The last few years when either RAW or Smackdown would go from passable to horrible for months at a time I wouldn't even open my DVR. I would just look up WWE's twitter feed and catch the segments they wanted pushed. I will say one of the minor changes to RAW and Smackdown has been less recaps/highlights of what happened a segment ago. They replaced them with video's trying to build up the US and IC titles plus hyping the matches that are upcoming with small promo videos. It's a nice small change.
Maybe not you but I'd at least like the chance to still be able to watch the match. I don't always pay attention during the breaks, depending on what match is in question, but at least I can if it's a match I want to see.
Those title hype packages are quite nice and has been a nice change. Vince treated everything but the top singles titles as a joke.
The comercials haven't really bothered me. But that's in large part because Vince would give you entertainment over wrestling. It's been flipped the last 3 or 4 weeks and were starting to get good matches that go 10+ minutes so I think some changes will be needed. I don't stop my DVR when AEW goes PIP but I see why some prefer it over the classic full 3 minute break.
But the commercial thing is probably more of a financial thing that anything else. Probably make a good bit more money from a full break than a PIP break. Can't really blame someone for going for the thing that makes the most money, I still don't have to like it though.
I think this will be the biggest change under Trips. He's going to make the titles mean something. He was also good at not just making a single star... He built up multiple big time acts.
Biggest change for me that will show throughout the whole product is that people are excited and that I seriously doubt you'll see NXT people say they don't want to get called up to main roster. It's just insanity that Vince thought it was a well run organization when they have people in NXT saying they didn't want that call up and/or would rather leave WWE entirely than get called up. You don't see NBA G Leaguers or MLB minor leaguers saying like "Nah, I'm good down here in the minors" or "I'll just go play in Europe or somewhere else instead" to their big league teams when the call up comes.
From FIghtful, no spoilers for tonight's NXT IMO, but spoilered anyway just incase someone's opinion on that differs from mine. Does sound like this is going to be the first opportunity HHH is going to use to put his stamp of NXT 2.0 though. Spoiler NXT could be seeing some shift in the roster as WWE has in recent weeks. Fightful was told to expect tonight's NXT Heatwave show to be newsworthy, and that "several wheels were in motion," already with changes to NXT. We're told that a lot of things are being settled as far as who will appear on the show or move up. In addition, we've heard a lot of chatter about NXT UK talent popping up on NXT TV in the near future, with Tyler Bate discussed internally. Bate hasn't wrestled since April, and he's been one of several names we've heard brought up in regards to NXT UK talent being integrated or featured more on NXT TV. We haven't been told of anything firm as of yet.
I'm sure Nielsen and the networks/advertisers have all the statistics, but I'm much less likely to change the channel during PiP. Even though the PiP wrestling is pretty much rest holds. Too many times if it's a full commercial break during a match, I'll switch to some other sports game or like an Office re-run and forget to change it back in time, missing most of (if not the entire) segment/match.
The one thing I always notice about WWE commercial breaks is that the heel is ALWAYS in control when we come back from breaks. Every single time. It always plays out the same way. Face is on a roll, heel somehow goes over top rope and is hurt, we go to break, come back and heel is executing offense on a downed face.
Ospreay vs. Okada in the G1 Finals. Ospreay beat Naito and Okada beat Tama Tonga after Tonga upset Jay White in the last match of block play to win the h2h tiebreaker over White.
I just realized Ospreay wrestled this morning (USA eastern time) in Japan and is flying over to wrestle live on Dynamite in West Virginia tonight. This guy is a mad man.
Yes, Gallus, Tyler Bate, Bea Priestly. Can't remember if anyone else popped up. Maybe don't watch it if you don't want to be spoiled on the result of the NXT UK title tournament.
the tag champs I'm not familiar with were and Bate showed up at the end to confront Bron, also some faction attacked Strong and his faction
I gotta think MJF is headlining All Out vs Punk at this point. They could do a draw or something next week, but I don’t think TK would book the title match next week, only to do a non finish.
They could also do a rematch with Mox/Punk at the PPV but it feels like a bad business decision. Punk/MJF rematch is probably the biggest match they have after Punk/Mox.