Take up thy wrestling boots and walk - Structure
Submitted by Pt2 on Friday, November 19, 2004 at 4:58 PM EST





You ever notice the hype there is, when a PPV first starts? When all that music is being played, the pyro is going off, and everyone is cheering? That hype is important. If you can keep the fans that hyped, keep them feeling the enthusiasm for the show that they are about to watch, it can seriously help the event.

Structure is important when it comes to shows, especially the longer PPV shows. If you want to keep the crowd hot for several hours, then you need to organize the PPV in such a way that keeps them entertained, and builds them up to the proverbial climax. The obvious example of this is that they don’t give away the most hyped match until the end of the night. Not always the title match, the one that draws the most people goes last. That’s pretty obvious, if you want to keep people there, that’s what you do.

But it goes a lot further than this. That initial reaction will die off pretty quickly if it’s not nurtured. And it’s a lot harder to get it back once you’ve lost it than to try and keep it. A hot crowd will certainly help the performers in the ring put on a better match (or at least with a lot of wrestlers, it will) so it’s important to plan your opening match in such a way that you can keep a lot of that fan interest.

It’s actually probably easier than you’d imagine. Put on an opening match that will be fast paced, and with wrestlers who get a good crowd reaction. You don’t want to throw away your main drawing cards too early, but you definitely want people that the crowd care about in there.

Unfortunately, that does cut out a lot of the current WWE roster. There are a lot of wrestlers in the WWE who could have that quick paced match; unfortunately, not many of them get TV time enough to really be cared about, and they rarely feature on PPV. The WWE has in the past however, had their guys that they like to open shows, and they stick with them, regardless of where the fan reaction would place them on the card.

Rob Van Dam, for example opening Wrestlemania. He can move, and he was one of the most over wrestlers in 2002 - but instead of being well up the card, he was there to keep a pumped up crowd hot. The event wasn’t anything amazing, but the crowd were up for it all night - they had Rock - Hogan coming later, and the WWE needed to make sure that they weren’t just sitting around waiting for it - they planned it.

The Rockers opened two Wrestlemania shows if my memory serves me correctly. Cruiserweight bouts often open Pay per views these days. Which survivor series match opened 1996? Owen/Bulldog/Jannetty/Cassidi vs. Furnas/LaFon/Goddwinns. They got rid of the Goddwinns early on and let the small guys run around.

They may not be the biggest draws in the world, but theres loads of events where the crowd are really into it, that are opened with guys who can put on a fast paced match. Wrestlemania VIII is another great example, opened by Shawn Michaels and Tito Santana, and the crowd were with it right until the end… despite the occasional poor match along the way.

The amount of great shows they have put on, and the amount of times this has happened, leads me to think that it’s a lot more than pure chance. The WWE know what they are doing, and I’m sure that they spend a lot of time planning the order of these big shows, trying to make it as entertaining as possible, for both the live crowd and the people watching at home. They know that it benefit’s the wrestlers out there, and they know that the fast paced wrestling, when followed up with well built up matches, will really make a crowd want to see more.

Again, cruisers and faster workers may not be about to headline Wrestlemania next year - But we have our uses, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few more events opened by the likes of Van Dam, Mysterio, Shane Helms and Tajiri.

That’s the end of the 93rd Take up thy wrestling boots and walk. Coming up soon, it’s the return of you be the booker. If you want to contact me about this, any of my other columns or the you be the booker contest, you can reach me at takeupthywrestlingboots@gmail.com

Take care

Pt2








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