WWE Raw: How Quickly Will Weekly 3-Hour Shows Burn out the Fans?

In less than a week, it happens. 

The WWE will forego the standard two-hour format for Monday Night Raw and make it a three-hour show every week “permanently.” 

That permanently part is not necessarily true, though. 

As far as we know, Raw will last three hours from this point forward. But the average wrestling fan can see into the future and realize that the chances of Raw lasting 180-plus minutes for the rest of eternity are slim to none. 

While the WWE certainly won’t acknowledge this in public, it’s safe to say that just about everyone within the company knows that Raw’s switch to three hours is a bold—and perhaps stupid—move. 

And it all boils down to two words: Attention span. 

Especially in today’s society, the attention span of the average person is extremely short. 

We live in a place where trillions upon trillions of pieces of information are available at the click of a mouse, and thus, as a whole, we tend to be extremely impatient when it comes to everything, whether it’s waiting in line at the DMV or driving in traffic. 

That applies to pro wrestling, too, and I myself am certainly guilty of this. 

I’ll sit down and watch Raw every Monday, and at some point during the show, I’ll find myself saying, “Holy crap. This episode is dragging on forever.” 

I look at my watch or the clock, and I see that we’re actually only 25 minutes into the show. 

This, of course, has a lot to do with how good (or not so good) the episode of Raw I’m watching is, but regardless of the quality of the show, two hours is a long time to expect anyone to watch a show from start to finish. 

The typical TV show lasts an hour, and some of the most successful ones—like Two and a Half Men and Entourage—generally last less than a half hour.

Believe me when I say there’s a reason for that, and (other than the awesome writers those shows have) it’s because we can only take things, but especially TV shows, in small doses. 

I’m a huge Two and a Half Men fan, but even I would get sick of watching that show if every episode lasted nearly 120 minutes. 

It’s just like with anything else: No matter how much I like something, I’ll get tired of it if I see it too much. 

That’s the fate that lies ahead for Monday Night Raw. 

I’d like to take a glass-half-full approach and say that the added hour to Raw will be used exactly like it should be, and that’s for longer matches, more feuds, etc. 

But the realistic side of me knows that all we’re in for with Raw’s switch to three hours is a longer version of its current format. 

In other words, not much will change. Well, scratch that—one big thing will change. 

Instead of the WWE expecting us to sit through two hours of Raw every Monday, we will now be expected to sit through an extra 60 minutes of WWE programming, and even more with the overrun. 

I love Raw and pro wrestling, so no matter what, I’m going to continue watching each and every week. 

But the average wrestling fan? Eh, not so much. 

It’s going to be extremely hard for most fans—even some of the diehards—to watch a weekly show that is two hours longer than your typical weekly TV show. 

This will be reflected in the ratings, when fans tune into the first few three-hour Raw episodes at first to see what’s going to happen on the 1,000th episode and those that follow shortly thereafter. 

But as time goes on, fans are going to burn out incredibly quickly. It’s just human nature for us to shy away from things that we’re overexposed to. 

And make no mistake about it—we will be overexposed to Raw quickly, and we will not like it. 

The complaints about a three-hour Raw have already been going on for weeks upon weeks now, so just imagine how much worse they’re going to get once Raw actually switches to that format. 

The ratings won’t increase, the complaints will, and Raw will be back to its standard two-hour format by Jan. 1, 2013. 

Trust me, it won’t last until the New Year.

Drake Oz is a WWE Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions on Formspring.