2) “What are your thoughts so far about the episodes from the Performance Center?”
MANGO: I’ve written about this a lot, so I’ll keep my thoughts short. They needed to start pre-taping well before they did. They can do more to make this feel more entertaining, but I also don’t want to discredit how incredibly hard they must be working and how hard this situation is. The shows are rough, though, if I’m honest. Sometimes, it’s not too bad, but the promos in the ring are really problematic. The replays give me time to catch up on work, but they’re not fun to watch as a viewer outside of that. For the most part, these have had some terrible things about them, but they’re so much better than just getting clip shows, so I’m grateful.
PUGLIESEE: I haven’t really minded them, I don’t think they are as awful as many proclaim. Many people don’t buy the ppvs, casual fans don’t have the network, How often do you see full PPV matches on tv? I would like them to go more promo heavy if possible. Have people life stream in they can? I don’t have the answers, but if they continue, I’ll be watching.
BALAZ: I feel they could’ve done something clever with them, and have failed miserably so far. Triple H saved SmackDown, but the fact they are just replaying full matches from PPVs shows a lack of effort and creative problem solving. Raw was especially painful to try and sit through.
MITCHELL: Empty Night SmackDown did great, Empty Night Raw fell flat, and Empty Night NXT was somewhere in the middle. What Raw/Vince did wrong was thinking that SmackDown wasn’t exactly what we needed. Raw should’ve been SmackDown with a third hour and more Empty Arena matches, including HHH and Stone Cold cracking us up on commentary. Let Jerry Lawler have the night off, isn’t he an at-risk individual?
ABSLER: I think the episodes at the Performance Center have been alright. It is only when you have no fans in the audience do you realize how much the superstars feed off the live crowd. The wrestling and especially promos are a bit weird in silence, but I think they are doing their best given the situation in the outside world.
EWING: Very surreal. Strange. The shows have been hard to watch. Not because of the performances or promos from the WWE Superstars, but not having that crowd reaction is a killer. You’re taking the most important element out of a wrestling show and it sucks! I want to say that I still enjoy the shows, as I do appreciate the WWE Superstars for entertaining us through this difficult time. However, I can’t say they’ve been hard to watch. The wrestling fans (or “WWE Universe”) is what makes or breaks your shows. If anything, I have a whole new appreciation for wrestling shows now more than ever before when it comes to a live audience.
SCAFIDE: The first SmackDown with no crowd and Triple H on commentary was gold. They did what they had to do and performed well under the specific condition. Maybe it was the intrigue factor, but now, the shows are cringeworthy to watch. But I will say, given the circumstances and Vince wanting to always have an episode of RAW on Monday, it made for interesting TV.
CASSADA: There were a few hiccups at first, but so far I think WWE is doing a good job with the Performance Center episodes.
HIRSCH: I think that there is something missing from the episodes. It doesn’t feel as intimate as it did on the Raw after the Rumble 5 years ago.
