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Last night, PWInsider.com reported that the segments involving Penta ran long, leading to later segments being trimmed for time and that obviously, talents were not thrilled about that.
For some reason, this has become "a thing" on social media among those who didn't actually read what was written here, but saw a version shared on those platforms.
So, let's run this back and break it down for those who want to projectile vomit anger instead of actually reading what was on the site last night:
Yes, WWE is on Netflx now and that brings greater flexibility in terms of when they finish Raw episodes. Last week, they went over three hours. This week, they ended a little over two and a half hours in. In both cases, that is because that's how WWE decided to time out the shows and when they wanted to go off the air.
Yes, WWE no longer has the "hard out" of having to be off the air by 10 PM or 11 PM Eastern the way they would on The USA Network, but that does NOT mean they plan to run endless amounts of time every week. They are not planning to have a NJPW Wrestle Kingdom six hour broadcast every week just for the hell of it. Once they internally time out a show to be over at a certain time and if they are running over that time, they are going to do whatever they can to get it back into the manageable time frame they WANT the show to end at. Paul Levesque isn't going to look to Bruce Prichard, shrug and say, "Well, Netflix, yo!" and then run an extra hour.
They were timed to go off at 10:30 PM Eastern last night and that's why time was cut after Penta ran long.
WHY?
Why, you ask?
Here's why: When WWE went off the air Monday night, they still were scheduled to present several dark matches live in San Jose. They wanted to get those matches out to the crowd and THEN wanted their taping to be over in a manageable time period. Last week's Raw premiere was essentially treated like a PPV. This week, it was back to normal.
They wanted to be done early enough on West Coast time to allow whatever talents and staff scheduled to take red-eye flights home the ability to do so. They wanted to be done so they didn't accrue overtime charges in the venue they rented, with the local staff they used, with their own crew. None of this is rocket science. It's common sense for a live production. They weren't going to stay in the SAP Center an extra 30 minutes or hour or two hours.
YES, Netflix allows flexibility, but the company is still going to maintain their usual structure and timing. They aren't seeking to be there five hours every week just "because they can that." Whether they are slated to run 2 hours or 4 hours on a specific week, they are still going to work towards maintaining their internal clock where they want the show to end. They aren't seeking to run an extra hour because things are running late.
I totally understand why some would get upset, because they are Penta fans and it was a big night for him. It was. We reported management was happy with his debut and with the early word on merchandise sales. All PWInsider.com reported was the truth, that he went over his time (as did Chad Gable) and some talents who followed him had their time cut. They aren't mad at Penta - but they aren't happy their time was cut. This has happened before and will happen again. It's the nature of live TV. Nothing can ever be perfect.
With the exception of the main event, which ran about 18 minutes later night, everything was shorter than Penta vs. Gable, which ran 13 minutes or so bell to bell. Add in the entrances and the post-match in-ring promo, you can see where the time went and why WWE, if they wanted to keep things on track, had to cut some time elsewhere. That's the nature of live TV. Again, not rocket science. Common sense.
So, for those who asked, there's your answer.
Thanks for reading.
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