1. Filming Weekly Episodic Television Is A Difficult Task
While not the nearly ten first-run hours of TV per week that WWE airs 52 weeks a year, Saturday Night Live has been aired live for 770-plus episodes over 40 years. The level of scrutiny placed on SNL by mainstream media and television fans is entirely comparable to the pressure smart marks place on WWE. When SNL isn't funny, it's pilloried in the media and television fans call for the heads of the writers, the creator and the actors themselves. Working out of a creative rut on SNL is oftentimes as simple as hiring a new cast between seasons and perfecting the mix. By comparison, WWE's situation is more difficult as pro wrestling has no "downtime," so the ability of the company to scrap it's entire roster and hire all new wrestlers up and down the card is impossible. If there were ever a case to be made for a wrestling off-season, this comparison would be it.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
