wrestling / Columns
Pro-Wrestling Pilot 09.13.10: Fast Forward
Pro-Wrestling Pilot
By JP Prag
Concept #1: Fast Forward
What’s the concept?
As the purveyor of In Defense Of…, Hidden Highlights, and The Hamilton Ave Journal, you can tell that I enjoy articles that have a theme and focus to them. Every once in a while I get an itch to try out a new idea, and that’s what Pro-Wrestling Pilot is all about.
This article gives me the ability to test out an idea and you a chance to see my process of putting it together. If the idea seems good enough, it could become a regular feature either from me or one that I could pass on to another writer. So take the commentary section below to let me know what you thought of the idea, changes you’d make to the format and design, and if you think it has wings.
Now let’s premier this week’s pilot!
Note: This logo was just created very quickly for the concept and would not necessarily be the real one.
One of the reasons I had to end Hidden Highlights was that I just could not watch all of the wrestling shows in the complete detail required of the article every week. I have far too much going on in the rest of my life to dedicate eleven hours a week to watching wrestling. Nowadays I never watch a show live and instead catch it on my DVR so I can fast forward and save as much time as I can. But as the weeks moved on, that made me wonder…
Well let’s find out!
Note: For ease of tracking, all times were rounded up to the nearest 30-second mark.
FAST FORWARD: WWE Intro – Why should I watch that? (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: Opening Segment with Nexus in the Ring. Listening to Nexus still interests me so I look forward to what Wade Barrett and the others may say next. (1 minute)
FAST FORWARD: Replay of Nexus beating the Undertaker. I don’t need to see what I watched last week. (1 minute)
WATCH: More of the Nexus talking. Michael Tarver has really developed a personality and character over the past few months that I actually care about him! (3 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Another clip of last week. Better integration than usual this week, though. (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: Back to Justin Gabriel and the rest of Nexus! (2 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Randy Orton’s entrance. Even when interrupting, it is forever! (1 minute)
WATCH: Randy Orton confront the Nexus, the GM interrupts… I swear I’ve seen this before. I’d probably be skipping except I want to hear what the heck this show is actually going to have. (2 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Chris Jericho’s entrance. I pretty much skip all entrance music that I’ve seen before. (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: More GM talk and then…
FAST FORWARD: John Morrison’s entrance (1 minute)
WATCH: Chris Jericho vs. John Morrison. I like both of these guys in the ring and so of course they go to commercial (2.5 minutes).
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3.5 minutes)
WATCH: Back to the action! (5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: John Morrison’s celebration and replay. I just watched that and I know he won! (1 minute)
WATCH: Jericho after the match and the slow walk away. Jericho is great at playing out the drama. (1 minute)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Melina’s entrance and the beginning of Alicia Fox’s entrance. These women are great to look at, but I’ve seen their entrances enough times. Besides, I prefer to watch Alicia Fox doing that skip around the ring. (1 minute)
WATCH: Alicia Fox talks and then the match with Melina. (2.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Celebration and replay (1 minute)
WATCH: Miz and Josh Mathews. Miz still interests me quite a bit and I love the stuff Michael Cole says about him. (30 seconds)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3.5 minutes)
WATCH: Backstage with Edge and Zack Ryder. That is the most random combination of the night, I love it! And then more with Ted DiBiase. I’m not sure why I’m watching him because he and the WWE has not given me a reason to care. Maryse, though, makes it all worthwhile. (4 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: A review of last week and the Nexus entrance. (1 minute)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: The end of Justin Gabriel’s entrance and John Cena’s entrance (2 minutes)
WATCH: John Cena vs. Justin Gabriel. This is actually a fresh matchup and when it comes to the Nexus I never know if they are going to be willing to push them or forget them. It actually makes their matches a question mark instead of a forgone conclusion, not something you can get out of many John Cena matches. (7 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Post match celebration, announcers talking, and Legendary commercial (4 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4 minutes)
WATCH: Miz in the ring giving a history lesson. I know the Miz is truly getting received because the IWC has turned against him. I’ve liked the Miz for a long time and have no plans on changing that opinion. That said, here’s hoping he doesn’t get stale at some point and I just skip over everything he says. I also decided to watch Daniel Bryan’s entrance because I’ve only heard a couple of times so I’m still getting used to it. Apparantly so is Daniel Bryan! (10.5 minutes)
WATCH: This Week in WWE History is WCW! I’m a huge NWA/WCW mark, so this gave me a feel good moment. Of course, it doesn’t help that WWE owns the history and can say anything they want like that WCW “stole” Lex Lugar. (2 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Review of last week and then Edge’s entrance until I happen to stop at… (2 minutes)
WATCH: Michael Cole receives an e-mail on his Blackberry!
FAST FORWARD: The end of Edge’s entrance and the Great Khali’s entrance (1.5 minutes).
WATCH: And the match. Although I’m not exactly paying the most attention, although Edge managed to get a decent match out of Khali before. Oh, never mind that. Wait, and now we’ll get another chance! (2 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3.5 minutes)
WATCH: The match finally happens. But at least Michael Cole called the flub of The Great Khali and the ref correctly. (2 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Edge walks away and what’s to come. (1 minute)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Night of Champions Card (1 minutes)
WATCH: Chris Jericho backstage (1.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Sheamus begins his entrance (0.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3.5 minutes)
WATCH: Everyone is at the announce table (0.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Wade Barrett and Randy Orton come to the ring. Strangely, Orton is in a rush because alone he usually goes for 3.5 minutes! (2 minutes)
WATCH: Main Event time! Wow, no filler matches or segments tonight and yet still almost nothing happened. Ah well! Guess that means there was more to watch than usual and I don’t have to skip over Mark Henry, Evan Bourne, or Zack Ryder losing a match. There are promos I usually skip, too, because some of the guys say nothing new, but they were also lacking tonight. It made a more difficult issue for me, but it probably made a better show. (7 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Replay and then the stare-down. Seen it! (1.5 minutes)
IN TOTAL
SHOW LENGTH: 2 Hours 7 Minutes
TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH COMMERCIALS: 38 minutes
TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH THE SHOW: 24 minutes
TOTAL TIME WATCHED: 1 hour 5 minutes
TOTAL TIME SAVED: 1 hour 2 minutes
Note: ROH on HDNet is from 8/30 because there was no new episode this week but I needed to put something here for the test.
WATCH: Well, the show started right in the ring, so I didn’t get to skip anything off the bat! Thanks for the recap while talking, Tyler Black, because I haven’t watched this show in quite a while. (5.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Intro and what’s to come tonight (1 minute)
WATCH: And we’re back to trios action with… ummm… wow, name tags during the intro would help. (5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Celebration by the House of Truth and the match recap (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: Roderick Strong gives a heel interview. So the title match is heel vs. heel? And into another interview that seems to be putting over a steel chain match. And then over to Generico and Colt Cabana for the face side. This seems an abnormal amount of talking in a row for ROH. (4 minutes)
WATCH: El Generico and Colt Cabana change clothes VERY quickly and come out to the ring. I haven’t watched in a long time, so I decide it’s worthwhile to see the ring intros. And here come the Kings of Wrestling. Nice plaque! (2.5 minutes)
WATCH: All right, and now a tag match again. I think I need commercials to add some skipping to this show! (10 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Recap and more Glory by Honor ads (1 minute)
FAST FORWARD: An actual commercial break! (2 minutes)
WATCH: Back in the ring with Eddie Edwards and his hunt. If I had known what his speech was about and heard it every week, I’m sure I would have skipped. And now Mike Sydal comes to the ring to even more generic music. Ooooh, I time, that will help me keep track of the numbers. (2 minutes)
WATCH: The match was 36 seconds according to the timer. (1 minute)
WATCH: Backstage with Jim Cornette to hype the title match. (2 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: More Glory by Honor hype. (1 minute)
WATCH: Steve Corino comes to the ring to with music that at least is not 100% generic like the… Tyler Black who comes out next! (1.5 minutes)
WATCH: A lot of pre-match stalling and then this thing gets underway. I wish the crowd was mic’ed because I have no idea how the audience really feels (or doesn’t feel) about these guys in the ring. (9 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Replay of match (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: Post-match beatdown and tons of run-ins! (1.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Glory By Honor hard sell to end the show (2 minutes)
IN TOTAL
SHOW LENGTH: 57 minutes
TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH COMMERCIALS: 2 minutes
TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH THE SHOW: 6 minutes
TOTAL TIME WATCHED: 49 minutes
TOTAL TIME SAVED: 8 minutes
FAST FORWARD: WWE generic into (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: NXT intro. Normally I’d skip this, but there’s a new song and a new intro to watch. Also, nice Hidden Highlight with Vickie Guerrero having a “????” for a rookie (1.5 minutes).
FAST FORWARD: Everyone walking to the ring. I’ll see and hear them all in a few minutes, so no need to drag it out. (3 minutes).
WATCH: But I did want to hear what Vickie Guerrero said to explain her change and who her new rookie is! Beside, Vickie is the best heel going today. (1 minute)
WATCH: Everyone is in the ring and Matt Striker gives the run down. And we get intros from everyone. (8 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4.5 minutes)
WATCH: Time to find out what the Rookie Challenge is! Oh, it’s dancing. Well, the girls are cute, but PG dancing really doesn’t interest me. I stick around long enough to see Michael Cole have some fun, but that’s it. (2 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: The rest of the dancing (5 minutes).
WATCH: Time to find a winner. Well, looks like Michael Cole wins again! (1.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: The celebration and SmackDown recap. (1.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: And we’re back for some intros to the ring. (1.5 minutes)
WATCH: Alicia Fox in the ring twice one week? Nice! Time to find out what FCW has been doing with these girls. But what the heck happened with the post match? That was more awkward then the ending of Season 1. (4 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3.5 minutes)
WATCH: And we have a second challenge? Wow, this is a weird format. But Naomi is winning me over fast tonight. AJ is losing me quite quickly. You are no Olivia Munn, honey. Cook, you did a good job of almost convincing me, but I’m not sold yet… or at all. (3.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Recap and what’s to come (0.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Legendary commercial and other WWE nonsense (3.5 minutes)
WATCH: Let’s learn about Jamie!
FAST FORWARD: Goldust and Oksana come down to the ring as my spell check hates me (0.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: It may have been a while since I’ve heard Primo’s music, but that doesn’t mean I want to hear it now! (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: OK, AJ is going to get another chance to change my mind back. Oksana is not reminding me of Hidden Highlight queen Maryse despite the similar looks and foreign accents. (1.5 minutes)
WATCH: I was about to fast forward the celebration, but Vickie Guerrero drags me back in again. She’s damn good at this! AJ, well, she’s better off without the mic so far.
Kaitlyn (I’m sorry spell checker, that’s what the WWE says!) has been doing a great job actually being a rookie and looking like she want to do what her pro wants. She may be green, but she’s got the act down decently, so that pairing should be worthwhile to watch for the next few weeks.
IN TOTAL
SHOW LENGTH: 1 hour 7 minutes
TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH COMMERCIALS: 20 minutes
TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH THE SHOW: 16.5 minutes
TOTAL TIME WATCHED: 30.5 minutes
TOTAL TIME SAVED: 36.5 minutes
Note: Wrestlicious TakeDown is from… ummm… who knows when?! It just seems to be some random episode my DVR picked up. Well, since there hasn’t been a new one since July 27, I guess it does not matter which one I run through.
WATCH: Wrewind time! Normally I’d skip because I watched it already… but I didn’t. (0.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Opening credits. I actually have seen this! (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: Intro with Jimmy Hart and Brooke Lynn. Oh, laugh track, how I missed you. (1.5 minutes)
WATCH: A skit with Shauna-Na and friends. Hilarious! (0.5 seconds)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (2.5 minutes)
WATCH: A skit Wrestlicious Heroines. This was really hard to read while typing this.
WATCH: I accept the intros of Kickstart Katie and Alexandra the Great because I don’t think I’ve seen them yet. (1.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Which was a waste because we went right to commercial break. (2.5 minutes)
WATCH: Back for the match, already in progress. This is submission or towel-throw match. This is what is so much fun about Wrestlicious; they have good performers in the middle of the nonsense. Ryan Byers or Steve Cook would know better than I the credentials of these girls, so I’ll take it for what I see here. And then we get to learn a new word before the break! (8.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break. These have been short compared to the other shows, but there are so many of them! (2.5 minutes)
WATCH: Next week it will be Glory vs. Felony for the Wrestlicious Crown. But who should get a title shot? I think the question is who is actually still with the company? (0.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Wrestlicious Spotlight. Yeah, like I keep saying, the girls are cute by just random pose downs when porn is so readily available seem silly to me. (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: Are You Smarter than a Male Wrestler… and the Cuban Assassin and Marley are still here? I think this was the same ones as the last time I watched. (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: The intros are so short here that there’s not much a chance to consider fast forwarding before the main event. And the Lunch Ladies get the main event spot! Ah, will wonders never cease. Wait, they are not only a threat, but destroy the competition leading to a DQ. Oh man! (6.5 minutes)
IN TOTAL
SHOW LENGTH: 29.5 minutes
TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH COMMERCIALS: 7.5 minutes
TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH THE SHOW: 1 minute
TOTAL TIME WATCHED: 21 minutes
TOTAL TIME SAVED: 8.5 minutes
Note: TNA iMPACT is from 9/2 because there was no new episode this week but I needed to put something here for the test.
FAST FORWARD: What happened last week, intro, and Hogan and Bischoff walk to the ring (3 minutes)
WATCH: And now it’s time for Hogan and Bischoff’s promo. I guess it would have been better watching this before the PPV. (0.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Hogan calls each of the guys out individually for the title match. Yep, lot’s of intro music. (2.5 minutes)
WATCH: Back to the promo. Let’s see what happens! I’m getting rather interested in who “they” are now. (6 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Some recent history and the intro of the Beautiful People. (3.5 minutes)
WATCH: And the tag match over who is really the Beautiful People is underway! Oh, and it’s that read headed girl who always wears a dress in the audience. I see they got her to move off the main camera after man weeks, but she’s still in a premium spot. (6.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4 minutes)
WATCH: Backstage camera with Dr. Stevie. (0.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: ReACTION Rewind. I watched it… sort of… And then some additional fast forwarding through Stevie Richards’ and Abyss’ entrances. (3 minutes)
WATCH: Match is on, though a total reversal of roles since they last fought. I can’t decide if we are supposed to remember their old relationship or if we are just supposed to pretend Stevie Richards came back with EV2.0? (5 minutes)
WATCH: Backstage with Mr. Anderson. I generally skip a lot of his regular promos because he never says anything new, but the way TNA has been doing backstage segments has been a lot more interesting recently. (2.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (5.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: EV2.0 and Fourtune’s entrances (1 minute)
WATCH: AJ Styles starts the Fourtune/EV2.0 promo. Having met AJ in real life, the guy made me a big fan for life, so I’ll listen to whatever he wants to say and watch however he decides to wrestle. Still, knowing how nice he was to me makes it very hard to ever see him as a heel. (2 minutes)
WATCH: Backstage with Jarrett and Samoa Joe. I keep watching these segments thinking something is going to be explained in this storyline. Boy am I ever mistaken! (1 minute)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4 minutes)
WATCH: Kevin Nash and Sting are walking around backstage chatting. I like this style so much better than the floating camera that nobody notices. (1 minute)
FAST FORWARD: Jeff Jarrett and Sting’s entrances (2 minutes)
WATCH: The match that these guys were making an entrance for! Plus the post-match beatdown and some Hogan distraction for Samoa Joe. (6.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: The Shore and the No Surrender breakdown (2 minutes)
WATCH: London Brawling gives a promo. I once saw Magnus on a plane and that guy has bigger boobs than Chelsea! The Motor City Machine Guns head on down. (1.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Slow entrance (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: Back to the promo. From a business perspective I’m glad TNA finally recognized that the MCMG make them money and deserve the spotlight, but these two were not friendly when I met them and it’s left a bad taste in my mouth ever since. (4.5 minutes)
WATCH: Backstage with EV2.0 (1.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: See TNA Live! (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: Backstage with Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy. (1 minute)
FAST FORWARD: Fourtune and EV2.0 take even more time walking to and around the ring (2.5 minutes)
WATCH: And they Elimination Match is underway! (6.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4.5 minutes)
WATCH: Back to the match still underway. This was actually the first time in quite a while I can remember TNA going to commercial during a match. They seemed to have stopped the practice a couple of months ago, but it looks like it is not completely done for. The WWE, on the other hand, does it on almost every match on RAW and SmackDown. (8 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Recap (0.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Intros for the main event, including Mr. Anderson’s microphone shtick. I don’t mind it; it is just that he never says anything new so I have no reason to listen (4.5 minutes)
WATCH: And now it is Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy vs. Mr. Anderson and the Pope. Should be a decent match with all involved. (5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Recap (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: Post-match brawl and the same lead-in for ReACTION they’ve done for weeks! (1 minute)
IN TOTAL
SHOW LENGTH: 2 hours 0.5 minutes
TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH COMMERCIALS: 36 minutes
TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH THE SHOW: 25 minutes
TOTAL TIME WATCHED: 59.5 minutes
TOTAL TIME SAVED: 1 hour 1 minute
Note: TNA ReACTION is from 9/2 because there was no new episode this week but I needed to put something here for the test.
WATCH: Back to the action where we left off at the end of iMPACT. (2 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: ReACTION intro (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: Backstage subtitles and then some more fun. I hope these guys get an extra paycheck for being on both shows! I love the random Tommy Dreamer walk-bys in every episode. (3 minutes)
WATCH: A quick run-through of tonight’s program and then right in to a bit of EV2.0 vs. Fourtune. (3.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4 minutes)
WATCH: Samoa Joe gives his story and we get no new details on what the heck is bothering Kevin Nash and Sting. Although I do love how Kevin Nash explains Somoa Joe’s actions which shows you how well his mind works for this business. (4 minute)
WATCH: And then a non-segue into Brian Kendrick. Sure, why not? (1.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: What’s to come? (1 minute)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: What’s to come again! (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: Time to learn about Jesse Neal on the iMPACT Player of the Week! (5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: What’s to come? I don’t care! (0.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3.5 minutes)
WATCH: Fast return from break and Hulk Hogan is at the Gorilla Position. is that a shoot, brother? (1 minute)
FAST FORWARD: Recap of Abyss on iMPACT (2 minutes)
WATCH: Back for a bit to the story (1 minute)
FAST FORWARD: And then a bunch of EV2.0 and Fourtune stuff. Seen enough of that already, thanks. (2.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Ad for No Surrender (1 minute)
WATCH: Madison Rayne time on ReACTION. Plus we finally get Tara’s explanation. Seems worthwhile. Yes, it led to a Pinky and the Brain reference. All is well! (4 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Ok, now they are just babbling and saying the same thing over and over again. See what I did there? (1 minute)
FAST FORWARD: What else is happening at No Surrender? (1 minute)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3 minutes)
WATCH: Kurt Angle talking about No Surrender. Hmmm… I’ve had enough. (0.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Skipping a lot of the redundant crap (3.5 minutes)
WATCH: Hidden camera listening in on London Brawling (0.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: And more nothing through the credits (1.5 minutes)
IN TOTAL
SHOW LENGTH: 59 minutes
TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH COMMERCIALS: 18 minutes
TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH THE SHOW: 14.5 minutes
TOTAL TIME WATCHED: 26.5 minutes
TOTAL TIME SAVED: 32.5 minutes
FAST FORWARD: Straight through the WWE intro, the SuperStars intro, the fireworks, R-Truth’s entrance (which is always forever), and William Regal’s entrance. (4 minutes)
WATCH: Time for the Regal rap! And then the match to along with it. As any longtime reader of Hidden Highlights would know I’m a huge William Regal mark, but it is so hard for me to watch what the WWE has done with him and know going in that he is going to lose the match. There really is no drama or interest when you already know how it’s going to end up. (5.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break… during a match. What did I tell you? (3.5 minutes)
WATCH: Back to the match already underway. And it ends as expected (2 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: R-Truth celebrates and recap of NXT (3 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Legendary commercial and intros for Goldust and Primo (2.5 minutes)
WATCH: And a mixed tag match. Well, it’s good to see Gail Kim in action again. Primo is a heel now? I really didn’t pick that up on NXT. Strangely this match has more drama than the last one because there is no reason for either team to win, therefore anyone could! (5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Recap the winning and some Night of Champions shilling. (2 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Vance Archer and Curt Hawkins are in the ring. And then the Dude Busters come down. I thought both were heel teams? (1 minute)
WATCH: I guess we’ll watch this match. I can’t believe the WWE still hasn’t made Lance Hoyt cover up his tramp stamp. (3 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Recap and WWE shilling (2 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: So many recaps of RAW, SmackDown, and Legendary (5 minutes)
WATCH: Luke Gallows(!) gives a promo.
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Big Show comes to the ring (1.5 minutes)
WATCH: Well, there’s four minutes left in the show. I wonder how long this match will last? (2.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Recap… cut short (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: Big Show talks us out. (0.5 minutes)
IN TOTAL
SHOW LENGTH: 59 minutes
TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH COMMERCIALS: 16.5 minutes
TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH THE SHOW: 21.5 minutes
TOTAL TIME WATCHED: 21 minutes
TOTAL TIME SAVED: 38 minutes
FAST FORWARD: WWE Opening, SmackDown Intro, recap of what’s been going on, and a bit of the Undertake standing there doing nothing. (3.5 minutes)
WATCH: I can’t believe I haven’t got to skip the Undertaker’s entrance. That’s usually a good four minutes! I guess we’ll listen to what he has to say. I am enjoying the production Hidden Highlight of using the shaky free camera with extreme close up to show how out of it the Undertaker is. (4.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: CM Punk comes out (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: Now time to listen to CM Punk. I’m always amused by what he has to say. Being a card carrying member of the SES myself, I totally get into whatever Punk wants to talk about. He does exactly what a heel should: tell the truth that the crowd hates to hear. (4 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Undertaker’s music and Legendary shill (1 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Recap of the past few weeks and the entrances of Jack Swagger and MVP (3 minutes)
WATCH: All right, 19 minutes into the show and time for a match! Of course, it’s a match I’ve seen a bunch of times, but ah well. Here are two guys that I’ve enjoyed for a long time that WWE booking has done a great job of making me not care about. (3 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3 minutes)
WATCH: That was odd going to commercial break while in the rest hold. Normally they tumble to the outside and then we come back from commercial break to the rest hold. (2.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Jack Swagger celebrates his tap out victory. I agree with that. (1 minute)
WATCH: Real talk! Layla is definitely one of the best in the at just about everything. As for Michelle McCool… she and the Undertaker once came into a Japanese restaurant in Nashville that I was eating at. Well, Japanese would be a stretch because everyone was Loa or Korean, but they had noodles and sushi. (1.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Random RAW recaps and Kane stuff. (1.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Night of Champions shilling and some history of Kane and the Undertaker. Unlike many of today’s fans, I actually did live through this the first time. (4.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: RAW add (0.5 minutes)
WATCH: All right, back to Ricardo Rodriguez. (0.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Alberto Del Rio and Matt Hardy come to the ring to a recap of last week. (3 minutes)
WATCH: I’ve been enjoying the Alberto Del Rio push because he is supposed to be a big deal. I just have that awful feeling he’s going to get really high up there and then the WWE is going to do their famous de-push. (2 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3.5 minutes)
WATCH: That’s more like it. Knocked to the outside before the break, back from the break to a rest hold. I feel better now. (7 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Recap, Christian comes in to make a save (I guess), and some more Legendary stuff (4.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Drew McIntyre saunters to the ring (1.5 minutes)
WATCH: Kaval’s entrance. I have to hear his theme music, so this is a one-time deal! (1 minute)
WATCH: Hmmmm… sounded pretty superhero-like. I’m hoping he wins in this match. By the way, a person in good shape can gain about 1.5 pounds of dry lean muscle a month. Looking at Drew McIntyre, either he’s failing wellness or he sucking down a mess load of creatine to make a bunch of water muscle. So it you were to feel McIntyre’s muscles they’d feel all squishy while someone like CM Punk or myself have hard muscles that aren’t very big. Anyway, that seems to be how the Triple H work out goes, and the wrong guy went over. (4 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Recap. (1 minute)
WATCH: LayCool to the rescue! (0.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (4 minutes)
WATCH: “Dashing” Cody Rhodes give you a facial. Oh, PG, you are too good! (1 minute)
WATCH: More Vickie and Kaitlyn. (1 minute)
FAST FORWARD: Well that was pointless. Time to skip over the intros of Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston just like they skipped over the entrances of Chris Masters and Chavo Guerrero. (2 minutes)
WATCH: Tag Team action. When did Chavo stop wearing pants? (3 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: And the recap and post match stuff is almost as long (2 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Legendary. Gah! And some Night of Champions shilling (3.5 minutes)
WATCH: Big Show interview himself! (2.5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (5 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: CM Punk comes to the ring and then some Undertaker skipping time (3.5 minutes)
WATCH: Main event time! This match actually has drama because I’m not sure which the direction the WWE will go. I don’t know why I keep having faith that they will push CM Punk, but I do. (3 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: Commercial Break (3.5 minutes)
WATCH: And back to the action. I mean, after the Undertaker fell to the outside and we came back to a rest hold. (8 minutes)
FAST FORWARD: The Undertake stumbles around after his win and Kane laughs into TMZ (2.5 minutes)
IN TOTAL
SHOW LENGTH: 2 hours
TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH COMMERCIALS: 34.5 minutes
TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH THE SHOW: 39 minutes
TOTAL TIME WATCHED: 46.5 minutes
TOTAL TIME SAVED: 1 hour 13.5 minutes
Wrap Up!
For all of the wrestling shows this week…
TOTAL SHOW LENGTHS: 10 hours 39 minutes
TOTAL TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH COMMERCIALS: 2 hours 52.5 minutes
TOTAL TIME FAST FORWARDING THROUGH THE SHOWS: 2 hours 27.5 minutes
TOTAL TIME WATCHED: 5 hours 19 minutes
TOTAL TIME SAVED: 5 hours 20 minutes
Well this week ended up being a perfect example of why I record shows and watch them later. Half of what was presented was a complete waste of time for me. And of what I watched, there was still plenty that could have been skipped had I been able to see the future. But that’s a fair risk so I do not regret watching any of it.
Overall, I’m not surprised that I skipped half of the shows because I’m very cognizant of just how much of the show is recaps or theme music alone. I will say, though, that I was surprised at the percentage I watched of Wrestlicious (71%) and how little I saw of SmackDown. People around here love to praise SmackDown as the best show around, but I watched just 39% of it (not as bad at the 36% for SuperStars, but that is less surprising).
[ / CONCEPT ]
Well that finishes off Pro-Wrestling Concept #1: Fast Forward. What did you all think? Is this is a workable concept for a weekly article? What was done well? What would you like to see changed? Does it need work in graphics or formatting? Is there additional data you would like to see added?
To help get you started, here are some things I was asking myself as I was going through this pilot:
Would the readers want to see percentages at the end of each section? Such as “Percentage Watched” and “Percentage Skipped”. For the “Watch” parts, would a “Should Have Skipped” be an interesting addition? Would this look better in a table with the “Watch” and “Fast Forward” in separate columns? Would different colors for “Watch” and “Fast Forward” be helpful? If it stayed in row format, would having images for “Fast Forward” and “Watch” look good? Could this article be written as a team effort like the R’s? Could this article be shown a couple of times a week? So maybe one on Wednesday and one on Saturday so it is not as long? Does this just come off too negative to be something I’d even want to see again? What other measures could be tracked? And if other times were tracked (like time in ring vs. segments) would it be too much?
Let me know in the commentary section below and we’ll see where we go from here!
