The decline of the ringside art form
For decades, the standard for professional wrestling commentary was set by those who understood the rhythm of a match. As Steph and Josh recently noted on the PWTorch Dailycast, we are currently trapped in a cycle of over-production. It feels like every broadcast is a race to recite the corporate branding handbook instead of explaining the psychology happening in the ring.
Listen to the tapes from the mid-2010s compared to what you hear tonight on SmackDown or Raw. Back in 2016, specifically around the time of the impending brand split, commentators were forced to bridge the gap between wrestling logic and corporate mandates. As Wade Keller and Jason Powell discussed, that era struggled with heel depth and the transition of top-tier talent like AJ Styles into the main event structure.
The loss of organic crowd reaction
Modern commentary is filtered through a dozen headset producers, stripping away the rawness that defined the return of crowds post-pandemic. I remember the energy at the 2021 Double or Nothing event, where the return of a full live audience highlighted how desperate we were for genuine noise. The commentary that night had to react, not dictate, as on-site reporting confirmed. Now, we get scripted banter that sounds like a boardroom pitch.
The current broadcast style suffers from information overload. Instead of letting a silence breathe after a major spot, every quiet moment is filled with ads or recaps of last week’s drama. It is a fundamental misunderstanding of tension. When the play-by-play caller is forced to sell merchandise during a high-stakes near-fall, the emotional investment of the fan vanishes.
Looking back at the ROH blueprint
If you want to understand how a performer anchors a promotion, look at Jay Lethal during the 2020-2021 lockdown stretches. He carried the weight of being the centerpiece, managing to maintain character consistency without a live audience to feed off. It was a masterclass in isolated performance, a period where the commentary often fell short of the intensity he was displaying in the ring.
We are currently sitting at 10 years removed from some of the most fascinating failures in modern wrestling history. The 2016 roster split was supposed to fix the lack of secondary title relevance. Instead, it exposed the lack of depth in the mid-card. We are repeating these same mistakes today, and until the commentary booth starts focusing on the wrestler in front of them rather than the monitor in their ear, the product will continue to feel hollow.
My prediction for tonight? Expect to see a main event that starts strong but dies a death during the final segment because the booth will be too busy reading sponsor names to sell the finish. The talent is there. The presentation, however, remains stuck in a corporate loop that refuses to prioritize the actual match.
