RAW expanding to 3 hours EACH WEEK starting in July!

G-Money · 18-05-2012 06:13PM

The Sun musing that the 3 hour Raw may mean the end of SmackDown. For what it's worth.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/wrestling/4324640/WWE-and-TNA-announce-radical-shake-ups.html

Charisteas · 18-05-2012 06:42PM

G-Money wrote: »

The Sun musing that the 3 hour Raw may mean the end of SmackDown. For what it's worth.

Can't see the end of Smackdown happening anytime soon, imagine the lost house show revenue for starters.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 18-05-2012 07:00PM

I suppose this might be an opportunity for some of the lower card guys to get more regular TV time which can only be a good thing. I don't see the experiment lasting though, we'll probably see it back to 2 hours by Christmas.

Ridley · 18-05-2012 07:48PM

Ideal world: Another hour of wrestling! Great!

Reality: So... we're getting Raws that will be longer than most PPVs every week with adverts?

Until WWE makes an effort to have good, consistent shows that aren't at the mercy of the whims, rivalries, and sometimes downright strange, decisions of people backstage, it's probably an extra hour of more of the same in my opinion.

Saveus.222 · 18-05-2012 08:09PM

Well, got to say the fact they announced this over two months in advance is a positive sign for what may prove to be a very negative development.
It gives WWE time to plan properly for this and present a show that is not just the current product with an extra hour stuck on at the front.

On a side note, far, far worse news - what if 3-hr RAW is not Jericho!!!
We'll wait and see what happens at OTL, not quite sure where they're going with the World title picture, but a Y2J win would obviously be a positive for his WWE future.

jaykhunter · 19-05-2012 07:10AM

Personally one 3-hour RAW would be preferable to 4 hours of RAW/SD but that's just me. WWE would never do it as they'd lose money for a marginal increase in quality (sure the best of SD is already on RAW). What would suit me best (:p) would be 2 hours of RAW with the best talent and have Sunday Night Heat for the overflow. lol

montyrebel · 19-05-2012 04:06PM

new 3 hour raw with a new name as well, something along the lines of Brock is raw perhaps

Smithey88 · 20-05-2012 01:28AM

I personally find it hard to stomach a 2-hour Raw. So I cant see why WWE are making it 3 hours on par with its Pay Per Views. I've heard reports that the first hour will be a "pre-show" of sorts (Dont know what to make out of that tho)

Furious-Red · 20-05-2012 10:23AM

All i can say is thank f**k for

JP Liz V1 · 21-05-2012 03:36PM

Source

Stephanie McMahon did an interview with Eric Goldman of IGN.com on the announcement that RAW would be three hours on the USA network starting on July 23rd.

On the challenges of filling an extra hour of content each week:

“It’s going to be the first-ever regularly scheduled three-hour program on television and I think we’ve got a pretty good handle on it thus far! You know, we do a three hour show called a Pay-Per-View almost every month and Monday Night RAW, we’ve done three hours before, so we feel great about it."

On fan interaction:

“This is going to be the most interactive show in television history. Our audience is going to have the chance to effect something in the show every week.” As far as what the audience would be determining, she said it would be, “Matches, stipulations, anything and everything. Different things every week.”

Her return on being on-camera:

“Who knows? Maybe you’ve got to tune into the 1000th RAW on July 23rd!”

Riddle101 · 22-05-2012 01:47AM

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Source

Stephanie McMahon did an interview with Eric Goldman of IGN.com on the announcement that RAW would be three hours on the USA network starting on July 23rd.

On the challenges of filling an extra hour of content each week:
“It’s going to be the first-ever regularly scheduled three-hour program on television and I think we’ve got a pretty good handle on it thus far! You know, we do a three hour show called a Pay-Per-View almost every month and Monday Night RAW, we’ve done three hours before, so we feel great about it."

That's great Steph, but a 3 hour PPV once a month isn't like doing 3 hour episodes of Raw every week, all year around. The creative team is going to be burned out within months trying to think of ideas, not the mention people can only watch so much wrestling in one night. I don't think i'd be that eager to watch 3 hours of wrestling, unless it were a ppv or something.

rovert · 22-05-2012 05:37AM

Anyone want to recap Raw for Wrestling Observer?

Todd Martin steps down.

As I’m sure a lot of people figured, weekly three hour Raws will spell the end of these reports from me. Watching a three hour show and writing a report the same night every week is just too much, particularly with the show generally not being that good. Giving up the reports has been something I’ve thought about for a while now because of the nature of the product, but the move to three hours made it an easy decision.

For subscribers to the website, I’ll continue following Raw and will discuss it every week with Bryan on Thursdays. If you’re not a subscriber I really encourage you to give it a shot because it’s a great value with so much entertaining content whether you’re heavily into the current product or not.

Being able to break up Raw over a couple days and fast forward or half pay attention to the worst stuff makes a big difference. I’m kind of expecting to enjoy the show more, because when there’s really bad stuff on Impact or Smackdown, I just mentally tune out and respond to e-mails or work on something else in the background. For Raw, I’m breaking down why it was bad and I can’t just save it on my DVR and pick it up another day. Everything else on my end will remain exactly the same, so you can reach me the same ways and look for my stuff in the same places. With a little extra time, I may throw up an added column on pro wrestling here now and then.

Sorry to the people who enjoy reading the reports. The funny thing is I expect Raw to move back to two hours within a year or so, but I’m not playing a game of chicken with WWE. I’ll keep doing these through the first three hour show in July, so you can continue to follow until then. Thanks to everyone for the support over the years!

Charisteas · 31-05-2012 07:46PM

That's quite sad really. Doesn't it tell a story about the state of the product today when somebody who is paid to write a report on a subject that they love decides to step down from his position when the said subject gives the consumer an extra hour a week.

RAW expanding to 3 hours EACH WEEK starting in July!

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