Mad Dog Posted June 5, 2016 Report Share Posted June 5, 2016 This was a conversation that I had with my wife the other day. I was telling her that I almost didn't get a ticket to the Ring of Honor show for tomorrow because the shows are just too long. She asked how long they ran and agreed after I said 4.5 hours. I told her I'm usually ready to tap out around the 3 hour mark with the usually crappy seats and being in a crowd of people. She agreed that 2-2.5 hours seems to be a more reasonable length of time for a wrestling show. So what is your personal philosophy on this? Are you fine sitting through any length of show or are you like me and start to get a little restless after about 3 hours? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButchReedMark Posted June 5, 2016 Report Share Posted June 5, 2016 2 hours or so is enough for me if I'm there, 3 hours at home is fine as I can pause it and go for a dump, or make a cup of tea, or go into the garden for a fag or something. 3 hours would probably be doable in person if they had an intermission, so I can go for a dump, buy cup of tea, or go into the smoking area for a fag. I mean, how long was wrestlemania this year? I watched it in the Bierkeller in Liverpool and I swear it was, what, about 5 hours? I was well ready for home a good two hours before then and I was totally drained by the time we even got as far as Hell in a Cell, and that just match killed the show completely dead for me. Watching two old men lying about selling for 30 minutes at about 3:30am does not a good match make. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted June 5, 2016 Report Share Posted June 5, 2016 WrestleMania 32. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Evans Posted June 5, 2016 Report Share Posted June 5, 2016 I'd say 2-3 hours is the ideal length. Last show I went to, FIP was about 4 hours that started at 9 pm and lasted till about 1 am. Also went to a double show (FIP/Evolve) that was almost 6 hours. The good thing about that was the hour break between shows. It was still too much. The NXT tapings are ideal because they usually tape 4 shows in about 3 hours with little down time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zenjo Posted June 5, 2016 Report Share Posted June 5, 2016 2 hours or so is enough for me if I'm there, 3 hours at home is fine as I can pause it and go for a dump, or make a cup of tea, or go into the garden for a fag or something. 3 hours would probably be doable in person if they had an intermission, so I can go for a dump, buy cup of tea, or go into the smoking area for a fag. Your body is seriously fucked up if you can't go a few hours without having a shit dude. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButchReedMark Posted June 5, 2016 Report Share Posted June 5, 2016 I enjoy having them. 4 a day is just right, as Goldilocks said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Migs Posted June 5, 2016 Report Share Posted June 5, 2016 It's interesting how universal it seems to be that 3 hours is about the most anyone wants out of a show, and yet so many promoters still put on 4 hour shows with regularity. I think it's probably just an attempt to advertise as many wrestlers as possible, and then being confronted with the reality that each match needs a decent amount of time. I mean, the last ROH show I went to was 4 hours, but it wasn't because they were being inefficient in getting matches out or because anything was overly long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeg Posted June 5, 2016 Report Share Posted June 5, 2016 It depends really on the quality of the show. I've been to 4 hour indie shows (those mid 2000s ROH cards got really longg) where we were on our feet the whole time and going crazy at the end. I also think in your early 20s you have a higher tolerance for being drunk on your feet for several hours. And I've been to 2 hour TV tapings where I was dying by the main event. Same thing with watching at home. There have been really long PPVs that feel like they flew by and really short ones that felt like the went on for ever. This years Wrestlemania was way too long that is without a doubt. One thing I know RAW every week is way too long. Most of my favorite wrestling shows are/were an hour long and had that feel of an hour long serialized TV program to them. Every week ends with a cliff hanger to bring you in the next week. ECW did this, World Class, Mid South (sorta), Lucha Underground, AJPW 30, NOAH di Colleso, etc. Its hard to do that with a 3 hour show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingus Posted June 5, 2016 Report Share Posted June 5, 2016 I wonder if a lot of indy promoters are still stuck in the mindset of the DVD era. The reason why companies like IWA Mid-South would fly in thirty outsiders and then proceed to have six-hour-long shows (in front of a hundred people in the audience) was that the vast majority of their income was from video sales, and the biggest longest shows tended to be the best-sellers. A lot of the other superindies must have operated the same way. But does that make sense in the streaming age, when video sales are down and everything is so much easier to pirate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted June 5, 2016 Report Share Posted June 5, 2016 Most of my favorite wrestling shows are/were an hour long and had that feel of an hour long serialized TV program to them. Every week ends with a cliff hanger to bring you in the next week. ECW did this, World Class, Mid South (sorta), Lucha Underground, AJPW 30, NOAH di Colleso, etc. This. Add WCW Nitro during the glory years. 90 mn is the absolute max for a weekly show. Even a 3 hour PPV seems unbearable to me now. Those two hours NXT Takeover shows were pretty much exactly what a big show should be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted June 5, 2016 Report Share Posted June 5, 2016 I attended ROH Supercard of Honor II in 2007 and I remember it being a five-hour show, but I was never once bored and really felt like I had gotten my money's worth ($25 for a walk-up ticket, IIRC). It's quite possibly the best live event I've ever attended, and it was a last-minute, spur of the moment decision because some friends just happened to be in town and were going. (They also attended Mania 23, which I didn't buy tickets for and had no interest in seeing.) With that said, the only matches I actually retained in my memory were BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Jacobs and the Dragon Gate main event. Other than that, I remember Jim Cornette being there (because we saw him outside) and Larry Sweeney. I recall nothing else about the show, and looking back at the results now, I'm shocked at all of the future big stars who were there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButchReedMark Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 I went to 1PW's first ever show at the Doncaster Dome, that was hell. About 5 hours of it, including a (dire) 50 minute Al Snow vs Steve Corino match for the AWA (Gagner) title. I love wrestling, but I also love a great film, or a quality gig. But I don't want to spend all day at them, so nor would I wrestling. With it being an emotional medium, you're drained by 2-3 hours. I'd rather leave on a high wanting more, than be sitting down looking at my watch and gagging for a slash because I don't want to miss the finish, then find out there's another couple of matches after it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeg Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 I attended ROH Supercard of Honor II in 2007 and I remember it being a five-hour show, but I was never once bored and really felt like I had gotten my money's worth ($25 for a walk-up ticket, IIRC). It's quite possibly the best live event I've ever attended I went to a bunch of those indie super shows in the mid 2000s and had a blast. Like I said being drunk on your feet for 5 hours is definately something thats fun at 20... not so much now at 31, I think thats why I can't go to long indie shows any more is because by intermission I'm ready to head home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 Most WWE house shows I've attended clocked in at about 150 minutes with intermission. That seems ideal. At 180 minutes (3 hours) your attention begins to wane, and anything over four hours is intolerable if you're not a hardcore fan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNLister Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 My rule of thumb is that no matter how low-budget or small-scale your show, or how inexperienced your roster, the moment you pass 3 hours it's fair and legitimate to compare it with WrestleMania. Admittedly this is less of a penalty this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted June 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 The RoH show I went to last night was just over 4 hours with the pre-show. The building had no AC so I was pretty fried by the end of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
concrete1992 Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 It depends on the setting. For a live show I want it under the 3.5 hour mark at the absolute most. Anything past that makes it difficult not only to have energy for the show but god forbid travel back home. At the same time I have no real cares if I'm watching a show and it is extra long in this day and age. Mostly because we DO live in an age of streaming and I probably wasn't going to end up watching the whole show anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotJayTabb Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 I think 2-3 hours is about right. I think that meets the right margin of getting your moneys worth vs overstaying your welcome. The last show I went to was the BEW/Stardom show in London, which was great but there were 2 30-40 minute intervals for meet-and-greets, which were interminable for someone like me who was on their own, standing, low on phone battery and checking their watch because of knowing I still had a 3 hour drive back to Nottingham ahead of me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigelow34 Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 Went to an NXT house show in April that was amazing... it flew by, match after match, quick break. We were in and out right around two hours or so. A lot of fun. It stood out eve more since I had attended Mania a couple weeks before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victory Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 I'm going to the AAW show next Friday and sure as hope it's not 4 hours. I can't stand that venue as it is and they only have 7-8 matches as it stands. 2.5 hours is about right to me for an Indy show. Even that can be too long at times. For WWE or WCW back in the day I could usually handle 3 hours. Really anything more than 3 is just too much and that goes for baseball, hockey, football, etc, for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingus Posted June 7, 2016 Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 Number of matches on the card is also something worth counting; including time for entrances, one thirty-minute match sometimes feels a hell of a lot longer than two fifteen-minute matches. When I was working smaller indy shows, five matches was considered the bare-bones minimum for any paid show; anything less than that (outside of special events like fair shows) was considered a ripoff. On the longer end, eight or nine was generally the upper limit; except for special occasions, like if you were taping a month's worth of TV in one night or something like that, those marathons could stretch on for four hours or more of mostly shorter matches. Also: intermissions really matter, and it's one of those things which a lot of shows don't manage very well. There's nothing to make your ass ache like having to sit through half a fucking hour of a single intermission so that the promotion and the workers can shill every piece of merchandise on the planet in order to drag the last penny out of every single customer. And then they'll do it twice in one show! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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