Locker Room Reaction to WWE’s Five-Match Premium Live Events Revealed

Since Triple H took over in WWE, the company has started to focus more on making each match better instead of having a lot of matches. This is clear in the Premium Live Events, which usually only have about five matches and now the locker room reaction to five-match Premium Live Events has been revealed.

While speaking on the post-Raw show, Sean Ross Sapp was asked how talent felt about Premium Live Events featuring five matches and whether the Superstars felt held back because of it.

Sapp said that having fewer matches actually helps make Raw and SmackDown better, since those shows get more big moments and star power. Wrestlers know how important those weekly shows are now, especially because that’s where a lot of the company’s money comes from.

Even though wrestlers might make more money per match on a Premium Live Event, they understand that five strong matches are better than cramming in 15, which can make the show feel too long and less special. So when someone does get a match on a Premium Live Event, it feels like a bigger deal.

Sean Ross Sapp said he’s talked to many people in the company, and no one has told him they dislike the five-match format. He said that if someone isn’t on the Premium Live Event, they’ll still get a big match on Raw or SmackDown, like a main event for a title, which can be just as important.

“It stacks Raw and SmackDown, and talent understand how important Raw and SmackDown are these days. That’s where a lot of the money is coming from. Like, listen, they’re getting paid. Sure, their PLEs probably—by show—get paid more, but it’s one of those things where talent understand that it’s probably best to have five matches rather than fifteen, because that waters it down. And when they do make it on a PLE, it’s a little bit more special now.

This is just an aggregation of how I’ve talked to people. I haven’t had anybody say, ‘You know what, I hate five-match PLEs.’ I just don’t have people in the company that say that.

There’s an awful lot of situations where somebody isn’t on the PLE, but they’re on the following Raw or the SmackDown right before—and they’re in a title match that main events that show. And they understand that’s probably a better highlight of their match than being put on a PLE. And then occasionally, it will happen.”

Sapp made it clear that he can’t speak for everyone, only for the people he’s spoken with. However, so far, no one has complained to him about the shorter Premium Live Event cards.

“Now, I can’t speak for everybody. I can just speak for those that I’ve talked to. But I have never had somebody come to me and say, ‘What do you think of these PLEs being five matches? Because I hate them.’ You just… I don’t see that. I don’t experience that.”

Sami Zayn has expressed mixed feelings about shorter cards for Premium Live Events. Therefore, it is very evident that WWE will not be doing away with five-match cards for Premium Live Events anytime soon, and fans will have to accept that in the end.

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