WWE Extreme Rules 2018: 5 Takeaways
By Broc Flücker
Photo Credit: WWE.com
WWE Fans Have Small Attention Spans
In the main event of WWE Extreme Rules 2018, we saw Seth Rollins take on Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental Championship in an Iron Man Match. The fans in attendance for this match, however, were more focused on other things. Like counting down from 10. And making buzzer noises. Welcome to professional wrestling in 2018, folks.
It was unfortunate to see this match get sabotaged the way it did by the crowd in attendance last night, but I think it’s also important to look at why this happened. This show, from pre-show to finish, was 5 hours long. In this 5 hours, in my opinion, there were probably 3 matches that were worth going out of your way to watch. On a card that has 12 matches, if 3 of them are good, that’s not exactly a good percentage. So I can understand the crowd is tiresome at this point. If it were me in attendance, it wouldn’t be something I would do, but I can’t say I don’t understand it.
This issue poses a bigger problem though, and I’m not exactly sure what the answer to it is. These shows are simply too long. There’s no way around it, 5 hours to watch a WWE PPV, especially one of this quality, is far too long. Obviously with the dual branded PPVs being what they are, there’s a lot more to squeeze into one show. I do think there is a solution for this though. Cut down the time from the main show from 4 hours to 3, to start with.
Next: Seth Rollins Deserves Main Event at WWE Extreme Rules 2018
Of course, that will lead to less superstars being featured on the show, but let’s be real, is that really a bad thing? We can actually have story lines that just play out on TV, and don’t have to be settled in a PPV match. Look at the Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin match. Did this match really need to be a part of WWE Extreme Rules 2018? It’s an issue that I hope gets addressed in some way, because it can genuinely be hard to sit through some of these shows.