7 Controversial ideas to improve WWE programming
The last few years of WWE programming have been somewhat chaotic, in terms of how the shows are presented, and the amount of talent the company has at its disposal. One could argue that the WWE roster is too crowded and that the layout of WWE television/pay-per-views is wrong.
Today we are going to take a look at a few ideas that may be controversial to some, to improve and make the drastic changes that the company sorely needs. This is completely based on the opinion of this writer, and I am more than willing to hear your thoughts and opinions on it all below.
So without further ado, let's begin...
#1 Fewer matchups and run time on pay-per-views
Over the last couple of years, PPV's have been running for a minimum of 4 hours, and have gone for as long as 7 hours for the big PPV shows. The run time of a show should not be anything over 3 to 3 1/2 hours, as it becomes too monotonous to sit through, both at a live event or watching it at home.
With how WrestleMania is shaping up this year, we could get anything of up to 16 matches on the show. This is going to be quite difficult to sit through, no matter how good the matches are going to be. It is understandable that WWE would like to pull out all the stops for a show such as WrestleMania, however, sometimes you just have to know when enough is enough and not to go overboard with it.
What the company has to remember is that they have NXT Takeover, The Hall of Fame ceremony, Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live, all surrounding the day of WrestleMania. With all of the programming that is on over the course of WrestleMania week as it is, even the most hardcore fans are going to be sick of it all by time WrestleMania day has finished, and the crowd will still be burnt out on Monday Night Raw.
WrestleMania week needs some tweaking in order to iron out the creases and to make it much more bearable to sit through, and more enjoyable experience. However, the only problem isn't with WrestleMania, but most of the pay-per-views that WWE has. It is understandable they want to get as much talent involved especially for the big events, but they have to also think of the fans, and just how much that they are able to tolerate at any one time.
I believe that this is one of the significant reasons for attendance figures dropping over the last few years. Even the hardcore fans can't and shouldn't be expected to have to sit through a monotonous 7 hours of PPV run time. It certainly explains why people choose to go online to only watch the highlights of WWE programming.
The easy solution to it would be to restructure the big PPV set up especially WrestleMania week. Maybe they could hold the NXT Takeover event the week before WrestleMania and host the Hall of Fame ceremony the week before. That way they could host WrestleMania over a 2 day period (Saturday and Sunday), so as to not burn out the crowd in attendance.
It is something that makes a lot more logical sense rather than continuing the monotonous routine they have now. Having that many matches alone on one card is absolutely ridiculous and would be hard for anybody to follow, but if they insisted to keep it that way, then having WrestleMania over two days would be the most logical step forward. The same would apply to the other Big 4 pay-per-views.