WWE Don't Want Wrestling During Commercial Breaks

Hence the recent prevalence of 2/3 falls matches.

by Benjamin Richardson
Sami Zayn Big E Raw 2-out-of-3
WWE

You may have noticed that after rarely promoting such a stipulation outside of pay-per-views, WWE put on a pair of two-out-of-three falls matches on Raw and SmackDown this week, as Baron Corbin, Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens took on The New Day and Seth Rollins contested Kofi Kingston, respectively.

Apparently, there's a very good reason for this. Speaking on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Bryan Alvarez noted that there was a recent production meeting in which Vince McMahon passed the edict that he no longer wants matches to run through adverts. Hence, planned longer matches have since been split into multiple falls, allowing a natural pause for commercial consideration.

It's eminently sensible; after all, it's difficult to remain invested in a match which takes a breather every five minutes as the feed cuts away. But does this also mean we'll be seeing two-out-of-three falls matches as standard going forwards? That would become pretty tiresome pretty quickly.

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At the very least, it means there'll be a lot fewer tope suicidas. Good.

Editorial Team
Editorial Team

Benjamin was born in 1987, and is still not dead. He variously enjoys classical music, old-school adventure games (they're not dead), and walks on the beach (albeit short - asthma, you know). He's currently trying to compile a comprehensive history of video game music, yet denies accusations that he purposefully targets niche audiences. He's often wrong about these things.