This in itself organically creates storylines IMO

I'm all for comedy acts or segments, if they're 1. not overly done or relied upon, 2. actually funny, and more importantly 3. aren't essentially a pro wrestling parody and/or don't shit on the product with pretty blatant hints of "we all know this is fake bullshit" by the talent and the announcers. Today, WWE does all of this poorly with its "comedy".

Wrestlemania well on its way to lasting 12 hours and finishing up around 3am

Remember when the In Your House PPVs were every month and only 2 hours?

Based on stories from former writers, a lot of that is due to Vince's crazy habits in Creative especially with him constantly changing things. Every time they do manage to hire decent writers, they never last long in the company because of this and work attrition.

Even worse whenever they hire continuity editor since they last a lot less on the job than the writers do.

A few years ago I would have been in this thread complaining, but have just lost the will now. Apathy has set in. I don't watch anymore and have moved on.

It's now fully a kids show with the same formula every week.

In days gone by, New Day would have been split ages ago, as it is beyond stale, but the kids keep buying the wacky merch, so it just keeps going and going.

TV isn't as important as it was, just produce mindnumbing content, and lots of it, that will keep kids buying your crap, and call it a day.

UPDATE:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Report: <br><br>WWE Is Considering Selling Broadcast Rights To Their &quot;Big 4&quot; PPV's To Fox Or Other Major National Channels To Air These PPV's On Live TV Instead Of The WWE Network. This Change In Business Strategy Is Due To The Current High Demand Of Their Programming <a href="https://t.co/HrZ2OPDFjG">pic.twitter.com/HrZ2OPDFjG</a></p>&mdash; SW (@SliceWrestling) <a href="https://twitter.com/SliceWrestling/status/999010077825818625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 22, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I hope they do so I can finally convince myself to cancel the Network.

Kind of like how every episode of Pokemon would have Ash encounter someone on his travels and learn a moral lesson, while Team Rocket attacks, gives the same promo, and then does the job.

Plus the in-ring action is supposed to tell a story.

That's big. More viewers.

Really donut want commercials in the middle of the Royal Rumble match or WrestleMania matches

yeah that would hurt the network losing the big 4. wrestlemania month is the only time I buy the network.

Exactly like this, was gonna use Power Rangers, but Pokémon is more apt..

Theres no fn way FOX or any other network is going to broadcast 5 hours of Wrestlemania or any of the other big ppvs.

longer Roman Reigns matches

More Roman Reigns. More commercials. YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

I don't know about that, networks are all about live programing as it leads to less DVR use. Not going to say entirely because I DVR Raw and Smackdown and watch later but I won't DVR NFL, MLB or NASCAR. If networks see WWE programing falling in line with live sporting events then I could see them getting a big deal out this.

The first thought that ran through my head when I read this was "What the fuck for?"

Then I scroll into the second page and read Slik's tweet that WWE has a "high demand for the programming". And I then thought "Really?".

What's the high demand when the product for roughly the last year has for the most part sucked?

WWE would either need Mania to air even earlier in the day or have a mid-show break for local news stuff.

The Superbowl can get away with it since FOX only hosts it once every 3 years and FOX can just push it to 11PM if needed like others do unlike Mania which doesn't end till well after 11PM now.

part of mania could be on fs1 then do the prime 4 hours on main fox

I'm not convinced that it can last forever. At some point, when people drop off because it's just too gross, what then? That snap-back is going to be hard. If they just go so out of vogue that they can't retain 1 million viewers or can't sell out a major show like a SummerSlam, because no one wants to go to those things anymore, at some point those revenue streams are going to have to change in terms of the flow expected, which means expenses are going to have to change dramatically, which means that perception is going to change further.

I'm not sure the WWE is the rolling juggernaut its recent financial coups would have you believe.

Okay, I was thinking about mentioning this as its something I was sort of thinking about when bored the other day, but it's actually come up, so that's cool:

I was actually thinking that it would benefit the WWE with these television deals to make use of the network access. SmackDown is going to one, but doing things like Saturday Night's Main Event was back in the day could be a great way to get people in that just wouldn't check out other WWE things, or not have the chance to.

This got me thinking that instead of doing SNME, they should just put Survivor Series on NBC or something. In my perfect little fantasy scenario, they got Shawn Michaels to come out of retirement and wrestle Samoa Joe on it as something landmark and special, but whatever. It'd be interesting to know what a major show would get on NBC or something like that.

I didn't think they would do it with all the major shows, but I think their PPVs that aren't really PPVs and don't have that intrinsic value would be more useful pimped out to networks. I still think the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania and probably SummerSlam should be traditional PPVs, or things that you need to purchase through the Network at least, but building up free-to-air TV specials that people give a shit about (hopefully) could be a great tool.

It also forces you to work within timing parameters again, which is a skill you don't really want to lose as a company, and creates shows that are going to be a lot more digestible as your WWE Network Specials continue to suck wind and kill crowds.

Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, Money in the Bank and SummerSlam could be prestige-tier shows; Fastlane (to boost interest heading into WrestleMania), Backlash (to play on interest coming out of WrestleMania), No Mercy (September) and Survivor Series could be NBC/FOX specials.

Not like PPVs don't already have commercials, they'd either expand the time given for that or do the side by side that they do for Raw and Smackdown.

Vince has been in the game for a long time now, and things change. How could anyone that has been going to work every day for 40 years, that has had to deal with the constantly movement of the product be on the cutting edge? When has the dude ever had a chance to step back and look at things from outside -- or even above?

Vince has lucked into a lot too. There have been some products and some minds that could have really taken it to him, but his biggest rival was Bischoff, who signed Hogan to a deal with creative license, which was always going to come back and bite them. Even then he got Austin and Rock coming up so close to each other, got some great people from WCW's mismanagement and now has a monopoly on a product that can largely sell on the nostalgia from those more competitive times.

These new television deals are a symptom of TV changing in a way that Vince could have never even predicted when they went back to USA Network last decade, let alone when he first took WWF national. UFC's success and popularity has allowed big money deals to be thrown around for WWE, and he's got no problem capitalizing on foreign propaganda initiatves either. It's like he's got the world's only supply for something that isn't even really in demand, but will sell because it resembles something that people think they used to like.

Ace scenario! Making RR, WM and SS available through the Network is a good idea as people will definitely subscribe for those shows. I think WWE will learn how to maximize their time w/ these new deals.

Only 35 minutes of video packages. Gotta squeeze in more commercials... on a PPV!

It's so odd how the company has slid into what it is content-wise now. It feels like we've had the same thing for a long time, but when you look at what WWE is now to what it was, the difference is jarring. It's just...a fucked presentation, haha.

I used to think of Vince as a promo guy, but no one talks really well anymore. Everyone has a script and they just stand around and try and sound witty and eloquent without offending anyone. It's like...where are the balls in these promos? Vince always seemed like a guy who was all about the presentation of people as stars and these star personalities, but now he's almost phobic of anyone with genuine charisma.

The work in the ring is so fucking gentrified. It's one of my least favorite aspects of wrestling today. Everyone does the exact match, they just have different "trademark moves" that you just slot into the position. They really do wrestle like video game characters that have been programmed to all have a few specials. It's so fucking gross, and I object to the suggestion you occasionally hear that the work is better now than it's ever been, because the matches are longer and there are lots of great wrestlers on the roster. None of them can hold my attention because their work isn't organic and structured to make me believe in them or invest any emotion. They aren't working properly.

The promos suck, the ring work sucks, the personalities suck, the presentation is this bright pinwheel of slogans and gloss. I just want the work back in the WWE, with some genuine stars who talk shit and wrestle like they're in something that's actually competitve, instead of the socialist compound that wrestling has become. I want the politics and the backstage shoot for position to come back, because that at least made something about the business real. That the top guy had a spot they wanted to protect instead of petitioning for Zack Ryder to get a token run with a belt.

The business has got no balls to it anymore. No one means it and the only people that are getting into it are geek marks that kind of perpetuate the tropes that get in the way, because we're all so used to them. No one tries to work anymore, and weirdly enough people think that working is "bad" and disrespectful to fans or whatever. People have forgotten what the goal of this is, and why that makes the business so fascinating.

I'm all about the big 4 having extended times and the PPV's with gimmicks being longer. But you aren't selling me on the importance of having Great Balls of Fire run for 4 hours especially when Brock isn't even defending his title at sub big 4 ppv's

According to PWI, WWE confirmed the start time for PPVs will now be pushed back an hour although all events being 4 hours won't be the standard, at least for now. They just want to leave enough wiggle room to be able to go well over the 3 hour limit for events going forward.

On the note of WWE putting the big four on Network TV...

Obviously a golden idea for WWE but not for me. I like having control over the show, I really like WWE Network and streaming/casting on the service is really easy and high quality. Sure the shows are already filled with commercials but they come only when breaks are happening. I dunno, it would be a change that makes me uncomfortable.

I can't fathom watching something for 4 hours every month. I still haven't watched Wrestlemania because it's so ridiculously long.

I always tell myself that I am going to go to the movies more often, and then I think "Nah. Sitting down for 3 hours is going to suck."