The hard camera

Hey Scott,

Big fan, blah blah blah.

I attended the NXT Brooklyn show this past weekend. Apart from being a great experience, it was my first live WWE show in almost a decade, and I finally noticed something you’ve occasionally harped on. Almost all the big action or moments happened with the wrestlers facing one specific direction of the arena, where I imagine the camera is.

It was occasionally glaring upon the wrestler’s entrances, where some wouldn’t even bother to play out to any of the other sides of the arena.

My question is, when did this started to be a thing, and why? I mean, they seemed to have done just fine in the previous years without the overly focus of the hard camera. Or has it been something that’s always there?

Thanks!

​It specifically started in the RAW is WAR era of 97, because they had these elaborate sets that needed to be blocked for TV so that every arena would look exactly the same. Up until then you’d get all sorts of wacky permutations of which way the main camera was set up depending on the layout of the building and such. Back then we didn’t notice as much because all the guys were used to working the old setup, ie, the way wrestlers for 100 years have worked. Now they’re training them specifically to only work to one side of the arena and it’s driving me a little crazy. But again, they consider themselves a TV show now, and the crowd is little more than a studio audience. ​