17 Ways WWE Has Changed Since It Was The WWF
8. The Supersized WrestleMania
‘The Deadman’ may have lost WrestleMania’s true greatest prize in 2014, but the event itself suffered a bigger hit that same year - the advent of the WWE Network - and more on that later.
WWE had historically extended ‘The Grandest Stage’ beyond the typical three-hour window even during the pay-per-view era, but the streaming service’s seemingly limitless space (and a minutes-watched bonus for the Titan suits) saw the company’s annual showpiece stretched to breaking point by 2016 then beyond even that in the years that followed.
It’s created a host of new scenarios that fans still can’t quite work through. WrestleManias are no longer rewatchable as a whole without taking full working days off in order to get through them. Main events often to play to the shattered silence of an exhausted audiences. They’re almost impossible to pace and structure, as proven by a potentially spectacular 2019 card reduced to partial mediocrity due to sheer size.
WWE may yet offer a reprieve and simply extend the event over two days, but the modern era ’Manias will presumably continue to expand until what’s hopefully that logical final destination.