How WWE's Decision to Move to 3 Hours Has Ruined Raw

No matter what the WWE Universe thinks about the company’s transition to the new three-hour Raw format, if it is making the business more money, there is no way they are going to change it now.

The problem is that it’s starting to slowly kill the product; three hours is just too long for anything.

As much as the WWE doesn’t want to hear that, they have started down a path that will dilute their product so much that it becomes unbearable. While fans will point to more ads and more recaps as the reasons Raw is suffering, the problems go so much deeper than that.

While there is no doubt that the company is making money, all of the following reasons are why the decision to move to three hours has ruined Raw.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

With the addition of another hour to the WWE’s flagship show, the hope was that more emphasis would go to building midcard feuds that would result in the creation of younger stars. As we have seen with Brodus Clay and Damien Sandow, along with Ryabck and Jinder Mahal, the company is starting this process.

The problem is that the company ignored almost all of the secondary feuds when it came time for the SummerSlam pay-per-view, and even relegated the US title match to the YouTube pre-show.

That means if you just watched the PPV feed from your cable provider, you didn’t see any of the midcard feuds the company has spent all this time building. Whoops!

While some will claim SummerSlam is too important for mediocre feuds like that, critics need look no further than the lack of respect given to The Miz and Rey Mysterio in the build to their match to realize that WWE has mishandled the whole midcard situation.

Never Left Wanting More

After a few weeks of watching WWE Raw since the transition to three hours, there has been a noticeable change in my disposition once that second hour hits. While the 1,000th episode of Raw left me wanting more, that feeling hasn’t been around since.

With three full hours of programming on a Monday night, the WWE must realize that fans start to lose interest in the programming after two hours.

Since Raw 1,000, the fans haven’t been left wanting more.

That’s a problem.

What WWE Can Do

If the company is making more money with the network putting on three-hour shows each week, there is no way they are going to stop using the current format. One way to change the perception of the show would be making the episodes of Raw more interesting.

Basic, but true.

With a vast amount of WWE talent to be used, there should be no more excuses about lack of direction and every division should be treated with care. If the company showed an ounce of care towards the women’s or the tag team division, there would be so much more depth to Raw.

WWE creative realizes that they have to keep people focused for three hours and that task is almost impossible, but they have to do a better job of putting the stars in a position to succeed.

Giving us another Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio feud continuation isn’t the right answer.

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