Jim Ross reveals what current wrestlers are "brainwashed" to do
Jim Ross has a great mind for pro wrestling, having been in the business for nearly five decades. The current AEW commentator has shared his opinions about pro wrestling on his podcast Grilling Jr, and on a recent episode talked about a "philosophy" in pro wrestling that he does not agree with.
Jim Ross spoke about how wrestlers, even those in AEW, are hell-bent on having lengthy matches and exceeding the time assigned to them for it.
He said that some matches are far too long and questioned if these wrestlers feel that they are not good enough to tell their story in the time allotted to them.
Jim Ross says wrestlers are "brainwashed" to have longer matches
Jim Ross said this is prevalent in the company that he works for currently, i.e. AEW, as well:
"I believe that even in AEW we have some match times that at times, appear to be too long. Guys are brainwashed [into believing] ‘I got to have 15 minutes, I got to have 18.’ Why? Are you not a good enough worker to tell your story in the time that you’re assigned? Apparently not. I think that’s a big fallacy in the business today is that you got to have ‘x’ number of minutes to tell your story. Where’s that written down at? I don’t agree with that philosophy." (H/T WrestlingInc)
Historically, matches on television did not last long as the longer matches were reserved for pay-per-views.
In WWE's most recent pay-per-view Clash of Champions, there were eight matches on the card. Three of those matches - the triple threat ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship match between Sami Zayn, AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy, the WWE Championship match between Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton, and the main event, the Universal Championship match between Roman Reigns and Jey Uso, exceeded 20 minutes. Four matches on the card were under 10 minutes, while one match just exceeded 10 minutes.
AEW's last pay-per-view All Out had 11 matches, of which three matches exceeded 20 minutes and four matches exceeded 15 minutes.