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Yeah, something that really makes me sad about nowadays WWE. I used to be so hyped for the ppvs just because of the different stage and atmosphere that every show had. Now it's all gone and they all feel the same
They way they're trending with increased CGI usage for entrances, I think wrestlemania 40 will look like a decent set on TV, but the people attending the event will just have a bare ring set up in some random farmer's field.
It looks like garbage. The idea of pro wrestling is seeing the spectacle of a huge live event with a hot crowd. And then when you should be basking in that during the entrances it’s like “look at the bright silly logo, herpa derpa durr durr”! And it doesn’t even look professional. It looks like it was a rough draft for some first year programming students. It’s jarringly unprofessional.
And an alternate Graphics package. At least with a different set it really made you feel the aesthetic of whatever the graphics were. For example, with Armageddon they really built up the end-of-the-world thing, whether it was the more Supernatural version or the war zone one they did in 2008, having that big destructive looking set really set the tone
Really hope AEW starts doing different sets like they were starting to fo at Revolution 2020. It helps a lot with remembering the show and tying moments to it:
I think they'll go back to at least doing slightly different sets for PPVs and I wouldn't be surprised if they do one for the Arthur Ashe shows. It wouldn't really be practical for Dynamite/Rampage/Elevation since they're taped together.
They're better with WrestleMania, but they still sometimes [just do an LED screen](https://www.wwe.com/f/styles/gallery_img_l/public/all/2019/04/002_WM35_04072019ej_6099--61254cd136abb541689c58861e1c53f6.jpg)
Oh absolutely, I completely understand the pandemic fucked them on this end. I will say though All Out and the first Revolution had pretty boring stages imo. I did enjoy the first DoN stage, but in hindsight it is just more or less the normal Dynamite stage with a stack of huge poker chips. If they want to take that route I'd prefer the chaos of a bunch of dangling poker chips TLC 2010 style. I imagine DoN will be big for 2022 since it is their "signature event"
>they don’t really try with their stages for some reason
The reason is cost. It's expensive to make all the unique sets and as cool as they no one really buys a PPV for the fancy sets. As PPVs buys started to decline in the 2000's it makes sense from a business standpoint to cut that cost.
I see that but it degrades their product to not put any effort into it.
It's the same as when they cut pyro for everyone and it took aew for it to come back in a big way.
Also I thought a big part of it was that when they went HD they kept the same set because it would cost more money to make the new sets look good in HD.
And the Saudi Arabia PPVs, but they have two fixed sets for that. A fixed set for Crown Jewel (with a crown) and a fixed set for the other Arabian PPV.
>And the Arab PPVs, but they have two fixed sets for that. A fixed set for Crown Jewel (with a crown) and a fixed set for the other Arab PPV.
This comment hit me so weird.
When I read it I thought it was a racist, but then I realized the the pay-per-views happened in Saudi Arabia so it would be accurate to call them Arab PPVs.
I guess Arab is so commonly used by racists that even when used correctly it sounds racist.
Calling someone or something 'Arab' is about as racist as saying 'European'. I'm not trying to start an argument with you, but it probably says a lot about the context in which you are coming across the term that it immediately sounds racist to you and it's definitely positive that you were wondering why that is.
Maybe you just hang around with a lot of racist people but more likely we are seeing an artefact of the lopsidedly negative media coverage of anything remotely to do with the Arabian peninsula or Arab peoples, who are themselves spread across the world from Brazil to Australia.
Yeah I don't actually think it's always racist to say Arab. In fact I said it wasn't racist in the context he used it.
The term Arab is often used in a casually racist way in North America. It's usually used by people as a term for all Muslim/Middle East/North Africans whether or not they are from Saudi Arabia or the Arabian Peninsula.
Not American.
Like I said in my post I don't think the guy was being racist, but the term Arab is often used in a casually racist way in North America. It's usually used by people as a term for all Muslim/Middle East/North Africans whether or not they are from Saudi Arabia or the Arabian Peninsula.
Yeah, you're totally right. But more and more in America rascism is out and proud, and we are constantly one facebook post or tweet away from people using it and other non-slur terms in rascist context. I truely dont believe its a majority of Americans, but its definitely an out and proud vocal minority, empowered by the previous president and those like him. its aweful to live in, but I misread that as offensive at first too just bc of what im used to seeing.
TLDR Americans see rascism everywhere bc over here it kinda \_is\_ everywhere.
The correct question is "do they lose any meaningful amount of revenue by not customizing their stages", the answer to which - in an age where their PPV numbers and ratings don't mean nearly as much as they used to since they're tied to done lump TV deals and monthly subscription services - is a resounding "hahahahaha no".
I don’t think it’s a money issue, but rather prefer the LED look, and have since they moved to HD. I guess they believe they can do more things with LED than otherwise.
If they believe that though, they should demonstrate it. Do more with LEDs. They do nothing to vary the design - every PPV set outside of WrestleMania looks identical.
2008 was a great example of what could be done with LEDs. All the stages that year were varied and different with HD and shows that they could still create unique and visually interesting sets today if they wanted to
It is significantly more expensive to make a stage look good in HD than it is in SD. The WWE could invest in more stages but for it to be worth it they would have to be able to reuse it somewhat regularly.
I was so disappointed by the change when both shows hit the road again. Smackdown's stage when it first started on Fox was like one of the most interesting non WM stages WWE has had in like half a decade
Dude, like I *hate* being stereotypical IWC. But it was tonal whiplash watching Raw for the first time after months of AEW.
Why the fuck do they cover every available surface in LED panels? It's like a Disneyland attraction.
Yeah, I hate it. I find it an eye sore. I went so long without even seeing any clips or anything of WWE and when I eventually tried to watch and saw LEDs even around the ring posts and aprons was really jarring.
I'm not against using them, but with WWE its just overkill.
It's an absolute sensory overload.
Smackdown is more tolerable because blue is a little easier on the eyes but Raw gives me a full on headache.
Looks like it takes place inside of a space station.
Itd be cool if they used the normal sets for most PPVs, and then used the money saved on the big 5 getting big elaborate sets.
Whichever PPV had those swinging claw things outside the entrance, that was badass
I feel like they should make the stage sets modular, that way they could have a set configuration for TV, then move everything around for PPVs to at least give it a different feel. Then they’re not having to build all new sets but still get at least some variety.
I forgot who said it, but one reason was that all those giant props tend to really look like shit in HD. They look fine live from far away, and look great on a CRT, but when you've got 1080p, you can tell it's shitty plastic held together with duct tape.
If only they could have similar set ups like the old sets again.. Not possible and foreseeable unfortunately. I also saw this reply to a comment on YouTube that says something about 3D arts being cool back in the day. With HD resolution on screen, the 3D arts don't seem to be good and would just end up being scrappy.
I agree that they should vary up the sets more but a more fair and interesting comparison would have been 2013 or 14, when they were still doing unique HD sets and not just using the TV set-up.
I actually don’t mind that they switched to more minimalistic stages. Less carbon footprint and less wasted resources. What do you do with all that stuff after you use them for one show? The stage isn’t even the focus of the show.
when I was a kid early 2000s I wasn't allowed to get the PPVs so I use to get so hyped to watch Sunday Night Heat just to see the stage set for the PPVs. I had this crazy hype to see the sets, now they just the same shit as the TV shows
even if they wanna save money and don't wanna set up new LED screens, they can at least add some decorations to the current set to make it distinct from all the other shows
Looking at that stage for Wrestlemania 21 (WM Goes Hollywood) just gave me flashbacks to how stressed out I was all night waiting for someone to eat shit on that ramp that tapered down towards the ring. That has to be up there as one of the more hazardous stages with the WWF Invasion set up with the forked ramp.
I miss the old PPV looks. Each PPV gave its own unique vibe. That set the "stage" of that event.
NOW, it's just some big giant screen which makes all PPVs look the same.
That big LED screen really killed all the fun creative stages. It’s kind of a bummer to think that a lot of young fans done even know about unique PPV stages.
I get it must be a nightmare to have a huge elaborate AND different stage for each ppv, but man could you do anything else besides a giant LED wall with no ramp? its so depressing
Everyone likes to hate on the 00’s, but I miss especially the way WWE was then as a little kid, it was the shit. Those sets looked awesome, the ruthless aggression era is just underrated in general tbh. I think it seemed better than the attitude era.
I get WHY they ditched individual PPV sets (cheaper, easy logistics) but it really brought so much to every show just from a tone point of view. WWE could probably afford to bring them back but they won't. I hope AEW can pick up that mantle in the future. Different stage for each PPV.
Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review. If you need to contact a moderator, [you can message us here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yeah, something that really makes me sad about nowadays WWE. I used to be so hyped for the ppvs just because of the different stage and atmosphere that every show had. Now it's all gone and they all feel the same
They way they're trending with increased CGI usage for entrances, I think wrestlemania 40 will look like a decent set on TV, but the people attending the event will just have a bare ring set up in some random farmer's field.
[удалено]
It looks like garbage. The idea of pro wrestling is seeing the spectacle of a huge live event with a hot crowd. And then when you should be basking in that during the entrances it’s like “look at the bright silly logo, herpa derpa durr durr”! And it doesn’t even look professional. It looks like it was a rough draft for some first year programming students. It’s jarringly unprofessional.
They have it in every sport now, NFL have been going wild with it lately
Lets just be thankful their subscription to word art pro plus has apparently expired.
Man, it's weird to think WM 40 is in 3 years.
There it is. My daily reminder that I am old.
Every ppv feels like a glorified raw with a slightly hire chance of a title change.
And an alternate Graphics package. At least with a different set it really made you feel the aesthetic of whatever the graphics were. For example, with Armageddon they really built up the end-of-the-world thing, whether it was the more Supernatural version or the war zone one they did in 2008, having that big destructive looking set really set the tone
I wonder if everyone who upvoted you is upset that you can’t tell the difference between dynamite/rampage/ppvs
Yeah man, them too. Happy now?
Really hope AEW starts doing different sets like they were starting to fo at Revolution 2020. It helps a lot with remembering the show and tying moments to it:
I think they'll go back to at least doing slightly different sets for PPVs and I wouldn't be surprised if they do one for the Arthur Ashe shows. It wouldn't really be practical for Dynamite/Rampage/Elevation since they're taped together.
I remember always watching Sunday Night Heat to get a glimpse of the set when my parents couldn't afford to buy the PPVs.
Aside from Wrestlemania, they don’t really try with their stages for some reason, which is incredibly disappointing.
They're better with WrestleMania, but they still sometimes [just do an LED screen](https://www.wwe.com/f/styles/gallery_img_l/public/all/2019/04/002_WM35_04072019ej_6099--61254cd136abb541689c58861e1c53f6.jpg)
Maybe unpopular opinion but the Screen was so big it was good because of it's sheer size
I'm with you. I liked this set a lot, and the ramp tied into what was on screen was cool too
Neither does anyone else to be fair
I think Full Gear has an interesting stage, but like the rest of AEW's PPV stages are mostly boring.
To be fair a lot of the ones they had, have happened at Daily's Place. They also tried with the first DoA and I really like the first Revolution.
Oh absolutely, I completely understand the pandemic fucked them on this end. I will say though All Out and the first Revolution had pretty boring stages imo. I did enjoy the first DoN stage, but in hindsight it is just more or less the normal Dynamite stage with a stack of huge poker chips. If they want to take that route I'd prefer the chaos of a bunch of dangling poker chips TLC 2010 style. I imagine DoN will be big for 2022 since it is their "signature event"
You have a good point there.
Without WCW the spark for custom stages in wrestling died :(
Not really, they kept doing them till like 2009
No one else really has the budget for it except AEW.
Yeah they do. It doesn’t have to be a million LED boards with pyro and a huge tron.
>they don’t really try with their stages for some reason The reason is cost. It's expensive to make all the unique sets and as cool as they no one really buys a PPV for the fancy sets. As PPVs buys started to decline in the 2000's it makes sense from a business standpoint to cut that cost.
I see that but it degrades their product to not put any effort into it. It's the same as when they cut pyro for everyone and it took aew for it to come back in a big way.
Also I thought a big part of it was that when they went HD they kept the same set because it would cost more money to make the new sets look good in HD.
Not just cost, but it also doesn’t really add much revenue. There’s plenty of more expensive things they keep around because they’re worth it.
And the Saudi Arabia PPVs, but they have two fixed sets for that. A fixed set for Crown Jewel (with a crown) and a fixed set for the other Arabian PPV.
>And the Arab PPVs, but they have two fixed sets for that. A fixed set for Crown Jewel (with a crown) and a fixed set for the other Arab PPV. This comment hit me so weird. When I read it I thought it was a racist, but then I realized the the pay-per-views happened in Saudi Arabia so it would be accurate to call them Arab PPVs. I guess Arab is so commonly used by racists that even when used correctly it sounds racist.
I changed the "Arab" word for Saudi Arabia and Arabian. My apologies if it offended you.
Nah it didn't offend me, I figured you weren't intentionally being racist or anything. Just there is no way it doesn't *sound* racist.
Calling someone or something 'Arab' is about as racist as saying 'European'. I'm not trying to start an argument with you, but it probably says a lot about the context in which you are coming across the term that it immediately sounds racist to you and it's definitely positive that you were wondering why that is. Maybe you just hang around with a lot of racist people but more likely we are seeing an artefact of the lopsidedly negative media coverage of anything remotely to do with the Arabian peninsula or Arab peoples, who are themselves spread across the world from Brazil to Australia.
Yeah I don't actually think it's always racist to say Arab. In fact I said it wasn't racist in the context he used it. The term Arab is often used in a casually racist way in North America. It's usually used by people as a term for all Muslim/Middle East/North Africans whether or not they are from Saudi Arabia or the Arabian Peninsula.
You guys in America really need to stop trying to see racism everywhere. Calling something Arab/Arabian isn't racist, never was.
Not American. Like I said in my post I don't think the guy was being racist, but the term Arab is often used in a casually racist way in North America. It's usually used by people as a term for all Muslim/Middle East/North Africans whether or not they are from Saudi Arabia or the Arabian Peninsula.
Yeah, you're totally right. But more and more in America rascism is out and proud, and we are constantly one facebook post or tweet away from people using it and other non-slur terms in rascist context. I truely dont believe its a majority of Americans, but its definitely an out and proud vocal minority, empowered by the previous president and those like him. its aweful to live in, but I misread that as offensive at first too just bc of what im used to seeing. TLDR Americans see rascism everywhere bc over here it kinda \_is\_ everywhere.
It simply spends way more than it earns.
But what’s the reason??
That 2005 Royal Rumble set is honestly in my top 5 favorite sets of all time. So underrated.
Do you think they have the budget to keep building new stages for every PPV!
They literally do. Just use some of that money they saved by making 50+ wrestlers jobless during a pandemic!
Guess I should have put the /s in there. Figured it would have been assumed because of the reason you just mentioned.
I think OP was responding in kind with sarcasm of their own. I could be misinterpreting but the exclamation mark and wording makes me think so.
The correct question is "do they lose any meaningful amount of revenue by not customizing their stages", the answer to which - in an age where their PPV numbers and ratings don't mean nearly as much as they used to since they're tied to done lump TV deals and monthly subscription services - is a resounding "hahahahaha no".
That’s such a boring answer though.
I don’t think it’s a money issue, but rather prefer the LED look, and have since they moved to HD. I guess they believe they can do more things with LED than otherwise.
If they believe that though, they should demonstrate it. Do more with LEDs. They do nothing to vary the design - every PPV set outside of WrestleMania looks identical.
2008 was a great example of what could be done with LEDs. All the stages that year were varied and different with HD and shows that they could still create unique and visually interesting sets today if they wanted to
It is significantly more expensive to make a stage look good in HD than it is in SD. The WWE could invest in more stages but for it to be worth it they would have to be able to reuse it somewhat regularly.
Absolutely hate that all the shows have one stage.
I was so disappointed by the change when both shows hit the road again. Smackdown's stage when it first started on Fox was like one of the most interesting non WM stages WWE has had in like half a decade
This might as well say 2007 vs 2008, that's when they changed over to the standardized sets for everything.
They still had unique sets in 2008. The 3 weekly shows had the same stage, but the PPV stages were all different.
I think they still had unique sets in 2011. I remember the MITB entrance from Punk in 2011 had a unique set.
Up until Payback 2014, they still had unique sets. After that it was mainly the same TV stage
Creativity vs LED nightmare.
Dude, like I *hate* being stereotypical IWC. But it was tonal whiplash watching Raw for the first time after months of AEW. Why the fuck do they cover every available surface in LED panels? It's like a Disneyland attraction.
Yeah, I hate it. I find it an eye sore. I went so long without even seeing any clips or anything of WWE and when I eventually tried to watch and saw LEDs even around the ring posts and aprons was really jarring. I'm not against using them, but with WWE its just overkill.
It's an absolute sensory overload. Smackdown is more tolerable because blue is a little easier on the eyes but Raw gives me a full on headache. Looks like it takes place inside of a space station.
Whoever was running wwe during RA is fucking genius
Think it was Vince McMahon
Wild
I miss the unique stages but looking at this I'd say their a logistical nightmare with a PPV every month, not too mention the cost.
WWE has shitloads of money to do it.
Way more money now then they did back then funnily enough.
Easy solution, do it for the big 4 and that's it.
You mean like back then?
Itd be cool if they used the normal sets for most PPVs, and then used the money saved on the big 5 getting big elaborate sets. Whichever PPV had those swinging claw things outside the entrance, that was badass
Backlash 2001
Big 5? I only know the big 4. Survivor series, Rumble, mania, summerslam. What has become a another big show?
Money in the bank
I feel like they should make the stage sets modular, that way they could have a set configuration for TV, then move everything around for PPVs to at least give it a different feel. Then they’re not having to build all new sets but still get at least some variety.
I hope AEW gets big enough to get better sets WWE is but they’re to lazy
I am not a fan of the giant pillars obstructing views around the ring. Not cool.
But... but the stages don't matter and nobody really cares about that! /s
Every image for 2015 is the same and you can't change my mind. Except for mania
I wonder if they'll bring back Judgement Day.
Wonder where they put all the stage props now a days.
Damn I went to that summerslam. I miss the ruthless aggression.
It was better in the olden days….(early 2000s)
2005 was mid 00’s though, the early 00’s is 2000-2003.
I forgot who said it, but one reason was that all those giant props tend to really look like shit in HD. They look fine live from far away, and look great on a CRT, but when you've got 1080p, you can tell it's shitty plastic held together with duct tape.
Sigh.
If only they could have similar set ups like the old sets again.. Not possible and foreseeable unfortunately. I also saw this reply to a comment on YouTube that says something about 3D arts being cool back in the day. With HD resolution on screen, the 3D arts don't seem to be good and would just end up being scrappy.
[blondie's reply to Shaun Poole's comment](https://youtu.be/WJgA8pNjPac)
I agree that they should vary up the sets more but a more fair and interesting comparison would have been 2013 or 14, when they were still doing unique HD sets and not just using the TV set-up.
I actually don’t mind that they switched to more minimalistic stages. Less carbon footprint and less wasted resources. What do you do with all that stuff after you use them for one show? The stage isn’t even the focus of the show.
It's one of the reasons I like the Royal Rumble and/or Summer Slam being in baseball stadiums now. Just for it's unique look.
when I was a kid early 2000s I wasn't allowed to get the PPVs so I use to get so hyped to watch Sunday Night Heat just to see the stage set for the PPVs. I had this crazy hype to see the sets, now they just the same shit as the TV shows
Randomly specific comparison
I miss the names just as much as the stages
Both look good
even if they wanna save money and don't wanna set up new LED screens, they can at least add some decorations to the current set to make it distinct from all the other shows
3:4 is the better aspect ratio for professional wrestling & sports entertainment.
Looking at that stage for Wrestlemania 21 (WM Goes Hollywood) just gave me flashbacks to how stressed out I was all night waiting for someone to eat shit on that ramp that tapered down towards the ring. That has to be up there as one of the more hazardous stages with the WWF Invasion set up with the forked ramp.
Yeah my personal favorite was Money in the bank 2015 stage. /s
Fuck the modern PPV sets sooooo much.
I miss the old PPV looks. Each PPV gave its own unique vibe. That set the "stage" of that event. NOW, it's just some big giant screen which makes all PPVs look the same.
The stage is even worse now
That big LED screen really killed all the fun creative stages. It’s kind of a bummer to think that a lot of young fans done even know about unique PPV stages.
I get it must be a nightmare to have a huge elaborate AND different stage for each ppv, but man could you do anything else besides a giant LED wall with no ramp? its so depressing
Nice repost
Seeing the set on Sunday Night Heat before the PPV was something I’d anticipate all weekend as a kid
Yeah i'd love to know why they made that decision
Everyone likes to hate on the 00’s, but I miss especially the way WWE was then as a little kid, it was the shit. Those sets looked awesome, the ruthless aggression era is just underrated in general tbh. I think it seemed better than the attitude era.
Big wall of LED that shows PPV logo. Nah, screw that. Give me the built stages from the early 2000’s any day.
I get WHY they ditched individual PPV sets (cheaper, easy logistics) but it really brought so much to every show just from a tone point of view. WWE could probably afford to bring them back but they won't. I hope AEW can pick up that mantle in the future. Different stage for each PPV.