John Cena Announces WWE Raw Will Permanently Move to a 3-Hour Slot in July

Sometimes, you can have too much of a good thing.

On Thursday, John Cena announced via Twitter that WWE that Monday Night Raw will permanently turn into a three-hour affair every single week:

"

STARTING Monday Night July 23 @USA_NETWORK WILL BE ADDING A 3RD HOUR TO @WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW - PERMANENTLY. #3hourRaw

— John Cena (@JohnCena) May 17, 2012"

According to WWE’s official website, the first three hour episode will be on July 23, which will also mark the 1,000th career episode.

While this may sound like great news in theory, WWE is going to regret this in a hurry.

Sure, the WWE universe is as popular as ever, with record-breaking numbers at WrestleMania and strong numbers at last month’s Extreme Rules PPV, but they are really stretching it with three hours.

The cookie-cutter formula of having a major event happen right when the show begins and then again at the end works just fine. That’s how you attract a viewer and ensure he stays throughout the 90 minutes in-between the big events.

Now that it’s 150 minutes in between the big events? Better start hiring more wrestlers.

CEO and Chairman Vince McMahon hints that social media will have a huge impact on the new format (via WWE.com):

"Our new three-hour Raw represents the next generation in interactive television where our fans won’t just watch the show, they will help create it."

Hmmm.

So Twitter is going play a part…but how?

Will the Twitterverse decide matches that day? Can the wrestlers handle the spontaneous nature of such an idea?

Right now, the only wrestlers that really fire up the crowd are John Cena, CM Punk, Brock Lesnar, Sheamus, Daniel Bryan and Chris Jericho. Are Brodus Clay and Lord Tensai about to join them?

Guys like Mark Henry, R-Truth and Randy Orton are going to be getting more camera time. Is this a good thing?

Let’s hope they don’t make the Divas division more of a big deal.

It will be very interesting to see what WWE does with an extended show. Considering the two-hour version can really drag at times, they better have some wild ideas up their sleeves. 

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