B-Show: Difference between revisions

[[Professional Wrestling]] federations tend to end up with more wrestlers than they know what to do with. They tend to sign people simply so that the competition can't, snatch up hot young talents in hopes of figuring out how to put them in the show later, or hire guys as a favor to somebody in the office. Naturally, the average wrestling fed can't squeeze all these guys onto their main "A Show", so they eventually put together a [['''B -Show]]'''.

A [[B -Show]] is a very different experience from an A Show. Whereas the A Show, being the flagship, will have big, dramatic, [[Soap Opera]]-esque storylines with twists, turns, and [[Shocking Swerve|Shocking Swerves]]s a plenty in order to hook the viewer, a [[B -Show]] has few storylines going on at any one time, and what storylines there are are much simpler and largely character-driven. Instead, you'll simply see a few matches- some [[Squash Match|Squash Matches]]es, and some memorable encounters from those trying to get noticed- with video packages in-between recapping the major storylines from the A Show. They're considered something of a loss-leader in the wrestling world, put on largely so that the wrestlers can keep themselves sharp and the promoters can watch carefully to single out wrestlers with potential, rather than with any eye to ratings and revenue. A [[B -Show]] will often be taped at the beginning of a taping for an A Show, to minimize the costs involved.

A wrestler who manages to develop a following on a [[B -Show]] can easily find himself promoted to the A Show; however, most [[B -Show]] regulars who find themselves on the A Show [[Jobber|play a different role entirely]].

** [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] has ''Raw'' and ''Smackdown'' as its A-Shows. ''WWE NXT'' serves as a kind of B-show, with its emphasis on developing talent straight out of the independent circuit (The "Rookies" are competing for a shot on an A-Show). More to the point is ''WWE Superstars'', a show on WGN, which features a match from ''Raw'', ''Smackdown'', and ''ECW'' and often recaps the events of the other shows.

* ''[[WCW]] Saturday Night'' used to be WCW's flagship show, but was demoted to [[B -Show]] after ''WCW Monday Nitro'' was created to compete directly with the then-WWF. Unlike most B Shows, it still had quite a few storylines going on at any one time with a more old-school sensibility than ''Nitro'', to the point where, by the time of its demise, it seemed to be almost a separate promotion from mainstream WCW.

** ''[[WCW]] Thunder'' counted as a [[B -Show]] to by virtue of the fact that all of the top-card wrestlers- which ''Nitro'''s storylines would revolve around- ''refused'' to appear on it. That, and ''Thunder'' was so poorly produced that it's hard to believe that [[They Just Didn't Care|WCW cared about it at all]].