Where did all the wrestling go?

With WWE Summer-Slam 39 taking over Minnesota this month, it became evident as to why WWE pivoted their biggest event of the summer to a two night affair, this on paper, sounded great double the events = double the action! Right?

Well, since Wrestle-Mania 36 in 2020, WWE and TKO changed the format of Wrestle-Mania to two nights to accommodate ‘more talent’. What they actually realised is spreading premium live events over two nights can, in theory, ‘double the revenue‘.

Theoretically, wrestling fans will spend double on accommodation, double on beer, double on food, and for those watching live at home, the luxury of double the advertising.

Night one of Summer-Slam 2026 had a total of 84 minutes of in-ring action with a total broadcast time of approximately 3 hours. Some matches displayed excellent storytelling like Oba vs Brock in Hell in a Cell, this lasted only 11 minutes for Brock Lesnar’s final WWE match ever. You can even convince yourself that the Ring General Gunther vs a debuting Nick Aldis was an appropriate 12 minutes in an attempt to hide potential ‘ring rust’ from Aldis.

However, when over 50% of night one is focused outside of the ring, it leaves fans dissatisfied and causes audiences to feel the exact opposite to the proposed “double the events = double the action”.

But that’s just night one! Any improvements with night two?

Summer-Slam night two also ran for approximately 3 hours, with a total of 83 minutes of in-ring action. The best match of both days came as a thrilling all-gas-no-breaks affair from the always excellent Penta and Chad Gable lasting a whopping 11 minutes, this most emotional moment of the night with Gable finally winning the belt being completely ruined by a shameless Mug Root Beer ad.

Thankfully, WWE decided to keep Danhausen Vs Dominic Mysterio’s, “100,000 ‘human moneys’ on a pole” match, mercifully brief at just under 7 minutes.

In total there was 167 minutes of in-ring wrestling out of a total of almost 6 hours of broadcast, resulting in just under half (47%) of the wrestling show actually being wrestling.

Across the two night affair, there was maybe one night worth of wrestling that fans cared about and could actually connect with. Long-time fans are growing sick of this two-day approach and if WWE does not tap out soon, it could sound the bell on its broadcasting future.