WWE: Are 3-Hour Episodes of Raw Just Wasting Time?

Every once in a while, WWE officials make the decision to extend an episode of Monday Night Raw from its normal two hours to a three-hour show. 

Usually, the company does this for some sort of themed show. Maybe it’s an episode of Raw Roulette that emanates from Las Vegas, or perhaps it’s a legends-themed episode that brings back a number of big named stars from the past. 

No matter what the theme or purpose of dragging Raw out for another hour, however, the result is almost always the same: The “special” show winds up being a complete waste of time. 

For example, let’s look at the most recent three-hour edition of Monday Night Raw, last week’s show which was billed as “Raw Gets Rocked” thanks to the return of The Rock for the build to Survivor Series. 

OK, so we start off the show an hour early, and how does it begin? Not with a lengthy match or an important promo, but “The Michael Cole Challenge.” 

Cole’s challenge was essentially a 15-minute segment done to embarrass Jim Ross, and not surprisingly, it added nothing to the show. I guess that’s what happens when you put the focus on the freaking announcers rather than the actual wrestlers, though. 

This turned out to be one of the worst opening segments in Raw history, and it was followed by a good promo by CM Punk that got ruined by the presence of John Laurinaitis and his ridiculously aggravating voice. About 20 minutes into the show, I was already bored and sick of the lame time-filler segments. 

But after a decent tag team match pitting Cody Rhodes and Hunico against Sin Cara and Kofi Kingston, guess what we got? Yeah, another “comedy” segment with Zack Ryder and Santino Marella that actually wasn’t that bad but really didn’t accomplish much of anything. 

Moving on, we work our to a match between Dolph Ziggler and Mason Ryan. Not that I wanted to see Ryan in a 20-minute bout, but this match got all of one minute. 

Yeah, one minute. We can spend 15 minutes building a feud between two announcers, but we can’t give a stud like Ziggler more than 60 seconds in the ring. Absolutely asinine. 

At this point, I was ready to change the channel, but then it was announced that Mick Foley was heading out to the ring for some promo time. I’m a big Foley fan, so I stayed tuned in for what I thought would be a good segment coming our way. 

So much for that. 

As a throwback to the classic This is Your Life segment Foley did with The Rock, he did another one on this show—only this time it was with John Cena. I’ll spare you the details on the segment, but just know that it was one of the most atrocious segments in WWE history. 

I really have no idea exactly how long it lasted because it was so unbelievably brutal. My guess is that it went at least 20 minutes, but it felt more like 20 hours. Foley did do a good job of talking up Cena, but other than that, this entire segment accomplished absolutely nothing. 

Ugh. What the hell is going on here? 

While I won’t go into detail about what happened on the rest of the show, just know that it was highlighted by a one-minute Divas match, another backstage Ryder segment that led nowhere, a 52-year-old Kevin Nash squashing Santino, a melee between Team Orton and Team Barrett and finally, the return of The Rock.

The last two things on the last were fine, but the other ones? Completely pointless. 

That’s exactly what is wrong with the WWE and the way the creative team decides to book these three-hour editions of Monday Night Raw. They should be special, they should feature longer matches and they should feature fewer backstage “comedy” segments. 

But they don’t. 

In fact, three-hour Raws hardly ever lead to 15-minute TV bouts. Instead, the creative team tries to cram every WWE superstar on the show, and as a result, we get a number of short matches like we got on last week’s Raw. 

Three-hour Raws should be more like SmackDown, shows highlighted by multiple 10-plus minute matches and in-ring action that furthers the brand’s top feuds. But I am honestly completely bewildered at the WWE’s inability to do that. 

Rather than giving us longer matches or promos that build toward big feuds, we get a show that feels like it was written on a napkin 20 minutes before it aired. We get a show that features backstage segments that are nothing more than lame time-fillers and rushed matches that don’t even get three minutes. 

How can you make a show that’s an hour longer than usual actually seem more rushed than the typical two hours does? 

Don’t ask me. Ask the WWE writers, because they’ve done a fantastic job at this over the last several years.