Apr 10, '19, 9:49 am

I actually fell asleep watching the Triple H/ Batista match it was that bad :lol
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