The WWE Calendar

[BigBadMick]

This has come up a bit lately. The consensus view is that, in the past few years, WWE heats up from January-April, then cools off a bit, then heats up again for SummerSlam, and seems to cool off until Rumble again. I've seen people talking about easing off WWE until January now.

 

When did this begin? I've never really noticed a string of poor ppvs in a season until last autumn, and don't think it was deliberate by the company. Is it partly to do with part-timers coming back to create massive WMs for the last 5 years or so? Is it Brock's 3-4 dates per year? Has the network something to do with it now?

 

Or is it the generally poor booking and inability to have a slew of potential main eventers lined up at any given time?

 

I think this is a really interesting topic and hope to hear views on it, thanks.

[Sean Liska]

You can go back to 98 and see the patterns. SummerSlam 98 was full of well-built up matches, and the next month Breakdown was packed with filler like Job Squad-Too Cool, Mero-Droz, Owen-Edge, and D-Lo-Gangrel. The PPVs from September-December were rough.

 

SummerSlam 99 was the best PPV of the year, but the next few months were pretty cold with HHH not being over but getting pushed a ton, Big Show as champ feuding with Bossman and no one caring, etc. Then things picked back up in January with the Foley-HHH feud. Dipped again in the spring with the retread Rock-Vince feud.

 

The summer of 2000 was one of the hottest periods ever. The fall kinda fell off with Austin's return being flat and the Rikishi and HHH driver reveals not getting over, Rock didn't have much to do and was just in a random 4-way in the September PPV, the undercards for the last few PPVs of the year weren't too inspiring. Forgettable feuds like Jericho-Kane, Billy Gunn-Benoit, Jericho-XPac, Rock-Rikishi, etc and the coldest stretch of PPVs of the year.

 

RAW's summer of 2002 was pretty good, built around the fun HBK-HHH feud, Bookdust going after the tag titles, Flair-Jericho etc. The fall, god, you had the Katie Vick feud and HHH's lame feud with RVD.

 

There are exceptions (Unforgiven 2006, No Mercy 2008, No Mercy 2001, No Mercy 2002), but the September-December PPVs just always seem to have a lot more filler than the rest of the year, which spills over into the quality of the TV because there's less to build to.

[Loss]

This goes beyond WWE. The last three months of the year have traditionally been viewed as the worst part of the year for wrestling because of kids going back to school and football. Holiday shows on Thanksgiving and Christmas were the exception to that.

[Coffey]

For me, it's about NFL football. Sunday & Monday Night Football is always going to take precedence over a WWE PPV or RAW. Plus, it's nice to take a break from WWE sometimes so you don't feel so burned out. Especially nowadays where every three PPVs in a row seem to have the same card of rematches. Come Rumble time, they'll be heating up for Wrestlemania plus the Rumble match itself is just always fun.

 

Survivor Series has been just another PPV for awhile now & I can't even tell you the names of the other PPVs following Summerslam.

[kjh]

I'm not sure '98 is a good example, as even though the pay-per-view main events by and large sucked and the cards were full of filler in the latter half of the year, there were tons of memorable angles in that period (Austin losing the belt, the Zamboni and hospital attacks, McMahon firing Austin, Austin taking McMahon hostage, the build to the Deadly Game tournament where Shane and Rock turned heel, etc).

 

I think it's partly a consequence of the brand split and moving to brand only pay-per-views, which hurt card depth and made the B-shows seem less important.

[Sean Liska]

I'm not sure '98 is a good example, as even though the pay-per-view main events by and large sucked and the cards were full of filler in the latter half of the year, there were tons of memorable angles in that period (Austin losing the belt, the Zamboni and hospital attacks, McMahon firing Austin, Austin taking McMahon hostage, the build to the Deadly Game tournament where Shane and Rock turned heel, etc).

 

The fall of 98 did have a ton of good stuff because the company was so damn hot. But would you put it at the same level as the summer with the Highway to Hell-Austin/Taker/Kane/Mankind stuff and the DX/Nation feud? Or the WrestleMania build with the Tyson stuff? Or the spring season with the beginning of the Austin/McMahon feud and the Austin/Dude Love program? I guess it's close. Overall, the non Vince-Austin stuff was less effective and focused than the rest of the year.

 

Even 97 is a decent example. The summer of 97 through SS with the peak of the USA-Canada stuff is about as good as wrestling TV gets. In the fall Bret's feuding with Vader and the Patriot and it's a definite step down outside of the Taker-HBK feud. Survivor Series still felt like a big deal back then, but by December we're getting a Shamrock-HBK program that no one really cared about.

[BigBadMick]

It's slightly different because so much was up in the air for most of the year but Smackdown in autumn 2002 is an exception.

[KrisZ]

Boxing is the same way....it heats up around Cinco de Mayo and cools off by the 2nd week of December....January-April is a slower period

[BigBadMick]

I'm still wondering if it's a deliberate cooling off by WWE though?

[Sean Liska]

I think it absolutely is, it happens every year. It's become very patterned, they probably have learned how to pace themselves when producing 250 hours of primetime cable TV annually. They kick off Mania season in late December or early January and heat things up. Sometimes the excitement lasts in Extreme Rules season like the Cena-Lesnar year, sometimes not. The last two years have gotten really predictable to where both years even had great shows the nights after the June and July PPVs and the summer always has a lot going on. They do a really good job of filling SummerSlam with matches that are well-promoted on TV, and then in September and October we wonder how they lost that skill. And then typically they start doing things in December to get things going again and give us a pretty good TLC show.

 

Here's a spoiler - in October everyone will be complaining about how stale WWE is and we'll be wondering why we're getting Bo Dallas-Kofi on PPV, we'll be seeing headlines on the WO site about them doing their worst ratings in 17 years like they always do against football, etc. By January, everyone will be all-in again debating who Lesnar should face at Mania, we may be discussing a backlash against Reigns with people wanting Bryan or Ambrose to get the shot, we'll be arguing about how they should use Sting and then arguing about if he's being used correctly, we'll be arguing about whether Taker has another match left in him, and it should be a lot of fun. Our one hope for the fall with Lesnar and Bryan likely not being around is that Ambrose is given the opportunity to really make things interesting.

 

It's not that different from modern NJPW. September is always boring coming off of the G-1 and falling before Invasion Attack, and this year is no different with us getting yet another PPV headlined by Nakamura and Fale. July usually isn't too hot sitting between Dominion and the G-1. No one ever really cares about the tag tourney in December, it's just killing time before 1/4.

[Loss]

The sad thing is that if it was good year round, the excitement would be there year round.

[kjh]

I think a big part of the WWF cooling down after SummerSlam in '97/'98/'99 was being moved to a much later time slot, sometimes on another night, to make way for U.S. Open tennis coverage on the USA Network for two weeks. You weren't going to shoot any big angles during that two week period. That cooling was forced by the network they were on.

[BigBadMick]

I agree, Loss. And, even if WWE accept that it's a downtime, they could at least use it to build up a few guys.

 

God, I get fed up thinking the same thing about WWE, year after year, after year.......

[Sean Liska]

The sad thing is that if it was good year round, the excitement would be there year round.

What company could really sustain that year after year while producing this much content? They've been in the 2-hour RAW format for 17 years now. What company sustained a hot consistent year-round run for that long? There's a reason TV shows have repeats for 3 months.I think it's just the nature of the beast. I was watching 1985 Worldwide and it's on fire for a few months heading into the Bash with great angles every week, but by August-Ocrober, it's lots of squashes and interviews with not much happening. I'm working my way through 1980 Memphis (a down year, I know) and they'll shoot a really hot angle like the Valiant-Ellering double turn or whatever and it's great for a while, but then you'll get a month where nothing really noteworthy happens.

[Sean Liska]

I agree, Loss. And, even if WWE accept that it's a downtime, they could at least use it to build up a few guys.

 

God, I get fed up thinking the same thing about WWE, year after year, after year.......

I think they are going to use this time to build Rollins, Ambrose, and Reigns. Ambrose returning for a blood feud with Rollins culminating at HITC will be great. It's the rest of the show I'm worried about.

[Slasher]

This may not be a popular opinion but I think Ambrose is reaching his peak already. I can't imagine him turning his persona up even more for a "blood" chapter in his feud with Rollins. He has already pretty much done almost everything there is to do as a man on a mission babyface.

[Loss]

 

The sad thing is that if it was good year round, the excitement would be there year round.

What company could really sustain that year after year while producing this much content? They've been in the 2-hour RAW format for 17 years now. What company sustained a hot consistent year-round run for that long? There's a reason TV shows have repeats for 3 months.I think it's just the nature of the beast. I was watching 1985 Worldwide and it's on fire for a few months heading into the Bash with great angles every week, but by August-Ocrober, it's lots of squashes and interviews with not much happening. I'm working my way through 1980 Memphis (a down year, I know) and they'll shoot a really hot angle like the Valiant-Ellering double turn or whatever and it's great for a while, but then you'll get a month where nothing really noteworthy happens.

 

I don't mean that they need to have hot angles constantly, but I do think shows can be really good all the time. When the angles slow down, the matches should kick in. I understand not having hot angles on every show, but I don't understand bad comedy, bad finishes and matches that don't deliver. I realize that good wrestling has peaks and valleys, but there is a huge gap between WWE's hot periods and WWE's cool periods, and both tend to be pretty extreme. Last year's last three months were ruined by horrible PPV finishes more than they were anything else. There's a slow period, and then there's a bad period.

[Loss]

Also, I'm tired of WWE acting like they are a victim of the content machine. The problem is stale talent that is overexposed and booked against their strengths, and a tired television format. The reasons for that have little to do with the volume of content. It's more about WWE being stuck in an outdated mindset about what their television shows should look like and feel like, and failing to create new main event-level stars regularly.

[Sean Liska]

Also, I'm tired of WWE acting like they are a victim of the content machine. The problem is stale talent that is overexposed and booked against their strengths, and a tired television format. The reasons for that have little to do with the volume of content. It's more about WWE being stuck in an outdated mindset about what their television shows should look like and feel like, and failing to create new main event-level stars regularly.

I see people complaining about the same format a lot, but how many companies have ever really radically changed the way they do TV outside of WCW and WWF in the mid 90s? An NJPW TV shoot in Osaka looks and is presented the same as 30 years ago. Memphis looked the same and had the same format for 25 years. CMLL is pretty similar except for a tron opposite the hard cam. I'm not sure how many different ways you can shoot a big arena, or how much a new graphics package would change anything. They've shown the format can still deliver big when the creative is good.

 

They have greatly cut down on the number of skits shot backstage, which is a big plus. And they've cut down a lot on the bad comedy. The current product feels like Mid-South compared to 2006-ish with the horrible DX comedy every week and Shelton's mom and May 19th.

 

Staleness within the roster is a big issue that killed them for a while. They've gotten better. It's kind of tricky. You can't bring in a lot of new guys without eliminating a lot of other guys from TV, but those poor other guys don't have anywhere to work anymore.

[Loss]

I feel like saying "how many companies have ever changed the format of their TV?" and "how many companies have ever had so much content to produce?" are inconsistent. If they have more content than anyone ever, then changing the way they present television is probably in order so that it feels fresh, instead of them expecting fans to understand how much they have on their plate.

 

As for fresh talent, it's one of the biggest reasons I was disappointed that Daniel Bryan got hurt. I feel like he could have defended his title against a lot of guys who just need that big breakout performance and given them something big to showcase them. They haven't had that type of workhorse world champion who makes everyone around him better in a really long time.

 

I think both issues are tied together. I think they should rotate talent basically, and give everyone at least a month off per year while rotating guys in and out of the top mix.

[Sean Liska]

Fair. I'm just not sure what types of big changes they can make to their presentation. They're not devoting the first hour to having Jim Ross and a co-host break down the show like it's an MMA pre-game as so many people have recommended.

[Loss]

I think it's more about doing arcs that last a certain amount of time, then end, then the guys either don't work the next show or take a greatly reduced role. I think the big thing is that more top guys are needed. WWE storylines right now don't lend themselves to the type of scrutiny that an MMA hour-type show would require, so I think it might not be the best idea. I think more than anything, it's about rotating the wrestlers in the main event scene to keep things fresher.

[fakeplastictrees]

Also, I'm tired of WWE acting like they are a victim of the content machine. The problem is stale talent that is overexposed and booked against their strengths, and a tired television format. The reasons for that have little to do with the volume of content. It's more about WWE being stuck in an outdated mindset about what their television shows should look like and feel like, and failing to create new main event-level stars regularly.

 

 

I think this sums it up for me. I am not asking for every season to be WM Season. That's impossible. Its not be real. WWE should look at its resources during the 'down time' and just have some fun. If Jan-Apr is the hot months then there should be no reason for trying to find a new star during the cooling down months. Toss everyone out there. Tyson Kidd, Sami Zayn, Del Sol, etc. Put them on the main show in random matches. Give me a random ass 5 on 5 as the main event on Raw on night. Have the tag team champions close Smackdown with a ladder match. Just have some fun.

 

It's important to be on-the-ball from Jan-Apr, and I can understand the company not wanting to task risks. WWE being 'stale' around that times makes 'sense' as there is a lot of money on the line. After that? No one is jonesing to see Pay Back, BattleGround, etc. So try some new things and have new people main event and being to use that time to run injury angles,etc. with guys like Cena, Orton, Jericho, Kane, RVD, Miz, Lawler, and and other stale acts on the roster.

 

WWE should also look into shooting Smackdown differently than Raw. Superstars/Mainevent/NXT should also look different from the actual TV products as they are Network exclusives.

[moazzam23]

 

Also, I'm tired of WWE acting like they are a victim of the content machine. The problem is stale talent that is overexposed and booked against their strengths, and a tired television format. The reasons for that have little to do with the volume of content. It's more about WWE being stuck in an outdated mindset about what their television shows should look like and feel like, and failing to create new main event-level stars regularly.

 

 

I think this sums it up for me. I am not asking for every season to be WM Season. That's impossible. Its not be real. WWE should look at its resources during the 'down time' and just have some fun. If Jan-Apr is the hot months then there should be no reason for trying to find a new star during the cooling down months. Toss everyone out there. Tyson Kidd, Sami Zayn, Del Sol, etc. Put them on the main show in random matches. Give me a random ass 5 on 5 as the main event on Raw on night. Have the tag team champions close Smackdown with a ladder match. Just have some fun.

 

 

They actually did a lot of this last fall. The crazy Shield vs Daniel Bryan+gang of jobbers elimination match, a Daniel Bryan gauntlet and a No-DQ Shield/Rhodes Bros match for the tag titles all main evented Raw. There was also a whole hour of back-to-back tag team matches as the main event of a Smackdown episode. The TV was pretty fun to watch for a couple of months there. But the PPVs were badly booked with a lot of filler matches and terrible finishes in the main events.

[Strummer]

I think a big part of the WWF cooling down after SummerSlam in '97/'98/'99 was being moved to a much later time slot, sometimes on another night, to make way for U.S. Open tennis coverage on the USA Network for two weeks. You weren't going to shoot any big angles during that two week period. That cooling was forced by the network they were on.

 

 

there were delayed shows in 2000 also including an angle they shot that seemed to be setting up a program between Chyna and Stephanie that went nowhere. With all that was going on backstage beteen them and Hunter at the time it would have been pretty insane