When I was a kid in the 90s, I recall watching in terror every time the Cowboys or Fightin' Irish played "prevent" defense late in the 4th quarter, because the "prevent" defense did anything but prevent the other team from scoring.

Watching basketball was pointless until the last 2 minutes, because as everyone who didn't enjoy basketball pointed out, the games usually were decided by intentional fouls and free throws near the end of the game.

The NFL has gotten much worse (largely due to rule changes) when it comes to the increase in yardage/scoring/lead changes near the end of the first half and end of the game. Its influenced clock management strategy - teams are trying to hold on to 30 seconds instead of keep the clock running, because suddenly everyone is awesome at the end of the game.

I started watching wrestling as an adult much later than football and basketball, but notice a familiar trend - a ton of wasted time that seems disconnected from and non-essential to a bunch of finisher spam and kickouts, maybe some interference, and if you are unlucky it ends with an unsatisfying roll up.

To me, the more frequent this occurs, the more desensitized I am - this goes for all competition. It suggests that no one cares or employs good strategy until the last minute, and that everyone is interchangeable. Why tune in before the clock is about to run out? And how unsatisfying is it to see everyone who dominates 90% of a contest end up being a 50%/50% bet to win?

At least in the NFL and NBA, the best teams lose some times and win most of the time... wrestling seems to have an extreme where every outcome to a match not involving jobbers or people being fed to a champ needs to either have an "out" for one or both wrestlers or a return-of-the-favor flipped outcome in the rematch.

Tennis does NOT have this issue. Baseball doesn't seem to either. I'd prefer wrestling to be more like that - I want the special bottom of the ninth inning or 5th set feeling, not the "gargano kicks out again" in a meaningless 25 min match against broson reed feeling.

Am I alone in this?