Concerning the WWE Raw 3 Hour announced recently, I’m having mixed feelings for it. If it makes the programming worse then I’m sure they will go back to 2 hours, however, for the time being I’m going to assume that it will be used to allow for more wrestling and more time for many of the under utilised talents that WWE has and not assume that it is the beginning of a WCW style demise.
Here’s both side of the coins regarding the WWE Raw 3 Hour Format
Against WWE Raw 3 Hour
As much as I like the sound of having 3 hours of Raw every week I can’t help but feel it will devalue WWE’s PPV’s and maybe affect their buy rates. Extra effort might have to be made to ensure a PPV is not just a glorified RAW Supershow. I won’t pay 50 dollars for that, and I don’t know who would.
A 2-hour episode of live RAW costs WWE around $500,000 to broadcast. I’m guessing that going 3 hours will take it up to $750,000 so can only ask is it worth it?
RAW going 3 hours every so often for a ‘special’ is OK when needed but on a week where there is a PPV, there will now be 8 hours of WWE programming, and that’s not including NXT or Superstars. That’s even too much for a die-hard fan.
The creative team drops the ball ALL THE TIME when they only have to fill in two hours for a show, now they get a 50% increase to the workload?
In the 90′s, all those shows went to three hours because there was a massive demand to see a plethora of wrestlers on both rosters, during a time when fully thought out stories crossed both shows, so three hours was necessary to ensure everybody got time. That is so far from the case today, it’s insane to act like the environment is the same.
Two hour versions of Raw and Smackdown should exist, and MAYBE an hour clip show highlighting both of them can be used in syndication or whatever – but THAT’S IT.
They should strip the PPVs down to six a year, and do two or three house shows a week, tops. I truly believe that the saturation has made Professional Wresltling less special to people, and the grueling schedule leads to the injuries (and the tragedies) so prevalent in our beloved sport.
This is going to sound so left field – but I remember an interview with Patrick Stewart, as he was out promoting whatever big screen Star Trek: Next Generation adventure was coming to theaters, and he said that he had been trying to convince producers that they should try to do a film every THREE years instead of every two. He said that the gap should fuel anticipation – should make the film feel like an event, and that the production could use the time to develop the epic stories to meet that anticipation. Give the writing staff in the WWE the time to come up with a logical long-term strategy, and keep the talent healthy enough to adhere to it – while making the WWE coming back to town feel like the awesome and rare chance to see the Superstars live and up close.
Keeping the schedules light also allows you to farm talent out to film and TV work, and have them do appearances that raise the sport’s profile. As long as the pay remains consistent with company profits, it shouldn’t matter that the talent is doing slightly less work. Keep them paid, healthy, and happy, and give them the chance to do their best work.
For WWE Raw 3 Hour
It may be some type of pre-show and not as much as an extra hour of matches. They will more than likely use it as extra time to hype feuds and such..
WWE goes 15 or so plus overun during a scheduled 2 hour program. An episode of a normal program runs around 41- 42 minutes without commercial. Eliminate the overun and maybe add a match plus a vignette/promo and its should cover that 3rd hour.
Wrestling companies such as TNA & WWE should start at 8pm (EST) during what is known to be PRIMETIME, not at 9, especially during the summer, simply because less people spend less time watching television during summertime.
If it makes the programming worse then Im sure they will go back to 2 hours, however, for the time being I’m going to assume that it will be used to allow for more wrestling and more time for many of the under utilised talents that WWE has and not assume that it is the beginning of a WCW style demise.
Having WWE Raw go 3 hours gives now provides a platform for new stars to emerge and be seen by the entire wwe universe. It gives these stars time to get over with the viewers instead of shitty video packages followed by a Raw/Smackdown debut followed by wrestling on superstars two weeks later. 3 Hour WWE Raw also provides time to actually build a tag team division and make the 2nd tier titles relevant again.
Ever since they brought in the Supershow concept, Raw’s been suffering from major roster crowding, and an extra hour might give them time to actually feature everyone.
Right now, I think a lot of people like The Miz, Zack Ryder, Drew McIntyre, Primo & Epico and Mason Ryan are suffering from the issue that WWE really wants to do something with them, but they can’t think of anything else to bump to keep them relevant on TV, so they just leave them off or confine them to 30-second backstage segments. The WWE Raw 3 Hour Supershow format will give them all the time they need to keep everyone on their show.
WWE Raw Three Hour format also allows the PPVS to be built up with matches that are announced and have actual story lines. I hate these filler matches that they have been having at the PPVs. I don’t pay $55 a month to see Ryback squashes and random tag team matches thrown together.
