Hey WWE And AEW: Your PPV Preshows Have A Serious Problem

gamespot.com:

Wrestling has come a long way the past 20 years--the post-WCW era. There was the rise of the independent scene, which created a new generation of wrestling stars, and in turn, those wrestlers populated some of the more popular promotions like Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, creating this bustling underground scene throughout the 2000s and 2010s. However, in 2019, a few of New Japan's and ROH's most-popular wrestlers left their companies to create something new: All Elite Wrestling.

While AEW isn't on the same global level as WWE, it's still competition in the United States. Both shows have large followings and their PPVs (or Premium Live Events (PLEs) as WWE is trying to rebrand it) are must-watch events for fans. Both of these companies feature something very similar at each PPV: a pre-show you can watch for free. Typically lasting about an hour, these two companies have vastly different preshows for their PPVs, and they're both entirely missing the point of what a preshow should be.

Let's talk about the most recent Kickoff Show for a WWE PPV--Money in the Bank. Over the course of an hour, there were zero matches. There was a panel featuring Kayla Braxton, Booker T, JBL, Peter Rosenberg, and Kevin Patrick. Throughout the hour, the four discussed each match of the evening, which are sandwiched between video promos for the matches themselves--ones everyone will see again during the PPV. The Kickoff Show used to have matches, but that has been phased out of the vast majority of these events.

On occasion, superstars will pop by and talk about their upcoming match--or why they aren't in the PPV at all. In the case of 2022's Money in the Bank, the Street Profits showed up to talk about their match with The Usos,