WWE Raw: After Raw 1,000, 5 Reasons There Won't Be Anymore Great 3 Hour Shows

Raw 1,000 was a solid wrestling show.

There were some top angles that were pushed forward, a big heel turn and some great stars who made a welcome return.

It was an exciting night of wrestling.

Raw 1,001 is setting up to be built around the follow-up to CM Punk seemingly turning heel.

It could be an interesting show.

The show also marks a big moment for WWE, as they are extending their show by 60 minutes to an entire three hour show every Monday night.

Will Raw 1,001 live up to expectations? Will Raw 1,002 already start to feel tired?

Adding another hour to a show is a big step, and perhaps a very bad one for WWE. There are potentially some good things that could happen, but a lot that could go wrong.

Here are five reasons why we have already seen the last of the great three-hour shows.

No. 5: It's Not the NFL

This title should be obvious. Of course WWE isn't the NFL.

The biggest difference between the two from a viewing entertainment standpoint is that WWE has no offseason.

Vince McMahon is very proud of this fact.

When people talk about Raw going to three hours a week, one of the reasons argued that it's not a bad decision is that NFL games often go three hours or longer.

That's true. But the NFL isn't on TV for over 30 weeks a year.

Asking for a fan's attention for three hours every Monday night is asking a lot.

People have jobs, families and even other TV shows they want to watch in their free time.

Fans look forward to the start of the NFL season, and some WWE fans would look forward to the occasional three-hour Raw episode. The supersized shows usually had some sort of hook to them to make them different from a regular episode.

That won't be possible anymore.

With three hours becoming the norm, that could be draining on fans in a short time.

Yes, DVR's do exist, but if you break the habits of hardcore fans by not watching a three-hour show, they may realize it's not a big deal to miss a week. Then it may not be a big deal to miss a few weeks or pay for the pay-per-view that they used to.

With at least four extra hours a month, it's going to be hard to convince people that they should pay over $50 to watch even three more hours.

Maybe WWE should take a time out and think this through long-term.

No. 4: Will New Talent Actually Be Showcased?

Dean Ambrose, Tyler Black and Richie Steamboat.

These are three of the young men in WWE's developmental system that fans have been wanting to see on the main roster for some time.

With the announcement of a three-hour Raw every week, there' s hope that they, along with others, will finally be called up.

It's a safe bet that some new talent probably will be called up, but it shouldn't be a given, as what was stopping them before?

WWE has essentially ended the brand split without ever talking about it.

Instead of each show basically consisting of 30 or so wrestlers, there's basically one giant roster that does both shows (unless you're John Cena or CM Punk).

The company could have easily kept the brands separated and brought up a bunch of new guys to fill out the roster the past year or two.

Instead, guys like Dolph Ziggler, Alberto Del Rio and Sheamus have been asked to do double duty by showing up on both major shows nearly every week.

Looking at last week's Raw and Smackdown, we only had two wrestlers that debuted on WWE television within the past year: Damian Sandow and Antonio Cesaro.

You could point to guys like Brodus Clay, Tensai and Ryback, but we've already seen them before in different roles. Fans regularly want to see new talent to keep the show exciting, but WWE often leaves guys in developmental much longer than necessary.

An extra hour of programming isn't going to necessarily change that.

Again, there will most likely be some new talent introduced soon, but probably not enough to make the show feel fresh again.

No. 3: Remember WCW?

Let's look at one the first WCW Monday Nitros of 1998, this is during the time that the show was red hot.

Here are a couple of matches from the February 9 episode, which was only a few weeks into the show's extension from two to three hours:

- Steve McMichael vs. Glacier

- Disco Inferno vs. Yuji Nagata

- Konnan vs. Norman Smiley

- Juventud Guerrera vs. El Dandy

The Nitro girls also had multiple dance sequences.

Still excited for three hours of wrestling every week?

Some may argue that WWE is not WCW, which is true.

But keep in mind, Nitro during this time was much more popular than Raw is today.

Another big difference is that WCW had over 90 wrestlers under contract who were appearing on TV. WWE doesn't have anywhere near close to that.

WCW had enough guys where they could have more squash matches and keep certain talent off of TV for weeks.

During WCW's switch to three hours, they had the NWO storyline going strong, Goldberg and DDP emerging and Sting selling loads of merchandise. They had many more stars on their roster than WWE does today.

These comparisons aren't good.

Expect to see talent get over-exposed ever faster than they are now.

No. 2: The Stars Have Gone out

Last week's three-hour show was a packed.

But what is the company going to do now when many of the most exciting parts of the show won't be on every week?

Try to imagine Raw 1,020.

Will The Rock, Undertaker, Triple H, Lita, The APA, Brock Lesnar, DX, Stephanie McMahon or Trish Stratus be on the show?

Maybe one of them...maybe?

Yes, a few of these were shown as cameos, but they also were entertaining to see again and provided a nice surprise to keep the longer show flowing well.

What is WWE going to do for three hours every week when they aren't going to be around?

By Raw 1,010, we'll be lucky to have Ernest "The Cat" Miller show up as a surprise, and Raw 1,050 we'll be lucky to have Beaver Cleavage make an appearance.

No. 1: Creative Burnout

Being a writer for WWE is a notoriously difficult job.

There's a high turnover rate and not much downtime. The writers have to eat, sleep and breathe wrestling.

Vince McMahon is known to do rewrites the day of a show on a whim. He's been reportedly crankier than he has been in the past, and handing in scripts to him every week can't be an easy task.

Now imagine that the No. 1 show he cares about is going to expand by another hour every single week.

It's hard to guess what kind of mental toll that is going to take on the writers and how much faster they're going to get burnt out.

The WWE writers had a lot of toys to work with this week: the legends, Daniel Bryan and A.J.'s wedding. Even Charlie Sheen was something that could take up some television time.

What are they going to do when they don't have segments like that to help out?

It's going to be interesting to watch, but don't expect it to be a pretty sight.

Agree? Disagree? Excited for the three-hour switch? Sound off below.