Is RAW too long?

[Aaron]

I've seen it mentioned plenty of times, so I thought I'd make a discussion about it. Do you think RAW is too long? I think it is, often its full of shitty bumph about stuff that happened weeks ago, or horrendous advertising placement. I'm aware of the revenue from it all, but the Domino's thing the other week was horrible.

I think they could shave an half hour/an hour off the show.

 

[Crayo]

Definitely. They don't use the extra time to put anyone else over that wouldn't have gotten over before. They use it to plug apps, fill the show with more advertisements, and filler segments. Vince even said himself that the perfect time limit for a wrestling show is 90 minutes, but we have 180. They have no mid card either, so it is literally 3 or 4 segments that most people enjoy amongst 2+ hours of pathetic TV.

 

[Swift]

This gets brought up every month it seems.

Anyway, yes. But tbh, I can't even make it past one hour most of the time, so it's not only the three hours that makes Raw shit. The shitty booking/storylines/feuds,etc add to it as well.

 

[Snowman1]

I wouldn't blame the 3 hours, the show was ass at 2 because of all the reasons Crayo just mentioned.
But now the show sucks + lasts forever. Yippie.

 

[Lingstar]

Without the ad breaks RAW is only about 2 hours and 15 minutes long. Feels longer with the endless plugs for the WWE app and Sonic milkshakes or whatever other stuff they're pushing from the USA.

I think it's okay for timing, they just need to utilise it more. There's plenty of guys backstage that would be grateful of a 5 minute TV match I'm sure! Nothing special with stories but just a little wrestling match, nobody would complain (well some internet folks might, but you'd get that with anything!)

 

[Aaron]

I've thought for a while that it's a really really long time for any type of show, let alone a show that is more or less 90 minutes of repeats or irrelevant plugs.

The only other shows that I can think are that long are football matches, but at least that is different every time. The majority of films aren't over two hours long, if everyone else knows the right sort of time for a show (and Vince included) then why not follow it up and shorten it. I'd rather watch 90/120 minutes and enjoy it, than have to fast forward through 90 minutes of rubbish.

 

[Crayo]

3 hours is the same length of a long movie. I think people forget that sometimes.

 

[Snowman1]

3 hours is the same length of a long movie. I think people forget that sometimes.

Isn't a normal pay-per-view 2 hours and 45 minutes, since they always end early (whereas Raw's usually 3:15)? Kinda puts things in perspective.
Felt like ER just blew by.

 

[DK JAMES]

Damn straight it is. I hate the 3 hours. I mean I having nothing else to do Monday nights but the 3 hours always drag on.

 

[Leo C]

Well, I normally watch it Tuesday afternoon without ads and it kinda messes up my shedule due to being very long so yes.

 

[Lockard 23]

Definitely. They don't use the extra time to put anyone else over that wouldn't have gotten over before. They use it to plug apps, fill the show with more advertisements, and filler segments. Vince even said himself that the perfect time limit for a wrestling show is 90 minutes, but we have 180. They have no mid card either, so it is literally 3 or 4 segments that most people enjoy amongst 2+ hours of pathetic TV.

To be fair, Vince said the 90 minutes thing all the way back in the 80's when talking about Saturday Night's Main Event, which was 90 minutes long WITH commercials. Two hours is the way to go for me (though with commercials, it's pretty close to 90 minutes, but whatever.)

Raw being three hours long is way too long for a weekly wrestling program. I think pretty much everyone here with a brain said as much when the announcement was first made last year that it was going to three hours. Bischoff himself confessed in his book that he wished Nitro had never run to three long hours.

I was even gonna start doing a thing awhile back (but couldn't bothered with it after giving it a bit of thought) where I took the show every week and just cut out anything I could to bring it down to two hour and five minutes (with a little bit of overrun, perhaps.)

 

[Roi]

Tbh I don't really care. I watch it on Tuesday's afternoon and I usually finish it in about an hour. As soon as I see a jobber I skip until the finisher. That's how I roll

 

[Nano]

I watch it and think it's too long, almost the 50% of the time is all about recaps and also sucks, I want it to have promos, matches and maybe one or two recaps, not "a moment ago" recaps, it's supposed that you saw it, if you didn't they could post that in the WWE app imo

 

[BaraaKhalaf92]

The problem was never with the extra hour in my opinion, the problem was always with how they used that extra hour.
I have absolutely no problem with sitting and watching 3 or even 4 hours wrestling show weekly if it has quality contents, but unfortunately, I can never sit through 3 hours of RAW and that is simply because of how awful they use these 3 hours.

So basically, I have to say yes, 3 hours is definitely a very long time for RAW.

 

[Crayo]

Even with the most exciting RAW ever, committing yourself to three hours every single week is too hard. Also, with WWE also creating content for Main Event (1 hour), SmackDown (2 hours), Superstars (think that's still around - 1 hour), and their numerous campaigns, they have made it almost impossible for themselves to book a fantastic RAW every week. They make far too much content weekly for any concentration or progress to be made on a three hour RAW.