How SummerSlam weekend will test the common fan's stamina
With SummerSlam taking place Sunday, theScore is celebrating the WWE's biggest party of the summer throughout the week with an in-depth look.
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Imagine going to a brand-new local restaurant with your significant other for an anniversary dinner. You glance down the menu, note how modest the prices are, and place your order. When the plates are laid in front of you, you sit in astonishment as you realize how enormous the portions are.
Thankfully, you've avoided scarfing down anything else throughout the day, thus convincing yourself that there's enough room to get it all down.
How wrong you were, though. Your pants start getting tight halfway through the meal, with every bite making you all the more depressed because you still have a ways to go. You then pick up your napkin, throw it back on the tablecloth, and tap out on dinner.
The food wins. You lose.
This storyline can be applied to the marathon of programming the WWE Universe will be receiving from Aug. 20-24, because, when it's all said and done, wrestling fans will be just as full and just as willing to submit, regardless of the bargain they're getting.
What's on the schedule?
| Date | Event | Start | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8/20/2016 | NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II Pre-Show | 7:30 p.m. ET | 8:00 p.m. ET |
| 8/20/2016 | NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II | 8:00 p.m. ET | 10:00 p.m. ET |
| 8/21/2016 | WWE SummerSlam Pre-Show | 5:00 p.m. ET | 7:00 p.m. ET |
| 8/21/2016 | WWE SummerSlam | 7:00 p.m. ET | 11:15 p.m. ET |
| 8/22/2016 | Monday Night Raw | 8:00 p.m. ET | 11:00 p.m. ET |
| 8/23/2016 | SmackDown Live | 8:00 p.m. ET | 10:00 p.m. ET |
| 8/24/2016 | NXT | 8:00 p.m. ET | 9:00 p.m. ET |
| 8/24/2016 | WWE Cruiserweight Classic | 9:00 p.m. ET | 10:00 p.m. ET |
The 29th edition of SummerSlam, billed annually as "The Biggest Party of the Summer," will be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the second straight year. It comes one night after the company hosts its 12th NXT TakeOver show in the same building, headlined by Samoa Joe defending his NXT title against "The King of Strong Style," Shinsuke Nakamura.
No one can grumble that they're not getting enough bang for their buck with the WWE Network this weekend, especially with SummerSlam adding an extra hour to the show to accompany its 10 matches and six championship bouts.
More than eight-and-a-half hours of content will be packed into a two-day span, which in itself sounds like enough to satisfy any die-hard wrasslin' supporter. That's just the tip of the iceberg, though, as fans will get three hours of Monday Night Raw, two hours of SmackDown Live, and two hours of exclusive programming on the network the following three days.
In total, that's 15-and-a-half hours of WWE over a five-day span. New Japan Pro Wrestling's finals of its Super J-Cup, along with the highly anticipated Conor McGregor-Nate Diaz rematch at UFC 202, will also be taking place.
Get your popcorn (and caffeinated beverages) ready ...
When is too much ... too much?
One of the largest criticisms of WrestleMania 32, which housed more than 100,000 fans at the AT&T Stadium on April 3, was that it was way too long. Fans were emotionally depleted by the time Triple H put his WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the line against Roman Reigns in the main event, with many exiting before the opening bell because of how late in the evening the show went.
Something WWE fails to realize is that less is more. Raw airs for three hours every Monday night, but management could trim 60 minutes tomorrow and no one would make a peep. More focus would be placed on storylines that draw interest, and we'd see less useless filler, thus creating a more bearable product.
As it pertains to SummerSlam, it's understandable why WWE would want to go above and beyond for what's essentially its second-biggest pay-per-view event of the calendar year. It's WrestleMania-lite, in a way, and needs to be given the same attention to detail as the "Showcase of the Immortals."
Having to sit through anything for four-to-six hours would be exhausting, and that's just one night of wrestling this weekend. Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton could live up to the hype, Seth Rollins and Finn Balor could put on a match for the ages, and Dolph Ziggler could steal the show - which he prides himself on doing, by the way - when he challenges Dean Ambrose, but will that make you any less fatigued?
This isn't the first time we've seen such a schedule, and it definitely won't be the last. Everyone has their limits when it comes to the amount of content they can consume, and this could be a learning experience for the WWE. But it probably won't be.
They'll just have to learn the hard way.