WWE Overload

[iMPACt!]

As a long term fan of the WWE (16+ years) I've remained a pretty consistent fan with very few gripes with the product (other than the hideous weekly guest GM period).

 

I'll regularly watch the product however recently I've started to get to the point I can barely make it through a show and the only thing I can point to is total over exposure of the product. There are just far too many hours required to keep up with. The rumours of the two PPVs a month coming up just adds to the situation.

 

Let's take a four week period for a month to keep things simple. Raw, Smackdown and NXT, 6 hours total x 4 = 28 hours and two 3 hour PPVs x 2 = 6 hours. Combine that and you get 34 hours a month to commit to. That's 10 hours more than a standard yearly season of a US drama or 3.4 times a season of Game of Thrones.

 

The PPVs are creeping up in length also. Money in the Bank came in at nearly three and a half hours last month. As for Wrestlemania this year, including preshows which had matches, you needed to invest SEVEN hours. I could have flown to New York in that time.

 

I love wrestling, I really do but if they wonder why ratings are in the pan this has got to be a major reason. Unless you are a kid with time on your hands, unemployed or just have no life, you can't possibly have time to watch the entire product or be mentally unstable enough to watch your 100000th Dolph Ziggler match and thoroughly enjoy the experience.

 

Does anybody else feel the same? If not, well at the very least my thread title will have given the WWE a name idea for one of their 90 PPVs they'll no doubt go up to next year.

[Michael_3165]

I have to admit I turned off watching WWE routinely around 2002 when the brand split forced me to watch every RAW and Smackdown. This was in part because I refused to pay upward of £15 for a PPV every month though have to admit I did subscribe to the Network in the lead to WM30 as the money per month was more than worth the PPV and the classic content. 

I don't watch RAW, Smackdown or NXT consistently though will often skim through some of the shows that I have heard good things about. Even with all the PPVs of the past ten years on the network I rarely watch a whole one because I don't feel the need to watch Sheamus, Ziggler et al doing the same thing over and over every other month. As you rightly say the market is oversaturated so I pick and choose what might be fun to watch (Maggle!) rather than sitting, torturing myself for no reason other than habit. 

 

The PPV charging in the early 2000s really did push me away from the company and they have never really gotten me back as a fully paid up member of the 'Universe'. 

[SpursRiot2012]

I've been back watching pretty regularly since 2011. Before that I took a big break between the early 2000s until then, dropping in here are there. I think I'm about to take another big break. At the very least, I won't be watching the weekly TV unless I hear it's very good one week. I'll stick to PPVs and Takeovers. I haven't got time for Raw and NXT every week now, let alone adding in Smackdown.

[Undefeated Steak]

Of all the faults you can pick with WWE, this is their biggest. Their product has transitioned from a fun, zany alter-world into something that's a commitment and even a chore to watch. Raw has blended into one long, boring Groundhog day over the last 10 years, save for a few great angles here and there.

 

There's little to no character development or advancement. No risks. No excitement. The fans hijack the show out of boredom. No new stars have been made in forever. Their headliners are booked as upper midcard acts and the less said about Ziggler and co the better.

 

Some things in wrestling seem like they happened two minutes ago (20 years since Kane debuted?) but it's beginning to feel like a lifetime ago since WWE was a fun, exciting, enjoyable show to watch. It's impossible to make it fun again when they're spreading a paper thin roster over 40 hours od programming each month.

 

Kids are brought up on 10 minute vlogs and YouTube videos. They're fucked if they think the next gen of fans will have the patience to tune into Raw in the millions each week like we did.

 

Edit: Am I the only one who thought the thread title was the name of their next PPV?

[ColinBollocks]

In theory, all this TV time should be a benefit for WWE, as it gives them more time to build characters and what not, but they seem to take the lazy option and seem to see the content as a chore to write for. With that mindset you get hours and hours of must skip telly that seems like it's there to just fill the time, so they can focus on the one of the two or three feuds they've bothered with.

 

It baffles me that a company so brilliantly put together as WWE have such a horrid creative set up for their telly shows. It's only further highlighted at how tired their format is when they make engrossing content for their network like Breaking Ground or something so regularly as funny as the Edge and Christian show. It doesn't add up.

[Philjax]

I was really high on the product after Mania but as soon as they announced the brand split since then they've pretty much been on autopilot. You know nothing will happen until the 19th. PPV's, no problem, i'm always going to enjoy those. I have the network and i love watching the docs and trashy shit but i'm just getting through Raw as quick as poss. Impact is never a chore to watch though in the last 5-6 weeks, so basically the same period they announced the 'extension.'

[MrK]

Genuinely assumed this was the thread for the next PPV.

[air_raid]

I'm more into WWE than I have been for years due to the amount and range of content they are creating. I enjoy the PPV, NXT, Breaking Ground and even Camp WWE.

 

I don't watch Raw or SmackDown hardly at all though. That's the chore you refer to. I wouldn't dedicate a guarantee 5 hours a week every week to a show I ENJOYED these days, never mind the slog that WWE weekly telly became.

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

I find I avoid the over load by cherry picking what I watch, for the simple fact that after 25 years of watching consistently you can grow tired of repetition. What I tend to do is read the Raw results on a Tuesday morning and if it's deemed a good show then I'll watch it in full, if not then I simply watch the 2-5 min clips on Youtube, watch NXT, the Takeover shows and PPVs in full and watch the top 10 moments for Smackdown. The time saved on WWE then goes on watching more films and LU

[King Pitcos]

I find I avoid the over load by cherry picking what I watch, for the simple fact that after 25 years of watching consistently you can grow tired of repetition. What I tend to do is read the Raw results on a Tuesday morning and if it's deemed a good show then I'll watch it in full

That seems mad to me. Is it just wrestling you do that with, or films as well? I can't imagine sitting watching three hours of something just after reading the full synopsis. Even the best Raw episode can be a slog at the best of times, it must be a million times worse watching it pre-armed with all the results.

[Bellenda Carlisle]

I can't believe people who watch wrestling after purposefully reading the results either, it must make it so shit.

 

I have to admit I turned off watching WWE routinely around 2002

That was a terrible time to stop watching, it was the best year ever.

[Michael_3165]

I can't believe people who watch wrestling after purposefully reading the results either, it must make it so shit.

 

I have to admit I turned off watching WWE routinely around 2002

That was a terrible time to stop watching, it was the best year ever.

 

 

I watched but just not every week. All the good stuff on PPV I would google. 

[SpursRiot2012]

I don't read spoilers. What I do is, I open the Raw thread and scroll quickly down to the first poster who's opinion I respect and read the first line. Usually it's, "boring/shite show this week".

[Guest]

If its boring you, don't watch. Many of us blindly still watch and keep up to date in the hope that something amazing is going to pop up that is must see tv. Sadly wwe doesn't do that anymore. And if it ever does happen, we live in an era with the network that anything you do miss, it's easy to catch back up.

[Drfunke]

Overload was a decent show...good opener. Main event was great till the poorly booked finish