Promos

[Duke Mongoose]

When I was a kid, and even when I was a teenager trying to break into the business, the attitude for promos was always "TV time is valuable. If you can't say what you need to say in 60 seconds then you can't cut a promo". At some point WWF/E and WCW broke that pattern and the 10-15 minute in-ring monologue became the standard, so much so that WWE puts a talking segment at the top of every hour of their TV shows.

From my point of view, if I was a person scrolling the channels and came across the start of a WWE show and thought "let me see what this wrestling thing is about" and the first impression I got was Randy Orton standing in the ring in a hoodie and his underwear talking for 10 minutes, I'd change the channel. Not because the promo is bad, but because that's not wrestling. Imagine turning on a professional sports game for the first time and instead of getting to see the game played the first thing you had to sit through was a press conference.

Obviously I'm in no position to change anything about the current product, but in my opinion there should be a match to open the show and at the top of every hour to hook viewers. The promos should all be done backstage (live or pre-tape) and be no longer than 2 minutes with maybe one interview segment in the show that's a whole 10 minute segment (Think Piper's Pit or when Mean Gene would interview someone on Superstars).

I don't need to watch Miz TV, then the KO Show, then Seth Rollins all spend precious TV time just talking on this supposed "wrestling" show. And don't get me started on wrestlers getting MULTIPLE non-wrestling segments on one show, that's a different problem entirely.

[Skullgore]

I felt like AEW was doing a pretty good job at delivering the right ratio of wrestling to talking. The pandemic has had them lean more on the non-wrestling segments, but it is still nowhere near as bad as WWE is. That is just one of the many things that has bugged me about WWE since the Attitude Era. Especially when the authority figure became a permanent fixture. The show opens with 15 minutes of at least one guy having a problem with someone else. Gee, if only there was way in a wrestling company where people could settle their disputes with one another... 🤔

And it happens every week. It is like everyone has amnesia and it takes the collective brain power of all of them to realize how pro wrestling works after about 20 minutes. AEW is getting this right. Oh, two guys just brawled backstage about who should get the next title shot? When they come back from the break, they announce those two will wrestle each other next week and the winner gets a title match at the PPV. Simple, straightforward, and it took 5 minutes tops. My kind of wrestling show.

[Duke Mongoose]

Nov 13, 2020 23:40:08 GMT -5 Skullgore said:

I felt like AEW was doing a pretty good job at delivering the right ratio of wrestling to talking. The pandemic has had them lean more on the non-wrestling segments, but it is still nowhere near as bad as WWE is. That is just one of the many things that has bugged me about WWE since the Attitude Era. Especially when the authority figure became a permanent fixture. The show opens with 15 minutes of at least one guy having a problem with someone else. Gee, if only there was way in a wrestling company where people could settle their disputes with one another... 🤔

And it happens every week. It is like everyone has amnesia and it takes the collective brain power of all of them to realize how pro wrestling works after about 20 minutes. AEW is getting this right. Oh, two guys just brawled backstage about who should get the next title shot? When they come back from the break, they announce those two will wrestle each other next week and the winner gets a title match at the PPV. Simple, straightforward, and it took 5 minutes tops. My kind of wrestling show.

AEW also doesn't pretend that the cameraman is invisible, which is one of the STUPIDEST things WWE does on the regular.

"This is just between us, right?"
Yeah, you guys, and the camera guy, and the boom operator, and the nationwide television audience. Wrestling isn't a movie or TV show, so ignoring the cameras makes the wrestlers look like idiots.

[Pierre The Enormous]

Nov 13, 2020 7:56:02 GMT -5 Duke Mongoose said:

When I was a kid, and even when I was a teenager trying to break into the business, the attitude for promos was always "TV time is valuable. If you can't say what you need to say in 60 seconds then you can't cut a promo". At some point WWF/E and WCW broke that pattern and the 10-15 minute in-ring monologue became the standard, so much so that WWE puts a talking segment at the top of every hour of their TV shows.

From my point of view, if I was a person scrolling the channels and came across the start of a WWE show and thought "let me see what this wrestling thing is about" and the first impression I got was Randy Orton standing in the ring in a hoodie and his underwear talking for 10 minutes, I'd change the channel. Not because the promo is bad, but because that's not wrestling. Imagine turning on a professional sports game for the first time and instead of getting to see the game played the first thing you had to sit through was a press conference.

Obviously I'm in no position to change anything about the current product, but in my opinion there should be a match to open the show and at the top of every hour to hook viewers. The promos should all be done backstage (live or pre-tape) and be no longer than 2 minutes with maybe one interview segment in the show that's a whole 10 minute segment (Think Piper's Pit or when Mean Gene would interview someone on Superstars).

I don't need to watch Miz TV, then the KO Show, then Seth Rollins all spend precious TV time just talking on this supposed "wrestling" show. And don't get me started on wrestlers getting MULTIPLE non-wrestling segments on one show, that's a different problem entirely.

Back when I was watching WWE somewhat regularly whenever I heard "style and grace I'm never gonna be done....." I knew I was in for a long 20 minutes

[Slashmaster]

I think the talk show segment is the laziest trope in wrestling. Can't think of a way to get XYZ on the show? Just have them interview another guy who is just spinning his wheels for 20 minutes to kill some time on our 3 hour show.

[Duke Mongoose]

Dec 5, 2020 17:06:32 GMT -5 Slashmaster said:

I think the talk show segment is the laziest trope in wrestling. Can't think of a way to get XYZ on the show? Just have them interview another guy who is just spinning his wheels for 20 minutes to kill some time on our 3 hour show.

Imagine how many people they could get on TV in that 3 hour show if they booked more, shorter matches designed to get people over instead of only booking things that have an angle behind them and making them all go 20 minutes.

3 hours is too long for a regular tv show that isn't a live sporting event. I feel like 2 hours is the longest pro wrestling should ever be on regular tv.