WWE Raw: Has the Show Already Been Overloaded with Touts?

No one can be truly surprised that WWE has started plugging emerging social media video service Tout frequently on their television and pay-per-view events.

After all, earlier this year WWE invested a reported $5 million dollars into the company, which, as WWE CFO George Barrios noted, was partly an attempt to expand their brand through social media. They also appear to be involved in the day-to-day running of the company to some extent (Stephanie McMahon’s corporate profile on the WWE website notes that she sits on the Tout, Inc. Board of Directors).

So with this in mind, we can’t blame WWE for promoting Tout and marketing it on the highly-watched platform on Raw. It is simply good business sense. If Tout blows up and becomes the next big thing, like Twitter or Facebook, Vince McMahon stands to make a fortune, and WWE will get a huge boost.  

However, what has surprised some is just how much and how heavily Tout has been plastered all over WWE’s flagship show in recent times.

It started out inoffensively enough: WWE would encourage enthusiastic fans to make videos talking about Raw and its wrestlers, then play a selection of the 15-second clips sporadically throughout the show.

The videos themselves were largely fine, even if they didn’t add to the show overall—there’s only really so much you can say in 15 seconds, after all, and it’s not really long enough to articulate a proper, insightful opinion.

However, in recent weeks the company has really amped up the Tout promotion to the point it is being heavily featured in main event storylines. Heck, the social media video service has gotten over more than any up-and-coming wrestler has.

Tout made an appearance during the Chris Jericho/Dolph Ziggler feud, with Jericho taking a clip of his frequent foe at ringside as he lost to Alex Riley. World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus also took along his camera phone when he stole Alberto Del Rio’s car and went for a ride about the town.

Of course the most egregious example came last week on Raw when Brock Lesnar announced on Paul Heyman’s Tout that he was quitting WWE—again.  What an eye-rolling development. Yes, merciless, uncouth human-wrecking machine Brock now goes on Tout (he’ll be plugging his Facebook and his own YouTube show next) and announces his business decisions on there.   

If it was simply Tout on its own being featured, the situation probably wouldn’t be so bad. But throw in the never-ending Twitter mentions, the website plugs and the push for the company’s YouTube channel and WWE’s entire social media blitz is fast becoming unbearable. It looms over, pervades and clutters the whole show, to the point you can barely focus on the storylines or the wrestlers anymore.

Do Vince and company realize that some people don’t want to Tweet/Tout/visit the website and just want to—GASP!—watch the show?

Apparently not.

Time will tell whether Tout is a good financial investment for WWE. But one thing is for sure: The increase in Tout videos, and WWE’s social media frenzy in general, is definitely not helping with the overall quality of the company’s flagship show.