PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING DATA REPORT
by Tantor August 27, 2020
In the world of sports, most teams use down time to improve their teams. They self-scout for tendencies. The idea of scouting all four WWE and AEW professional wrestling shows for the week of 8/17/2020 seemed like a novel and beneficial idea.
Empirical data was gathered that confirms and denies show perceptions. The following categories were measured in on air time for each show. Commercials, Skits, Actual in-ring wrestling, Pre Match Ramp Time, Post Match Ramp Time, On Camera Announcers, Future Show Promo, Past Show Recaps, and the number of performers and storylines presented. Just like reading that sentence, it was an ordeal.
by Tantor August 27, 2020
In the world of sports, most teams use down time to improve their teams. They self-scout for tendencies. The idea of scouting all four WWE and AEW professional wrestling shows for the week of 8/17/2020 seemed like a novel and beneficial idea.
Empirical data was gathered that confirms and denies show perceptions. The following categories were measured in on air time for each show. Commercials, Skits, Actual in-ring wrestling, Pre Match Ramp Time, Post Match Ramp Time, On Camera Announcers, Future Show Promo, Past Show Recaps, and the number of performers and storylines presented. Just like reading that sentence, it was an ordeal.
TANTOR’S PERSONAL SHOW RANKINGS
Tantor is so thankful to AEW owner Shahid Khan and AEW President Tony Khan. While I don’t talk about your show, you have introduced competition to professional wrestling. Competition makes every show work harder and get better. The best WWE shows ever were in the period of direct competition with WCW in the late 90s. Recently, WWE was in a quality death spiral. Now we have the best sports entertainment show on TV in NXT. AEW is right behind and getting better every week. They have more in ring wrestling and less show segments. Which makes for a more entertaining show with less breaks and more developed stories.
Paul LeVesque, known in the wrestling world as Triple H, is NXT’s Executive Producer. He has molded and crafted the NXT product into a wrestling show where fans can develop a “relationship” with their favorite superstars. LeVesque has devoted 58% of the show to storytelling. Which, in wrestling world, is everything. This is by far the greatest percentage out of any of the four shows researched and profiled. The production segments are low key with very few skits. The audience knows that not all performers are good with the mic. So, they don’t put them in a situation to fail. Have performers in a position to succeed and entertain at what they do best, in ring action.
RAW and Smackdown have made some big changes recently. Adding live spectators from the performance center and moving to the “Thunderdome” plus the addition of cinematic matches are all welcomed improvements. There is still much work to be done with those two shows. Please look at decreasing on air non-wrestling pieces and the sheer amount of different show segments. Those factors create a difficult watch even for the most dedicated fan. Create more manager led stables for the promo challenged performer. The talent exists, but the execution is limited. Wrestling fans, let’s hope that WWE will start looking at NXT and AEW for what to do correctly. WRESTLING!!!!
- NXT
- AEW Dynamite
- Smackdown
- RAW
Tantor is so thankful to AEW owner Shahid Khan and AEW President Tony Khan. While I don’t talk about your show, you have introduced competition to professional wrestling. Competition makes every show work harder and get better. The best WWE shows ever were in the period of direct competition with WCW in the late 90s. Recently, WWE was in a quality death spiral. Now we have the best sports entertainment show on TV in NXT. AEW is right behind and getting better every week. They have more in ring wrestling and less show segments. Which makes for a more entertaining show with less breaks and more developed stories.
Paul LeVesque, known in the wrestling world as Triple H, is NXT’s Executive Producer. He has molded and crafted the NXT product into a wrestling show where fans can develop a “relationship” with their favorite superstars. LeVesque has devoted 58% of the show to storytelling. Which, in wrestling world, is everything. This is by far the greatest percentage out of any of the four shows researched and profiled. The production segments are low key with very few skits. The audience knows that not all performers are good with the mic. So, they don’t put them in a situation to fail. Have performers in a position to succeed and entertain at what they do best, in ring action.
RAW and Smackdown have made some big changes recently. Adding live spectators from the performance center and moving to the “Thunderdome” plus the addition of cinematic matches are all welcomed improvements. There is still much work to be done with those two shows. Please look at decreasing on air non-wrestling pieces and the sheer amount of different show segments. Those factors create a difficult watch even for the most dedicated fan. Create more manager led stables for the promo challenged performer. The talent exists, but the execution is limited. Wrestling fans, let’s hope that WWE will start looking at NXT and AEW for what to do correctly. WRESTLING!!!!