So, WWE...

Ok I wasn't planning on making a blog about my current lack of enthusiasm about the WWE, but with yesturdays announcement of WWE making Raw a 3 Hour long program I really now feel the need.

Let me start off by making my reasons clear for the dislike of this recent announcement:

Creative - As of late episodes of Raw have dragged, take away solid/good crowds and the shows would really be lacking. It is becoming painfully clear that WWE's current Creative set-up don't have the abilities anymore to hold together a compelling 2 hour show without filling it with "filler" and quite frankly boring segments and storylines. Their lack of build up to matches on PPV (See Punk vs Bryan) is appaling in most respects, their only current saving grace being the Fatal Four Way that we will see this Weekend which is fairly good.
The surprising thing about this problem is that it didn't exist until very recently, WWE were on a roll coming out of Wrestlemania, and for the most part that followed through to Extreme Rules. But as usual, now that momentum has died away, the WWE are left with starting a new year in the WWE calender, something they don't do very well.
This is going to be a glaring problem come July 23rd when Raw becomes a 3 Hour show, especially from the concept that each week will essentially be a Viewers Choice episode of Raw, with the new first hour of programming setting up matches etc determined by viewers for the second and third hours. It just screams that the WWE Creative team no longer have any idea what they're doing and are handing things over to the audience, who will undoubtedly create inorganic situations, thus resulting in inorganic matches on PPV, a problem that plagued the Themed PPVs of 2010.


Past 3 Hour Raws: Quite frankly, they've sucked! People are ranting and raving about how this will change the amount of time given to Divas and Tag teams etc, but since when did their time change on any past 3 Hour Raws? The Creative team aren't capable of changing their own rhythm and thus we won't be seeing any significant change to how the various divisions are represented. Now there have been coflicting reports, some saying that this will be just like every other 3 hour Raw, while others say that the new first hour will be like a Pre-show. If this is the case then I will be more acceptant of the decision to change.

Fixing something that isn't broken: What is wrong with 2 hours? Reports say that the Creative team are already stretched writing 4 hours worth of Raw and SD each week - How will this get any better when they have to add an extra hour to Raw? Maybe if WWE focused on improving their product and building new stars, instead of consistently squashing them (Dolph and Cody) then they wouldn't have to worry about dwindling ratings or the "need" for a preshow to build anticipation for Raw.



I made a prediction a few months back that in 10 years WWE would be dead/dying and TNA would be in a similar position to where they are now, only they'd be the number 1 wrestling company in the world. After yesturday's various announcements I've never been so certain.