WWE News: 3 Hour Raw Is Bad for Business

Get ready to spend an extra hour in front of the TV Monday nights.

USA Network announced that Raw is expanding to three hours beginning July 23 with the show's 1,000th episode.

But do they need the extra hour for Raw?

The WWE roster is really thin. They are relying on the Raw Supershow with Smackdown stars to get exposure on the "A" show.

Don't get me wrong, having some Smackdown wrestlers on Raw is a good idea because they are seen by a bigger audience.

However, the extra hour could end up being a bad thing. This may lead to more appearances by John Laurinaitis who is already over-saturated every week. WWE doesn't have many stars to draw the ratings they need or want over a three-hour time period every week.

John Cena, CM Punk, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, Brodus Clay and Santino Marella are, in my opinion, the most over-shown (good or bad) right now in the WWE.

The smart move would be to use the extra hour to give air time to those superstars who are under-utilized like Alex Riley, Ted DiBiase and others; or use the extra time to debut and expose some of the talent they are bringing up from FCW.

We saw this done once before when WCW Nitro expanded to three hours on Jan. 26, 1998. They tried everything they could to keep the ship afloat. The extra hour gave WCW an hour without competition from WWE, however WCW had a large enough roster to host three-hour shows each week. We all know what happened to WCW: it didn't last.

The biggest risk of going to three hours is over-exposing superstars every week. WWE has the money and the right men in place backstage to make it successful, but it has to be done correctly.

Why USA has just now decided to give Raw an extra hour is a mystery. There isn't much information out there beside the tweets from WWE and its superstars.

We just have to wait until July 23 to see how WWE books that extra hour.