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CUTTING THE LENGTH OF WRESTLEMANIA, A FORMER ROMAN HATER SEES THE ERROR OF HIS WAYS (KIND OF), MAKING THE WOMEN EQUAL AND MORE

By Dave Scherer on 2018-04-09 10:00:00

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I haven’t always agreed with you where fans booing Roman Reigns is concerned.  I see your point, but I always thought they maybe booed Roman for fun, which is their right.  Then I saw the fans boo him during JJ’s speech at the Hall Of Fame and suddenly I feel like an idiot for sticking up for the people that booed.  Can I be forgiven?

Yes, you are forgiven.  You have written here many times and I appreciate that you are able to adapt when shown reason to.  All we can do in life is learn and grow.  You did that when you adjusted your opinion after the fans were out of line at the Hall.  Congrats to you.  With that said, it’s a shame that happened because other than that one hiccup, the crowd was very respectful overall.  

The women’s revolution has been a pleasure to see on WWE programming over the last few years – but I have one nagging problem. The amount of “firsts” that seem to be hot-shotted on TV has been too quick for my liking – essentially watering down the effect of each introduction. First Hell in a Cell match, First Iron Man match, First Royal Rumble, First MITB ladder match, First Women’s Battle Royal at WM, First Elimination Chamber, etc. etc. etc. All the same women get to break these barriers – at the same time – which seem like a lost opportunity long term. The immediacy of the last couple years' match-making makes it feel as if WWE is just making up for the past treatment of women as quickly as possible without truly leveraging the opportunity &  building story lines that would necessitate such “firsts.” I would have loved to see a story where a hot feud required the women to petition for these matches, with initial management reticence, proving the women forced the revolution rather than Stephanie McMahon coming down to the ring & announcing events like Christmas gifts. It’s just lazy storytelling to say - well, women now matter in 2016-2018.  Thoughts?

I get your point but the flip side is that this is a real time business whose top revenue draw is TV revenue.  They need to feed the beast so that means moving stories along quickly.  But the real reason I don’t have an issue with it is if things are equal with the men and women, then they should equal across the board.  If the men have a Rumble and Chamber, the women should too.  I am OK with how they have done it.

I truly enjoyed watching the Mixed Match Challenge the last few months. Pairing up personalities who would have never crossed paths was actually a nice treat (without the need for story-heavy planning) – especially with Braun Stroman & Alexa Bliss (who I thought stole the show & should have won). I kind of feel having Asuka in the tournament painted booking into a corner where she couldn’t lose – which hurt the tournament’s surprise factor & appeal in my opinion. Do you agree? I’d love to see them do it again next year (but maybe in the summer or fall outside of Wrestlemania season).

I think Alexa and Braun were great too.  To your point, yes by making Asuka’s streak part of the storyline if she lost, it definitely telegraphed the final outcome to me.

Instead of having Wrestlemania run so long what do you think of having it over two days. So hall of fame ceremony on Thursday, NXT Takeover on Friday and then Saturday and Sunday Wrestlemania. Forget the preshow. They could distribute the matches evenly so that both nights would have some of the bigger matches, maybe one night could have the Universal Championship defense as the main event and one night having the World Heavyweight Championship defense as the main event.

As a blogger and reporter, I would love it.  But the flip side is that they like to make it one day.  They also like the big gate that they make and they couldn’t charge as much for a smaller event.  I think the best thing that they can do is start the show an hour earlier, with no pre-show matches.  It will still be long but it would shave an hour off.  I would love that.

I know that going forward we'll see more things like the mixed match challenge.  Considering most people don't even know what Facebook watch is, does it make sense for them in the long term?  Or are they spreading their wings with impending television negotiations looming?  Considering most people watched it after the fact, it certainly could be a good/bad thing depending on whomever they're dealing with.  Live TV is their bread and butter but I can only imagine how this could factor in (network aside.)

I think exploring all avenues is always a good thing.  If Facebook wants to pay them and they can generate revenue from it, why not?  With all of the streaming that goes on now WWE is very wise to think outside of the box.  I respect that.  

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