JesseEwiak
Member
Three hours is 50% more time. That's a lot of time. There's really no way to keep people watching for three hours, even if RAW was the best booked wrestling show in history.
WWE Raw drops to lowest TV rating in 18 years
- Thread starter RBH
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Three hours is 50% more time. That's a lot of time. There's really no way to keep people watching for three hours, even if RAW was the best booked wrestling show in history.
Vince's current booking and the length of RAW are the two biggest problems in WWE.
Host Samurai
Member
I wouldn't mind a 3 hour RAW if it was booked accordingly with no lame filler shit. Like put on some nice 20-30 minute cruiser weight matches or using that time to build up the mid card to something meaningful. Its like RAW currently is 3 hours of non stop building up Roman or Cena.
But they need that time to show you exactly what happened at the start of RAW at least three more times.
dskillzhtown
keep your strippers out of my American football
I know USA wants 3 hours from them, so why not a 2 our Raw and one hour of WWE Network content? Make it kind of an advertisement for the type of stuff you can find on WWE Network.
D
Deleted member 47027
Unconfirmed Member
Problem is they're paying for three hours of Raw, that's in their contract with WWE. They can't just sub in an hour of NXT (which would be a great thing) or other content. It has to be their live show, Raw.
Over Cole's shoulder film an iPad playing NXT.
blackseedboy
Neo Member
Great post Sir, Great Post.
Wwe simply needs a great one, someone who main events Raw and keep the people on tv. Raw has a solid card, good rooster, nice midcard and high card, lacks of main event material. Roman Reigns sis NOT main event material.
Incredible.to say, healed Seth Rollins will be welcomed as a SAVIOUR when he comes back.
Lol to the Scrapoy Doo reference, made my day.
Bruce Springsteen
Member
Shpeshal Nick
aka Collingwood
Ending the streak (especially like that) was the beginning of the end for WCW. What made it worse? They never bothered to give the title back to him.
Fucking bullshit.
It's still three straight hours of wrestling on Monday night. It wouldn't solve the primary problem that it's just too long.
I'd add house show and travel schedual to that
Bruce Springsteen
Member
The streak had to end, the problem with a character built on a streak is that once it's over they're pretty much done in the fans eyes, no matter how they're booked
it doesn't help that Goldberg wasn't a good worker and had zero personality outside his ring entrance
That second hour was amazing. As a kid during the attitude era i don't ever recall being left unsatisfied during the end of Raw.
I particularly loved how most of the time crazy shit would kick off in the final minutes and the broadcast would bleed over for like another 5-10 mins and messing up the following broadcast in USA's schedule. I always loved those moments. In a weird way it made it feel genuine and authentic as if they were going off the cuff simply because they didn't end at exactly when they were suppose to.
JesseEwiak
Member
Sure, the streak had to end - when he was no longer massively over and drawing huge crowds. Starrcade '98 was not that point.
There was no evidence, aside from Nash shoot promos that Goldberg was losing any steam aside from the fact he wasn't being booked as the #1 dude as the champ.
Violence Jack
Member
I really wish they could cut Raw back down to 2 hours, and split the brands again. 2 hours for Smackdown, 2 hours for Raw, 2 hours for NXT.
newdayrocks
Member
Two hours for NXT week each week?! Nooooooooooope!
The last couple of months have been painful enough as it is at one hour.
Bruce Springsteen
Member
WWE will NEVER cut back to 2 hours because it makes too much money for them and NBC. They would have to break their contract and lose their USA slot, which would be business suicide
sadly, 3 hours is here to stay
That's certainly a huge factor in their rash of injuries.
D
Deleted member 47027
Unconfirmed Member
ty RBH 
Sparkedglory
Member
Use the first hour for nxt
NXT is perfectly fine at 1 hour.
D
Deleted member 47027
Unconfirmed Member
Can't. They bought 3 hours of Raw. Not NXT.
They bought three hours of Monday Night WWE programming. I doubt USA/NBC gives a flipping fuck what WWE puts in that 3 hour block so long as it stays near the top of the cable rankings.
I don't think wrestling is the problem.
Raw has some pretty solid matches.
I just don't think there's an investment/interest level to sustain 3 hours, no matter what you do with the first or last
Sparkedglory
Member
It shouldn't matter as long as it brings in money and viewers. Plus they could use it to show off some of their nxt talent. Nothing wrong with more fans recognizing newer talent.
D
Deleted member 47027
Unconfirmed Member
"Sure, replace the first hour with a show that doesn't have John Cena, HHH, the McMahons, or anyone that brings in viewers. Replace it with something full of unknown people."
If I were USA I'd be pissed you'd try to do that. I paid for your goddamn big star-studded show.
Can't - contracts.
I'd argue it wouldn't bring in money and viewers. Who wants to change their exposure of advertising from a show with a history of solid ratings for something unknown? As an advertiser I wouldn't. As a network I wouldn't. The only people this would benefit would be WWE initially.
I think it's possible to maintain investment/interest for a 3 hour show. It's just that WWE currently does the absolute bare minimum with Raw.
By this logic USA Network would have dumped them in the New Generation era when their roster was entirely people who couldn't bring in viewers, and Bret Hart. You're also massively selling short the appeal of some of the NXT stars.
Dark Ninja
Member
What's mindboggling is when they possibly get new viewers with some angle's they do like with Shane, CM Punk pipe bomb, Nexus forming, Eva Marie debuting, Bryan winning the title. They take the next week off, like fuck this we are tired put a bunch of rematches, recaps, and make Nattie do a subway commercial. They already lost whoever they got last week with that abysmal show.
Sparkedglory
Member
I think it's possible. It's just that there's so much extra filler on raw sometimes that people just tune out. I know I usually just have raw on in the background while I'm doing other things during that second hour. There's never anything interesting enough going on to make me feel invested.
D
Deleted member 47027
Unconfirmed Member
It was still Raw.
Did I say right away? No.
Cole: "Tune into the brand new first hour of Monday Night Raw featuring NXT"
D
Deleted member 47027
Unconfirmed Member
I don't think they could even do that. TV is really strict.
I don't disagree that they COULD find a way. But then you lose NXT as NXT.
Did USA Network have any issue with WWE turning the final chunk of Raw into WCW for a little bit when Vince was trying to get air time for WCW?
D
Deleted member 47027
Unconfirmed Member
I have no idea, didn't watch that or pay attention. I bet there's some interesting old Observer newsletters that get into it and how it worked. On top of that, WWE was on a smoking hot streak, so it's possible USA was fine with that. Times done changed.
So what you're saying is USA wouldn't have cared so long as the numbers stayed the same? Thanks for confirming my point
D
Deleted member 47027
Unconfirmed Member
So what you're saying is USA wouldn't have cared so long as the numbers stayed the same? Thanks for confirming my point
I'm saying, like Meltzer always says
I don't know
Keyser Soze
Member
If they were ever going to extend NXT's timeslot, then maybe they could go to 90mins. Don't try to shoehorn in any more storylines though, just give some of the matches and wrestlers a few extra minutes to do their stuff. They could use the extra few minutes in a bunch of places not just matches though. Sometimes I feel entrances are rushed, with the likes of Balor and Asuka racing to the ring, when they have entrances that I dont mind lasting a minute longer. Backstage segments could get a few extra minutes too. All those minutes would add up and fill the time, and make the show feel less rushed.
Of course with the way they do NXT tapings, adding 30 mins to each NXT episode extends the tapings about 2 hours longer, so it is probbaly a bad idea in the long run as most crowds would get burned out at that point.
Of course with the way they do NXT tapings, adding 30 mins to each NXT episode extends the tapings about 2 hours longer, so it is probbaly a bad idea in the long run as most crowds would get burned out at that point.
Bruce Springsteen
Member
Having no stars that are full time is the problem, hating on Cena is cool but the roster looks terrible without his name there
The way they always booked Cena to crush any rising stars is a huge contributing factor to the current situation.
For the record Cena is hands down one of my favorite guys in WWE. I think he's one of the best guys in the business.
Smooth Criminal
Member
Worth noting that the drop off for third hour was lower this week. Make of that what you will.
1st hour: 3.961m
2nd hour: 3.660m
3rd hour: 3.551m
Average: 3.724m
1st hour: 3.961m
2nd hour: 3.660m
3rd hour: 3.551m
Average: 3.724m
I think NXT has the benefit of not over-exposing its stars every week to fill hours and hours of programming. They leave enough of an impression in the one hour slot, and sometimes key characters can go a couple weeks without appearing on the show. I don't doubt that 90 minutes could work, but right now I think they're at the sweet spot. They still have a number of squash/showcase matches during the hour, so I don't think they're struggling for time. If anything, I'd attribute the quick entrances to the general theme of NXT: less about grandeur and spectacle, more wrestling. Between that and Lucha Underground, I love my one hour wrestling shows right now.
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