Kemo
03-28-2020, 12:03 AM
Former WCW President and co-host of the 83 Weeks podcast Eric Bischoff recently commented on the AEW and WWE ’empty arena’ shows that have been taking place over the past couple of weeks. With the COVID-19 coronavirus causing major sports and entertainment to either be cancelled or re-scheduled, the two biggest pro wrestling promotions in the United States have opted to continue with their live broadcasts.
WWE were first to broadcast from the Performance Center for Friday Night SmackDown. With the situation being fluid and no one truly knowing what will happen week to week, the company would attempt to try and still entertain fans with a skeleton crew and no actual audience in attendance. When AEW aired on TNT, they had a different, more ‘Ring of Honor hard camera’ approach to their production, which garnered praise seemingly across the board. Eric Bischoff was also someone who appreciated the quality of AEW’s production and style over the past couple of weeks.
“I think AEW is doing a great job” Bischoff began on this week’s episode of After 83 Weeks w/ Christy Olson. “WWE missed the mark on the first couple of shows. I almost, almost picked up the phone to call someone and say ‘hey maybe you just want to think about this?'”
Bischoff would then give his insight and ideas. “Here’s my take, right. When you look at the WWE product its very glitzy. You know, the high production values are second to none. When it comes to live event production? There is no one on the face of the earth that does live event production the way WWE does. It’s an art. That’s the good news…bad news is, when there’s no audience and you still dress everything up? It’s still bright. There’s colors, there’s lights, you can see that there’s nobody there. But the venue has no personality, the venue has no character. It’s a bright, multicolored, very sterile environment. And for me it was kind of like, I just can’t watch it.”
Eric Bischoff finished by comparing how the AEW product seemingly made the venue a ‘character.’ Something that added to the show instead of being a deterrent. “AEW kind of made the venue a little bit more of a character. And one of the ways they did it is the way they shot a lot of their angles. They were tighter, there was a lot more close ups, a lot less wide shots. To me they shot it better.”
WWE have reported already pre-taped a large number of segments/matches for WrestleMania 36 next weekend. It will be interesting to see if the company will be making any changes to the production style for the shows, considering how the ’empty arena’ presentation will play a huge part at the biggest show of the year.
WWE were first to broadcast from the Performance Center for Friday Night SmackDown. With the situation being fluid and no one truly knowing what will happen week to week, the company would attempt to try and still entertain fans with a skeleton crew and no actual audience in attendance. When AEW aired on TNT, they had a different, more ‘Ring of Honor hard camera’ approach to their production, which garnered praise seemingly across the board. Eric Bischoff was also someone who appreciated the quality of AEW’s production and style over the past couple of weeks.
“I think AEW is doing a great job” Bischoff began on this week’s episode of After 83 Weeks w/ Christy Olson. “WWE missed the mark on the first couple of shows. I almost, almost picked up the phone to call someone and say ‘hey maybe you just want to think about this?'”
Bischoff would then give his insight and ideas. “Here’s my take, right. When you look at the WWE product its very glitzy. You know, the high production values are second to none. When it comes to live event production? There is no one on the face of the earth that does live event production the way WWE does. It’s an art. That’s the good news…bad news is, when there’s no audience and you still dress everything up? It’s still bright. There’s colors, there’s lights, you can see that there’s nobody there. But the venue has no personality, the venue has no character. It’s a bright, multicolored, very sterile environment. And for me it was kind of like, I just can’t watch it.”
Eric Bischoff finished by comparing how the AEW product seemingly made the venue a ‘character.’ Something that added to the show instead of being a deterrent. “AEW kind of made the venue a little bit more of a character. And one of the ways they did it is the way they shot a lot of their angles. They were tighter, there was a lot more close ups, a lot less wide shots. To me they shot it better.”
WWE have reported already pre-taped a large number of segments/matches for WrestleMania 36 next weekend. It will be interesting to see if the company will be making any changes to the production style for the shows, considering how the ’empty arena’ presentation will play a huge part at the biggest show of the year.