RAW expanding to 3 hours EACH WEEK starting in July!

Garseys

it'll be interesting to see what they do with the 3-hour Raw. Not gonna jump the gun and say it'll be terrible. though it is setting itself up for it.:pac:

ShaneU

More ads every 5 minutes for everyone!

The Bull

3 Hours????

I was over in the fringe thread and the following expression came to mind:pac:

jaykhunter

Ugh, "stop discussing" posts have reached our shores. Extremely productive on a discussion board.

newballsplease wrote: »

Why watch the show?? Nobody here clearly enjoys it. If you did, you would be delighted it was been expanded. I read nothing but complaints on here every week at how bad RAW is!!

Quality over quantity. The roster and writers are already stretched with having to do 4 hours each week. As a fan I'd rather better shows than more of it.

As for "nothing but complaints", read the Extreme Rules thread and the TNA Sacrifice thread. Great TV is commended. Similarly terrible TV (see this week's RAW) is condemned. Can't ask fairer than that.

ricero wrote: »

Bravo sir I totally agree. Also why do people on here talk about wwe in a buisness sense. It's not your buisness and who cares about the buyrates and ratings, at the end of the day vince is getting richer. Look at it as a tv show

We're trying to explain/rationalise WWE's actions. And some of us find it interesting. If it's too much for you, then leave. I left the TV forum because I felt that way. If you want more superficial, less intense wrestling forums I can point you in the right direction. Complaining about complainers is no use here.

rossie1977

wwe don't have a thin roster, they have over 50 male wrestlers currently working on the main brands (not including part time guys like hunter, taker, rock, brock etc), they have another 40 or so down in developmental and nxt, half a dozen of which were ready for tv along time ago (like ambrose, rollins, hero, steamboat jr, rotunda brothers), problem with wwe is they are lacking star power but again in 2012 star power didn't seem to bump tv ratings leading into mania despite the fact that some combination of rock, hhh, taker and hbk appeared on every raw for nearly 2 months and raw the night after the rumble and the night after extreme rules did better ratings than any of the nights they appeared to hype mania

comparing raw moving to 3hrs with wcw is fine but remember wcw moved just as wwf raw was getting redhot, wwe raw has no major rival to worry about, when wcw moved nitro to two hours alot of folks thought that was a bad idea at the time but wwf followed over a year later, i remember the jokes when impact moved to 2hr but now we dont even notice anymore

if wwe fans still watch what with 2hr of raw, 2hr of sd, nxt, superstars, ecw, tough enough, 14-16 ppvs a year, another 30mins of raw (and thats all it will be when ads are taken into account) won't turn them off

Lord TSC

Why watch the show?? Nobody here clearly enjoys it. If you did, you would be delighted it was been expanded. I read nothing but complaints on here every week at how bad RAW is!!

This isn't a post directly squarely at you, so I hope you don't think I'm coming across very aggressive towards you. More that I've seen this said a few times recently and it's an argument which drives me nuts.

The reason we complain so much is because we love the show so much. That may sound like faulty logic at first, so I'll expand. Most people continue to watch wrestling because they know every now and again, we're going to get a moment that makes it all worth while; The "Month of Punk", the Nexus, MITB cash ins, swerves and twists we didn't see coming but which are brilliant. Most wrestling fans on here have followed the product for years and we only want to see WWE thrive and rediscover it's form on a consistent basis.

The reason why we moan and complain is because we can see how much potential is there and how great the product could be quite easily, but instead of getting to enjoy that, we have to sit back and watch Vince and co. ruin the potential. Its like a group of football fans who complain about a manager; it's possible to adore and love the club while still getting frustrated with the direction those in charge are leading it. And that's what's happening here with WWE.

Everyone could see the potential of bringing Brock in, building him up for a year and going for a big, BIG pay off at somewhere like Mania. Something like that could have provided months upon months of tension and good story telling. So of course people get frustrated when Cena beats him and then is doing 90s comedy three weeks later. Every few months, we have something which we can get excited about but that WWE ultimately ruins. We complain because we want this company, this product and this industry to re-experience a boom period, and we see it could if some people could get their heads out of their asses. Instead, we're stuck watching the product die a slow death.

This 3-Hour Raw thing is yet another example. Raw is not a packed show which has no time for midcard stories or development of other characters. it's a show which is already crammed with recaps, filler and pointlessness. A third hour is only going to provide yet more of this time-wasting material. I would love if this was used to actually build people and angles up, but they already have plenty of time they aren't using for that right now, so they won't be using the time efficently for 3 hours either. Worse, the move from 2 to 3 hours is one of the main things WCW was always given out about for, and it was held up as a historic example of a stupid move for the product at the time.

As wrestling fans, we want to see WWE thrive. But there's absolutly no evidence to show that this move to three hours is going to bring anything more than yet more filler and nonsense, and on top of that, cause further burn out for both writers and fans alike. If the product was at a pique, where ratings were doing really well and there wasn't enough time to cram everything in, then I could accept the decision. But it's because I am a fan, it's because we do love WWE, that many people here will watch the show and complain about how stupid some decisions are.

paddyismaddy

the 3 hour supershow is fine every now and then i.e. building up to a big ppv like wrestlemania, rumble or summerslam but having it weekly is a bad idea

G-Money

I don't mind the odd 3 hour Raw but every week I think may be too much. I already fast-forward quite a bit of it including anything with the Divas or R-Truth. I don't watch Superstars and rarely watch SmackDown.

I open to them proving me wrong on this one, but it seems like a bad idea especially seeing how poor Raw has been this last couple of weeks.

Charisteas

I actually quite enjoyed most of the 3 hour Nitro's, a lot of which I watched at the back-end of last year.

From what I remember, besides most of the promos being nWo related, the 3 hour Nitro's were packed full of actual matches. Between 12-14 matches on each show. Fair enough most matches had a cr@ppy finish (usually interference) but they were wrestling matches nevertheless.

Compared to todays Raw which is full of meaningless filler like Cena's make-a-wish, Triple H attending a boxing match, Mark Henrys anti-bullying, backstage celebrity BS with Big Show or Santino, and several replays of what happened earlier that night or last week. WWE should keep that cr@p for the website or youtube.

Also it has to be said that WCW had the star power to go 3 hours, which I don't think Raw does. Plenty of big names to choose from back in 1998 - Hogan, Hall, Nash, Macho Man, Goldberg, Bret Hart, Lex Luger, Ric Flair, Curt Hennig, Sting, Chris Benoit, Eddie and Chavo, Scott Steiner, Davey Boy Smith, DDP, Big Show (when he actually meant something) Rey Mysterio, Raven, Dean Malenko, etc.

jaykhunter

lol at the "Be A Star" vignettes, followed by Laurinaitis bullying Big Show for about 20 minutes, making him grovel futilely for his job.

G-Money

The Sun musing that the 3 hour Raw may mean the end of SmackDown. For what it's worth.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/wrestling/4324640/WWE-and-TNA-announce-radical-shake-ups.html

Charisteas

G-Money wrote: »

The Sun musing that the 3 hour Raw may mean the end of SmackDown. For what it's worth.

Can't see the end of Smackdown happening anytime soon, imagine the lost house show revenue for starters.

DEFTLEFTHAND

I suppose this might be an opportunity for some of the lower card guys to get more regular TV time which can only be a good thing. I don't see the experiment lasting though, we'll probably see it back to 2 hours by Christmas.

Ridley

Ideal world: Another hour of wrestling! Great!

Reality: So... we're getting Raws that will be longer than most PPVs every week with adverts?

Until WWE makes an effort to have good, consistent shows that aren't at the mercy of the whims, rivalries, and sometimes downright strange, decisions of people backstage, it's probably an extra hour of more of the same in my opinion.

Saveus.222

Well, got to say the fact they announced this over two months in advance is a positive sign for what may prove to be a very negative development.
It gives WWE time to plan properly for this and present a show that is not just the current product with an extra hour stuck on at the front.

On a side note, far, far worse news - what if 3-hr RAW is not Jericho!!!
We'll wait and see what happens at OTL, not quite sure where they're going with the World title picture, but a Y2J win would obviously be a positive for his WWE future.

jaykhunter

Personally one 3-hour RAW would be preferable to 4 hours of RAW/SD but that's just me. WWE would never do it as they'd lose money for a marginal increase in quality (sure the best of SD is already on RAW). What would suit me best (:p) would be 2 hours of RAW with the best talent and have Sunday Night Heat for the overflow. lol

montyrebel

new 3 hour raw with a new name as well, something along the lines of Brock is raw perhaps

Smithey88

I personally find it hard to stomach a 2-hour Raw. So I cant see why WWE are making it 3 hours on par with its Pay Per Views. I've heard reports that the first hour will be a "pre-show" of sorts (Dont know what to make out of that tho)

Furious-Red

All i can say is thank f**k for

JP Liz V1

Source

Stephanie McMahon did an interview with Eric Goldman of IGN.com on the announcement that RAW would be three hours on the USA network starting on July 23rd.

On the challenges of filling an extra hour of content each week:

“It’s going to be the first-ever regularly scheduled three-hour program on television and I think we’ve got a pretty good handle on it thus far! You know, we do a three hour show called a Pay-Per-View almost every month and Monday Night RAW, we’ve done three hours before, so we feel great about it."

On fan interaction:

“This is going to be the most interactive show in television history. Our audience is going to have the chance to effect something in the show every week.” As far as what the audience would be determining, she said it would be, “Matches, stipulations, anything and everything. Different things every week.”

Her return on being on-camera:

“Who knows? Maybe you’ve got to tune into the 1000th RAW on July 23rd!”

Riddle101

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Source

Stephanie McMahon did an interview with Eric Goldman of IGN.com on the announcement that RAW would be three hours on the USA network starting on July 23rd.

On the challenges of filling an extra hour of content each week:

“It’s going to be the first-ever regularly scheduled three-hour program on television and I think we’ve got a pretty good handle on it thus far! You know, we do a three hour show called a Pay-Per-View almost every month and Monday Night RAW, we’ve done three hours before, so we feel great about it."

That's great Steph, but a 3 hour PPV once a month isn't like doing 3 hour episodes of Raw every week, all year around. The creative team is going to be burned out within months trying to think of ideas, not the mention people can only watch so much wrestling in one night. I don't think i'd be that eager to watch 3 hours of wrestling, unless it were a ppv or something.

rovert

Anyone want to recap Raw for Wrestling Observer?

Todd Martin steps down.

As I’m sure a lot of people figured, weekly three hour Raws will spell the end of these reports from me. Watching a three hour show and writing a report the same night every week is just too much, particularly with the show generally not being that good. Giving up the reports has been something I’ve thought about for a while now because of the nature of the product, but the move to three hours made it an easy decision.

For subscribers to the website, I’ll continue following Raw and will discuss it every week with Bryan on Thursdays. If you’re not a subscriber I really encourage you to give it a shot because it’s a great value with so much entertaining content whether you’re heavily into the current product or not.

Being able to break up Raw over a couple days and fast forward or half pay attention to the worst stuff makes a big difference. I’m kind of expecting to enjoy the show more, because when there’s really bad stuff on Impact or Smackdown, I just mentally tune out and respond to e-mails or work on something else in the background. For Raw, I’m breaking down why it was bad and I can’t just save it on my DVR and pick it up another day. Everything else on my end will remain exactly the same, so you can reach me the same ways and look for my stuff in the same places. With a little extra time, I may throw up an added column on pro wrestling here now and then.

Sorry to the people who enjoy reading the reports. The funny thing is I expect Raw to move back to two hours within a year or so, but I’m not playing a game of chicken with WWE. I’ll keep doing these through the first three hour show in July, so you can continue to follow until then. Thanks to everyone for the support over the years!

Charisteas

That's quite sad really. Doesn't it tell a story about the state of the product today when somebody who is paid to write a report on a subject that they love decides to step down from his position when the said subject gives the consumer an extra hour a week.