[BTR]

Apr 8, 2009 8:25:24 GMT -5 Fire-Babe said:

Lucky, I'd buy the 'cable company argument' 100% if it were a pre-taped event which could be made to fit a certain schedule due to the magic of editing. But it isn't. It's a live event, and while it IS pre-scripted, it's still live. All sorts of things can happen that would necessitate a longer time than planned. Given WWE's standard booking practices, and general disregard for the tag teams anyway, I can't imagine the match going more than 20 minutes, which, with a few cuts here and there, but still keeping the video recaps and the musical entertainment, would only be an overrun of maybe 10-15 minutes. I don't think the cable company cares, they have your money whether it goes 4 hours on the dot, 3:45 (which routinely pisses me off) or 4:15.

Things may have changed in ten years, but there was a HUGE fuckup back in 1998 in WCW when Halloween Havoc went past 11pm and various cable companies cut off broadcasts. They even had to replay a Goldberg/DDP title match on Nitro the next night, and I actually never saw the ending to Hogan/Warrior 2 until I saw it on video years later. While I don't know the odds of it happening again, there was precedent.

There might also be other issues with an overrun, because in theory that bumps other programming another 10-15 minutes. And while in a lot of places that's just a rerun of the PPV, it's not always (and besides, they probably wouldn't edit it for the repeat, since my feed at least started replaying right after.) There could be an added cost for the extra time.

They should have managed their time better. They messed up in a lot of ways, but they do advertise that the card is subject to change. And I understand. I'm still pissed they had Austin get hit by a car and replaced by the Big Show in the Triple Threat Rock/HHH/Austin we never did see.

[punk/core]

The show actually DID run slightly over time. During that recap the did at the end... where they showed snippets of the matches set to that VAST song... my cable company actually cut it off in the middle of that.

[salmonjunkie]

I just wanted to say that Veritas will be opening up for VAST when they play here in Seattle on Memorial Day. That is all.

[BTR]

Hopefully you don't get bumped to the preshow.

[Lucky]

Apr 8, 2009 10:58:50 GMT -5 BTR said:

There might also be other issues with an overrun, because in theory that bumps other programming another 10-15 minutes. And while in a lot of places that's just a rerun of the PPV, it's not always (and besides, they probably wouldn't edit it for the repeat, since my feed at least started replaying right after.) There could be an added cost for the extra time.

Right, this is my assumption. If you run over and the cable company just lets you that means the show scheduled to start at 11 PM doesn't and the people who paid for that are sitting there watching a black screen. Or, as I think the technology at least used to work this way, they're watching the final 15 minutes of WM and then missing the final 15 minutes of their program (because I believe it used to be that you just unlock the channel for X time, but maybe digital has changed that). Now in this case that's a WM replay but that even makes it worse since it means the replay isn't ending at 3 AM like its supposed to or at 3:15... but 3:30. Now, whatever the hell is scheduled for 3 AM is bumped a full half hour. Somewhere you need to bump a show entirely to fix this problem WWE's poor time management created.

Its easier to just cut them off. Because fuck them, everyone else can manage to do it. If they can't fit their product in the 4 hours they bought that's THEIR fault and its THEM screwing the audience, not the cable company. The cable company isn't going to screw up their schedule and (eventually) lose money all to bail WWE out for their fuckup. No incentive.

They should have managed their time better. They messed up in a lot of ways, but they do advertise that the card is subject to change. And I understand. I'm still pissed they had Austin get hit by a car and replaced by the Big Show in the Triple Threat Rock/HHH/Austin we never did see.

Yeah, but I mean... yeah... they have that write out if people go complaining for refunds. Its there and they're right. Its cheap and fucked up, but its there. Because we all recognize that that line is MEANT to cover them for injuries or travel problems or things out of their control that affect the card. And wrestling does end up pushing that to cover intentional bait and switches which... is lame when you really think about it. Jericho replacing Punk in the 6 Pack, Edge replacing Hardy in the 3 way, Edge replacing Kofi in the Elimination Chamber. Granted, very few people bought a PPV for Kofi but still, its a screwed up practice that WWE has almost made standard of late.

But to just bump full matches solely because you screwed it up and decided something else was more important? That's just screwed up.

[Fire-Babe]

Apr 8, 2009 10:58:50 GMT -5 BTR said:

Things may have changed in ten years, but there was a HUGE fuckup back in 1998 in WCW when Halloween Havoc went past 11pm and various cable companies cut off broadcasts. They even had to replay a Goldberg/DDP title match on Nitro the next night, and I actually never saw the ending to Hogan/Warrior 2 until I saw it on video years later. While I don't know the odds of it happening again, there was precedent.

(assorted history snipped for brevity, not for unimportance)

Ah okay, that clears that up then.

I may still have a philosophical disagreement with it but if it's happened before, then so be it

[Lucky]

Yeah, I mean, there's a reason UFC schedules their PPVs in a way that routinely results in the main events finishing WELL before the PPV slot ends. Why they then stash undercard matches to air in that instance to try and give the fans their money worth, even when ideally those should have aired first and the main event last. They have to prepare for the length the main event COULD go because they have a clock, even if that routinely means matches ending early and having time to fill.

But wrestling is scripted and you can control the length of matches. So WWE (and TNA) really have no good excuse. Maybe losing a minute here or there or some wrestlers fucking up and stealing too much time. Maybe an injury or a technical problem occurs that forces you to act. But to have to cut a 10-20 minute match/segment before the show even begins because you realize you've got too much on paper for 4 hours? That's just amateur hour and I expect more from WWE. If TNA pulled that shit on their biggest PPV of the year with a well built match then the internet would be buzzing with what a bush league joke it was. And they'd be right.

[Mikey]

Apr 8, 2009 10:58:50 GMT -5 BTR said:

...and I actually never saw the ending to Hogan/Warrior 2 until I saw it on video years later.

You almost make it sound like this is a bad thing.

[DevSop]

Actually, back when the nWo first formed Bash at the Beach, Road Wild, and maybe even 1 or 2 PPVs after that, it was routine for the WCW PPV's to run a full 15-20 minutes "over." But I also seem to recall that WCW PPV replays would not begin until 11:30 so I'm not sure if they bought the overrun just to be safe, but it was a long practice of WCW PPV's to run long and they I believe they were the first of the Monday Night Wars to start scheduling the overrun til 11:07 or whatever. But I remember those first few shows of the nWo era used to run REALLY long with the promos/garbage throwing.

Good days for sure.

Back on topic, bumping the tag match was dumb, but this is a dumb company we're talking about. They book a feud that people actually get interested in and move it to the pre-show while they lazily book a dumb Rey/JBL feud just to get JBL 10 minutes of air-time to retire. They put their ECW title on someone that the boss refuses to allow to wrestle live anymore because he had one bad match. And knowing the stupidity of the company, they're going to break up 2 of the 3 viable tag teams in the company next week.

[Mr. Dashbee]

I know this is a little late. But I ordered WM25 on DirecTV, and it was listed as a 5 hour broadcast. The broadcast started at 4 PM (Arizona time), and the replay was slated to start at 9 PM.