From the Why Hasn't Anyone Thought of This Before Dept.: Pre-Match Commercial Breaks

The only match with a break on the show
Photo Credit: WWE.com

One of the big things that I noticed on RAW Monday was that we got to see more complete matches thanks to one minor change in production. If you noticed, most of the matches went to commercial right after one of the entrants came to the ring. Then, they would come back either in the middle of the second guy's entrance or right after it, causing more of the match to be able to be viewed by the audience at home. Only one match, the main event, had an interruption by commercial.

I don't know about you, but I thought it was great. Now, I'm not totally opposed to the commercial interruption like some. Sure, it makes the flow of a match choppy, and I hate the predictability that comes along with a guy going to the floor and Josh Mathews/Michael Cole/Scott Stanford/Matt Striker/whomever musing whether that person will be able to come back, and that we'll find out after the break. But it's not a deal killer. That being said, as an in-ring enthusiast, I like to see the whole product, as-is.

SO with that slight shift in production, the WWE theoretically upped the quality of the in-ring product substantially. They didn't have to lay out the matches any differently. No spots were changed. Nothing was really done to change the fabric of the match, and yet the quality went up. It's funny how the little things go and can improve stuff.

Now, the only drawback I saw with this was maybe highlighting how short RAW TV matches usually are. Then again, I'm more a quality guy rather than quantity when it comes to wrestling. If you can tell me a story in 4-6 minutes, then you know what? I'm cool with them not needing 8-12 minutes to tell the same story. I mean, I took shit for saying a random Miz/Bourne match from last year was awesome despite it being like less than 5 minutes long, but you know what? I stand by that assessment because they used every second they had and made it work. Maybe that's why I have so much respect for WWE workers on the whole. They go out there with little time and get something over without needing the kind of match lengths their indie counterparts have on average. That's pretty swanky.

SO yeah, even if it does highlight how short the matches are, I much like seeing every moment of said matches rather than miss a chunk of the storytelling in the middle. Having the commercials come before the match is a great help at giving me that whole picture. Kudos to the guys in the production trucks and those in charge of laying out the show. It was a small change, but it was a change that worked big time.

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