Report: WWE Plans on Changing TV Match Presentation By Eliminating Action During Commercial Breaks
There were some 2 out of 3 Falls matches on WWE television last week. It felt pretty random considering WWE rarely does those types of matches, but apparently, it was done for a reason. It’s because WWE is trying to eliminate matches continuing during a commercial break.
The Wrestling Observer’s Bryan Alvarez talked about the change on a recent radio show: “You know why they’re doing best of three falls? Apparently, there was a meeting last week and Vince just told everybody there’s no more wrestling during commercial breaks. So basically you can have a match that goes through a break but you can’t have wrestling that goes through a break so you have to have multi-fall matches.”
The report was corroborated by PWInsider’s Mike Johnson who noted that Vince McMahon made it clear that all matches are going to end within the same segment meaning you won’t see a 20-minute one fall match with one or two commercials. This past Monday on Raw featured several short matches for that reason. There are exceptions to the rule, however, such as last week on WWE TV when they did 2/3 Falls matches for Kofi Kingston on Raw and Smackdown last week.
It was also noted by Johnson that WWE has thought about doing matches with multiple rounds (like boxing or old European style wrestling), but it’s not known if that is going to happen.
The topic was mentioned by Dave Meltzer and Alvarez on their Wrestling Observer Radio show last night where they talked about how Vince McMahon feels this way because real sports don’t have action during a commercial break, so WWE wants to be more like that especially since they will be on Fox in October.
TJR Thoughts: I have mixed feelings about this because I don’t know how they are going to fill a three hour Raw with matches that are short segments. When I review the WWF in 2000 shows, there are no matches with action during commercials. They did that later in the decade. I don’t know when exactly they started featuring longer matches during a break, but it’s something that WWE fans have been used to for 15 years or more by now.
It’s going to be interesting to see how they book these matches. It will mean 2/3 Falls matches will become a more regular thing if they want a match to go longer. They will need to time the matches better too. It will probably mean that two wrestlers will enter for a match, there will be a break and then they can have a match that goes around eight minutes at the most because then it’s time for a break. I’ll definitely keep an eye on it tonight during Raw.
With all of that said, it wouldn’t surprise me if this “rule” is completely ignored within a few weeks because we all know how often Vince McMahon changes his mind on things like this.