The 3rd Hour of Raw

WWE sucks because…
“It’s such a chore to get through 3 hours of RAW every week!”

If I had a nickel for every time I had some smart mark, snarky family member, or half-ass lapsed wrestling fan say those words or put forth an argument along that line of thinking, I wouldn’t need to work my 9-5 anymore or toil away producing content that garners some level of interest on the side anymore. There are so many second guessers and “know it alls” that freely assert their conclusions on the source of WWE’s Creative issues and I will be glad to explain to anyone who will listen, exactly why they are usually wrong.

Quick sidenote:

The AEW preshow was a shit show AGAIN. The opening Tag match could have been the only action from the pre-show and the audience and the AEW brand would have been better served. I would say that was early TNA level nonsense but that would be an insult to the Flying Elvises and Cheex. Also, I’m the biggest Ambrose mark that I am aware of but that Main Event was not particularly fun to watch or entertaining. I can honestly say that I enjoyed his New Japan squash much more than his debut here. I liked that Cody had the balls to go out there and try to make someone, but shame on Allin for wearing gear that students wouldn’t be allowed to work in on local shows. He looked minor league next to Cody with his girlfriend’s yoga pants on. The rest of the show was well played, considering that the card, on paper, was clearly a transitional B-level type of show. Also… Q: How many cutters do you need to see in the opening match? A: FUCKING ZERO. Let’s get on with it…

I’m an Ockham’s Razor type of guy. Whenever I am faced with a difficult issue or problem, I try to keep in mind that “the answer that makes the least assumptions is probably the most likely to work.” I’ve found myself in professional meetings, political discussions, and personal arguments where things seem to spiral into more and more needless complexity all too often. As I’ve grown older, accomplished more and more in my work and personal life, I’ve found that many complex issues have gone unsolved simply because there are so many people who were unwilling to accept that the real answer was just too simple to work. I don’t have time for bullshit, empathy, or hypotheticals anymore. We only have so much time on earth and that makes me LOVE simple answers these days.

Despite my love for simple answers, the popular sentiments that I mentioned previously seem to be REALLY simple, and narrow in scope… even for my tastes. I’ve got news for some of those who complain about the 3-hour “marathon” Raws that us helpless wrestling enthusiasts are subjected to: Monday Night Raw has always been a long show. In fact, these days, it’s better optimized, more wrestling friendly, stream-lined, and presented on TV than it ever was in the past.

Don’t worry, I’m well aware that this is pure IWC heresy, but, luckily for us, WWF/WWE has been doing these shows for a long enough time that we can actually compare similar events against each other in a different era of history in the company. In particular, we can look at the taping for Monday Night Raw the WWF did on October 19th, 1998 during the greatness of “back in the attitude era when WWF was Good,” many years later well into the “3-hour Raws are totally ruining the business” era.
Here is what was presented on Raw on a 2-hour show on October 19th, 1998 (as sourced from the internet wrestling database and match times are rounded):

Raw 10.19.1998
1 X-Pac over Ken Shamrock 4 mins
2 Mosh & Thrasher over Droz & Road Warrior Animal 2 mins
3 Steve Blackman over Jeff Jarrett (fuck finish) 2 mins
4 The Rock over D-Lo Brown 4 mins
5 Val Venis over Mankind 4 mins
6 Undertaker/Kane Schmoz 5 mins

So there is a 2 hour USA Raw with 2 fuck finishes and 6 matches and about 21 minutes of in-ring time. That’s a 2 hour TV show that yields a run time of 84 minutes. The Card being presented took up roughly 39% of the available TV time. So, “back when wrestling was good”, we were willing to sit through 61% of Vince Russo and Vince McMahon’s non-wrestling horseshit.
There seems to be some room for improvement here. Shamrock/Pac seems like they could have been well served with another 5-7 minutes on TV rather than trotting out the Headbangers and LOD for 2 minutes or Steve Blackman… EVER. I think that I might like to see the Rock have the opportunity to wrestle a competitive match for longer than 4 minutes. I understand that could be that is up to some of my personal taste, but I’m not sure you can make the case that this TV wrestling show presented very much actual wrestling. I would also go so far as to say that a wrestling show that doesn’t present much -if any- good wrestling is a good wrestling show.

Some years later, almost 3 years after the 3rd hour started killing the WWE in 2012, we have the card for October 19th, 2015:

Raw 10.19.2015
1 New Day over Dudleyz/John Cena 9 mins
2 Alicia Fox/Nikki Bella over Naomi/Sasha Banks 9 mins
3 Seth Rollins over Ryback 4 mins
4 Barrett/Rusev/Sheamus over Cesaro/Ziggler/Neville 13 mins
5 Charlotte over Brie 6 mins
6 Kevin Owens over Mark Henry 4 mins
7 Wyatt Family (shitty version) Schmoz The Shield 14 mins

On a 3 hour TV show, that gives you a 126 minute run time. By the time the 3rd hour of Raw started killing the business, the in-ring time had INCREASED by almost 10%. For the sake of brevity, I will admit that this is only a single example and it is certainly NOT an exhaustive, scientific examination of the subject. It is merely an example that I am presenting to show that WWE wrestling has been UPPED in quality and there is more WRESTLING on the RAW WRESTLING show than there as “when wrestling was good.” For the most part, the talent is more capable, and the matches almost always have the potential to be something better than what you would have seen in 1998.

Also, on this particular night, the “booking” as it was, wasn’t all that great when it came to the in-ring product. Blackman/Jarrett… why? Fake LOD… Why? Venis and Mankind doesn’t even look good on paper let alone what it looked like in the ring (and I like them both). Strangely, 2015 WWE seemed to be leaning pretty hard on 6 main tag matches to pad out the show albeit with much better wrestlers.
It must be noted that this is not an apples to apples comparison though. The 1998 show was a crash TV style adrenaline-fueled, 2-hour slobber knocker Attitude Era lightning storm of Entertainment, right? RIGHT?! Well, not exactly. There was the obligatory opening Mcmahon 20 minute promo, a 10 minute Seg 6 with Undertaker cutting a promo and Kane with a voice box, a Tiger Ali Singh promo, and plenty of Vince Macmahon driving around the backstage area in a motorized wheelchair. The real Main Event of the evening was Vince Macmahon pissing his own pants. So there’s that… YMMV.

There is more to than this than meets the eye, however. The WWF show on October 19th, 1998 was longer and had LESS wrestling than the show WWE produced well after NBC Universal crippled your enjoyment of the product by adding “the 3rd hour that nobody watches.” Back in the “wrestling was actually good,” era they taped Shotgun, Heat, and Monday Night Raw on the same show. This made things HARDER on the creative team, not easier. Every week, The MTV show and the syndicated show needed to be wrapped up on the same night they had a live broadcast on USA Here is what the 12,000 poor souls in the Bradley Center endured that evening:

1 TAKA Michinoku Def. Terry Allen
2 Matt Hardy Def. Test
3 NAO Def. DOA
4 Edge Def. Marc Mero
5 Christian Def. Dick Togo
6 The Oddities Def. Extras
7 Gangrel Def. Scorpio
8 Christian Def. Brian Christopher
9 Jeff Jarrett Def. Golga
10 Headbangers Def. DOA
11 D-Lo Brown/Ken Shamrock Def. Mankind/X-Pac
12 X-Pac Def. Ken Shamrock
13 Mosh & Thrasher Def. Droz/Animal
14 Steve Blackman Def. Jeff Jarrett
15 The Rock Def. D-Lo Brown
16 Val Venis Def. Mankind
17 The Undertaker Draw Kane

And we can compare that to the Raw Taping on the same day in 2015:

1 Fandango Def. Heath Slater
2 Stardust Def. Zack Ryder
3 New Day Def. Dudleyz & John Cena
4 Alicia Fox/Nikki Bella Def. Naomi/Sasha Banks
5 Seth Rollins Def. Ryback
6 Barrett/Rusev/Sheamus Def. Cesaro/Ziggler/Neville
7 Charlotte Def. Brie Bella
8 Kevin Owens Def. Mark Henry
9 Wyatt Family (shitty version) Def. The Shield

Raw isn’t any longer than it ever was. In reality, Raw is probably shorter on average with more wrestling and better in-ring performances than ever. What show would you rather be at?

“Ya, but they added a 3rd hour to Raw and no one can watch that dreaded 3rd hour of Raw every week.”

Since the inception of the 2-hour format in 1997, Monday Night Raw has ALWAYS ended at 11pm EST. the 10om-11pm hour isn’t the new hour of programming that USA is paying for. 8pm-9pm is the added hour. There is nothing inherently broken about running Raw until 11pm. It has ended at 11pm for over 20 years. It’s not as though producing a 3-hour wrestling show is some sort of challenge that no one has ever solved. Most wrestling shows are around 3 hours or sometimes even more. There is nothing about producing a 3-hour raw that is fundamentally different than producing an episodic, tent-pole event in the Coliseum every Monday Night in Memphis. This is a solved problem that goes to the basics of “booking” and the nature of promoting wrestling cards. The 3rd hour has not killed Raw. 11pm was not too late to stay up for a wrestling show in 1998. Most people will stay for the entire event they paid for even if the run time takes then p to 11pm.

Blaming the creative team’s woes on the 3rd hour is a complete cop-out. They were writing longer, more convoluted, shows in 1998 with a lesser quality of in-ring talent at their disposal. The statement that “3 hour Raws are just too long” is something that I completely disagree with. 3-hour wrestling shows are normal. It is the presentation, the creative, and the approach that needed to change.

The “3rd-hour fatigue” is a result of a miscalculation by the way WWE chose to present the new hour that was added to the show. 8:00pm EST every single week, the show opens with the same opening, 20-minute promo that used to open the show at 9pm in 1998. By timeshifting hour 1 into the new 8 o’clock hour, WWE timeshifted their audience as well. Rather than changing the format and approach of the show, WWE tried to present MORE 2 hour Raw and simply fitting it into a 3-hour slot.

The 8 O’clock hour should have been wrestling based, preliminary action that built up to the big 9 O’clock opening segment that we had been experiencing for 19 years up until 2012. Unfortunately, when WWE brain trust was challenged with a new problem, they attempted to solve it with an old answer. Rather than changing their approach in the front of the issue in 2012, they have reactively tried to fix it after they disenfranchised fringe consumers and retrained their core audience to move their old habits up an hour on Mondays. There is no brand split, no amount of Shane MacMahon, and no Champion you can pin to fix it. It’s time to take a step back, reevaluate the approach, and start running Monday Night Raw like the 3-hour wrestling show that it is from now on.