WWE Raw this past Monday was a great show overall. They have good things going for them and they have us captivated by us wanting to know ‘what happens next?!’. They have finally given the ball to CM Punk and he seems to be running with it quite well thus far. The AJ Lee and Daniel Bryan storyline is also a storyline we can look forward to each week. WWE are using their third hour well, but it could be better. Here are four problems with it that I would like to address.
Lack of Wrestling
For a 3 hour wrestling show there were just 56 minutes of wrestling this week on Raw. Now that is not enough. With the extra hour I think WWE should have at least 90 minutes of wrestling. This has got to be most important part of the show and it doesn’t feel like wrestling matters at all with WWE anymore. WWE would not be where it is today if it wasn’t for quality wrestling matches, so they really should feature more or longer matches. The matches they had this week were good and I was really in to them but felt they ended too sudden. They should give us at least two fifteen minute matches and two ten minute matches then work around the rest.
48 minutes of Commercials
This bothers and it doesn’t bother me. It doesn’t bother me as 80% of the time I watch Raw is through my DVR so all I have to do is skip the commercials. It bothers me as it’s practically one third of Raw. It’s sad, one third of a 3 hour ‘sports’ show is dedicated to commercials. I do not know what way commercials work across seas but I know in the UK when a LIVE sport is on it takes up only around one fifth of the show. This has got to stop, it must really piss off paying fans in the arena to wait around that long when nothing is happening. Now I know WWE wouldn’t be on the air if it wasn’t for commercials but if they had less, maybe more people would watch it LIVE.
Recall Promos
There is too many recall promos, or recap promos. I’m going to call them recall promos. Sounds better IMO. Two Brock/HHH recall promos aired twice last Monday, each being about 4-5 minutes long. Is that necessary? I know WWE want to make sure we are hyped up for it and all that but come on, no need to shove in down our throats. All I can say is; thank God for Sky+ (DVR).
Diva’s division
Quite frankly, I don’t really care for it at all at the moment. I’m not a smark or anything but ever since Trish left WWE, the whole division began to get less and less interesting to me. Trish was a huge void that was never filled with the Diva’s division. They had Mickie James, Gael Kim, Kharma but WWE really dropped the ball with them. They now have Beth, Natalya and more who are good but refuse to use them. But my biggest problem is I have no desire to watch them and that’s probably because I don’t know who their characters are. To me, they’re just a bunch or barbie dolls. I know they are more than that but I am not connected with them. All WWE Diva’s are the same, there is nothing different from one to another. AJ lee and Eve are an exception because they’re in storylines with the likes of Cena and Punk which automatically makes them interesting.
I just want you all to know I’m not annoyed or disappointed with Raw this week, I just think WWE need to apply some changes so the extra hour doesn’t get stale or unbearable in the near future. I think you all can agree with me on that.
I cannot say more about the third hour of Raw as it’s really only been one show with the regulars. However I can comment on what I loved about this weeks Raw. The AJ/Bryan storyline has really caught my interest and I look forward to seeing what will happen next week. Bringing Kane in was interesting and perhaps he’ll fight Bryan at SummerSlam on behalf of Sheen with Sheen in his corner? Who knows, we’ll have to find out in the upcoming weeks. CM Punk/Cena/Show all featured well and I’m glad Show is involved with the WWE title at SummerSlam, the chances of Punk retaining are greater as it’s not only Cena that has to lose. I love the way WWE are slowly turning Punk heel, or are they? That’s the question on everyone’s mind and we can ramble all we want about it, but we will not find out unless we tune in to Raw every week. There is a new buzz about Raw which I really like.
That’s all she wrote for this column so please let me know your thoughts!
Ringsidehustle.com 
There’s only four? Well, I agree with at least three of these. The only one I’m undecided on, is the amount of wrestling. Nearly an hour of wrestling seems like a whole lot more than normal, granted we have an extra hour now, so…. I did like how “regular” matches got more time. The Sheamus/Bryan street fight easily stole the show for me. But you’d think a Diva’s match could be fit in there somewhere. It’s like, WWE has a limit on how many Diva’s they can use at once, and since AJ and Eve have been more prominent, the limit has been reached.
I knew there were a lot of commercials, but DAMN! 48 minutes!? Well, now we know what the real point behind going three hours was; advertising $. Millions of dollars.
The most annoying thing, imo, were all the recaps. I mean, we’re talking recaps of recaps here. Not even the stupid freaking social media crap was as annoying as the recaps. I’m planning on counting them this Monday, just to see how many there really are; maybe I’ll do this for several weeks to get an average.
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Sure there is probably more problems but those are the four that really stand out to me. You’re right about the advertising, millions of dollars was the perfect plug there! haha.
Sheamus/DB definitely stole the show. I agree with you on the ”regular” matches getting more time than the ”bigger” matches but at the same time, you do want to showcase mid carders so they can eventually be pushed. Those regular matches were good…but there wasn’t really any interesting stories to go with those matches so that’s why we weren’t ”with it” I guess. Next week I’m going to look out to count how many Diva’s actually appear.
Recaps are beyond ridiculous. As I said, the reason why I may not be annoyed with them as much as the reasons is due to my Sky+ box, all I gotta do is skip them if I record Raw which I will be doing next week. For me it isn’t worth it to stay up until 4AM anymore. The last 6 Raw’s leading up to Raw 1000 I stayed up. But I don’t have the will power to next week.
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I do have a feeling that over time, some of the kinks will be ironed out.
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I sort of expect that to happen but should I be? I think WWE will have no choice but to iron the kinks out. Viewers don’t want to see recaps after recaps throughout the show. I’m surprised so many people watch it LIVE with all those ads tbh.
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They don’t. According to the rating, viewers increasingly tuned when the recaps were shown. That’s just week 1.
Less us not forget the increasing amount of people recording the shows, or who now watch via streams, nor our fallen soldiers who have abandoned the company all together. A moment of silence ~……~
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Well with the drop in ratings this week it’s not because of the product WWE have, it’s the way they’re promoting it. Sure they are raping social media with Twitter, Facebook and invested heavily in tout, but on Raw 1000 last week…WWE didn’t even mention to their most viewed Raw show viewers that Raw will be starting an hour earlier from now on. Here’s a breakdown of this weeks rating — http://wrestlechat.net/raw-rating-breakdown-for-73012/. That proves WWE’s bad promoting. TV advertising is the most powerful form of advertising, WWE need to realise that.
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Not shocked about a drop in ratings. People now watch for a few minutes and if something comes on that they don’t care about, they’ll change the channel for a few minutes.
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Capt. – I understand that. But there was significance difference from hour one to hour two, which was the usual start time before Raw 1000. To me what that’s saying is a lot of people didn’t know Raw started an hour earlier. And WWE didn’t mention on Raw 1000 that about the new start time when they had all those viewers in.
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I remember about a week before RAW went to 3 hours, it was leaked online that most of the first hour would be recap and Tout related. Some probably thought there was no reason to even check it out.
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I read that too but it could be a turn off for a lot of fans which wouldn’t even give it a chance. But it wasn’t, they used social media okay IMO which was grand. It’s just the recap promos and the other 3 I mentioned that were turn offs.
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It’s sad when fans don’t even give something a chance.
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Yeah agreed but I guess it’s up to WWE to make sure they keep watching.
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I knew those things were gonna happen when the 3 hour shows were announced
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I wouldn’t of been surprised but I did expect them to improve the 4 problems I outlined. We’ll see next week how they do!
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I have to admit the idea of doing a little video and getting on tv does sound kinda cool. It’s kinda like when a wrestler sticks the mic into a fan’s face.
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I honestly don’t mind these touts and stuff as long as they pace themselves with it. Like how many did they show on Raw Monday, 8 in total? Which was fine and interesting. And as long as they don’t put on Cena fan girls and shit it’s cool! haha
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What about “Cena fan guys”? 🙂
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“With the extra hour I think WWE should have at least 90 minutes of wrestling. This has got to be most important part of the show and it doesn’t feel like wrestling matters at all with WWE anymore”
90 minutes of wrestling? No way. If there are 6 matches, that’s an average of 15 minutes per match. No one wants to see Brodus Clay wrestle for 15 minutes. There were three important matches on RAW this week and all of them got about 15 minutes I think. That’s the most time given to the top three matches on RAW in a long time. And I would disagree that wrestling is the most important part of the show. It’s important during PPVs, but not really the top priority during RAW.
“This has got to stop, it must really piss off paying fans in the arena to wait around that long when nothing is happening.”
A ticket for RAW is a lot cheaper than a ticket for a PPV. The fans get what they pay for and there is enough “off-air” stuff to make it less annoying.
I like the three hour RAW so far. If every week has at least one match like Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus (great free TV match…I’d give it ***3/4), then 3 hour RAW is a success in my opinion.
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Two matches got 15 minutes. Sheamus/DB – CM/Cena both got 15 and I think the tag match got about 10 minutes.
Well put it this way, would you rather 2 more matches or 20 minutes worth of recaps?
Regarding fans waiting around during commercials, yeah you’re right about that, I forgot about Superstar tapings and dark matches! As I said in the last paragraph I am happy with Raw this week but the commercials and recaps are just too much for me to ever stay up watching Raw LIVE. I’m sure a lot of Europeans feel that way too.
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I do agree that there are too many recaps, but 90 minutes of wrestling is unrealistic for a non-PPV.
I forgot about Superstars taping too. I was referring to stuff like fans seeing the match while tv viewers are in commercial and “bonus” segments. The last time I attended a RAW, the crowd saw an in-ring segment between Eve and Zack Ryder before their mixed tag match while RAW was in commercial. I think it was the unofficial start of that Eve/Ryder storyline.
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Part of the recaps and tout are to give the crew time to set things up and to let the crowd cool off.
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I doubt it’s for that reason, WWE invested big time in it. I think they own around 40% of its shares so they want people to use it. Then they are using it as an interaction tool which is pretty cool.
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Guys(and girls), this guy at 411mania includes his 5 year old daughter’s recations to RAW and it’s very sweet and funny. It starts just before half-way into his column. Check it out! Hey, it’s RAW related! Don’t look at me like that! Ray, put away the ax!
http://www.411mania.com/wrestling/columns/248930/Thursday-Sports-Entertainment-News-Report-08.02.12:-The-Newest-Wrestling-Fan-Returns!.htm
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lol it’s cool.
It was fun to read but it doesn’t seem legit?? Doesn’t matter, fun to read!
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He did one last week as well. If it were fake, that would suck, but I’ll give him credit until then.
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I just don’t think a child would say things like that and wouldn’t remember stuff from months ago. Maybe I’m wrong!
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Well, last week was the first time she saw wrestling.
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Forgot! I sent in an application to work at the GE factory in Louisville and was picked to go and get a look on Aug. 20th! Nice pay and extras. 1 step down and whose knows how many more? Wish me luck!
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Good luck, Capt!
Maybe you can buy your own personal laptop now! Wait, so what are you using to comment now? 😀
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Thanks! It’ll probably be a bit before I get anything big. That’s if I get one of the jobs. I use the computer already in the house. Went by the place just to find where I’m going and I’m not quite sure it’s even right. The factory is roughly 1 square mile in size. It’s facing Ryback at the next WM.
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Oh I see.
KEEP WELL AWAY FROM HIM! DUDE IS HUNGRY! haha
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Hungry Hungry Rybacks!
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