This week, I would like to start my article on a positive note. It has been a great weekend. On Saturday I watched my team win the league despite our nearest rivals racking up a cricket score. I celebrated into the wee small hours, and woke up with no hangover.I spent most of Sunday doing sweet FA, then I watched Extreme Rules, which I thought was pretty good.
Obviously, having to do my SLTD predictions while possibly under the influence meant I may have got a couple of them wrong, but hey-ho, I can make that up next time.
So all in all, a pretty good weekend, then all of a sudden, Monday Night Raw is upon us. I have to point out that I have yet to watch all of the show, despite staying up late here in the UK to do so. I managed an hour, and that was pushing it.
Last week I touched on the WWE PPV model. Go home show is usually tag matches between people who will meet at the PPV, the next Raw after will be repeats from the PPV. So I had an idea the artist formerly known as Big E Langston would get a rematch. I figured RVD and Cesaro would probably face off.
Generally I watch Raw on a Tuesday at some point, and hope it does not make the article I just published look stupid, and that seems to work most of the time. This week I lulled myself into a false sense of security, and figured I would watch live… boy does that show drag.
A 20 man over the top rope battle royal is fine when you can watch it in a certain way. This is something I now call the ‘Duckman’ method. You see the start of the match, and note what type of match it is. Battle royal rules for watching… Fast forward till you see the ‘Kofi spot’, watch that, then back to FF until maybe three or four guys are left in. Time saved, 15 minutes
Any time you see the three commentators together, FF. this will happen 3 or 4 times a show, so time saved, 10 mins.
Highlights from last nights PPV, again, a good 10 minutes of time to be saved there, add in the ‘comedy’ match, Divas interaction and anything with the Miz, and you can get Monday Night Raw down to way under two hours.
Now that is what I would call my usual routine, not only with Raw, but with Impact, and a fair few of the PPV’s. Sacrifice was an exception, I managed that in under an hour…
So in the hour or so I watched last night, I got to see a battle royal, a Cesaro rematch and a Wyatt promo that lasted way too long. I know, I know, Bray is cool, but you know what they say about too much of a good thing right? Bray Wyatt, for me at least, works fantastically when he has someone else to bounce off. His promos face to face with Cena have been excellent.
Alternatively, his segments in the back which last maybe two minutes are generally great, but that’s because he says a lot in two minutes. Giving him what felt like an hour on Raw means he has to use a lot of filler and repetition, and dilutes something which is brilliant when concentrated.
Now I totally understand a three hour show makes WWE more money than a two hour show, and they are not going to change it back to two hours until someone at a TV network tells them to, so how do we get around the problem of Raw needing to fill three hours?
It is pretty simple, use the Wrestlers to, well wrestle. Look at the roster, look at the talent that sits there week in, week out knowing they have no chance. Give them a chance. A REAL chance. I would much rather see Drew McIntyre take on Zak Ryder than listen to Cole talk about the WWE app. Let them go out at the start of the show, and give them more than 5 minutes. Tell them to go sell themselves, and see what happens.
Take a three hour show, and use the first hour to let these jobbers show the world how good they are, and in between matches, give us a build to the bigger matches that will come later. 2 minute segments in between ten minute matches, not the other way about.
This takes away all the time wasted by Cole and his sidekicks, and gives these guys a chance to showcase their talents. Let the crowd decide the winner by their reactions, and you have a chance to turn jobbers into mid card guys. Repeat the process in the second hour with mid card guys, let them do their thing in the ring, and see who shines. Mid Card guy goes up a notch.
And all the while we are getting short segments that are only building the excitement for the later matches. You could possibly have the titles split in the same way, the guys in the first hour are looking to win say, the IC title. Second hour is guys who can fight for the US, and third hour is all about guys who could credibly fight for the WWE/World title.
Give Raw a bit of structure, and show the world that anyone can progress through the ranks if they have ability. Let us know that no-one is being held down, that winning the IC title means you are progressing up a level, and winning the US title means the same. Have a show where every match means something, whether it is a jobbers match or a world title match. Have a show that I can watch for more than an hour before deciding I have much better things to do with my time.
Take out the replays of things that just happened, I did not forget anything in the last five minutes. Take out the Divas talking backstage, we all know its just rubbish. Take out the replays from the PPV, and the rematches. We don’t need to see stills of a match from last night, then watch the same two guys fighting again for no real reason.
Tighten the show up, make it all about the wrestling, and make me want to watch. Make me think that 3MB actually can wrestle, and will not lose to a midget bull. Take out the comedy stuff until you sign Rockstar Spud or Bad Influence, you are not good at it.
Extreme Rules showed everyone that WWE undoubtedly has the talent, and the ability to put on good shows. The level of their PPVs is pretty high recently, so why not go to that level every week on Raw, then look to raise it another notch on the PPV’s?
What we really need is for Vince to pretend he has competition. Pretend he has to do better than someone else. Remember how good wrestling used to be? That is what competition does. WWE now knows it only really has to be better than TNA to be the best, and realistically, the state TNA is in just now, I would rather watch that ‘Dodgeball’ film again.
So we suffer through three hours of Raw, knowing it could have been done in two, and knowing that is an hour wasted. An hour where jobbers could get some credibility, which in turn gives more credibility to they guys above them. An hour where instead of replays, we could be watching something we have never seen. An hour where guys from NXT could get their first real chance in the big leagues.
An hour where we are entertained…
This weeks title comes from a favourite of my youth, and is slightly cryptic. Only by knowing the song title will you really get why I used it, but if you go as far as to find out what it is, give the song a listen as well. And FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER! My girlfriend is catching up rapidly, and I am expecting her to pass me for followers some time this month, so @GrantCookDFC, give it a follow and I promise not to tweet too much rubbish.
As always, I feel compelled to point you in the direction of all the other articles right here, on SLTDwrestling.com, and while I am handing out cheap plugs, give SLTD radio and the MFX podcast a listen. Both are available on the SLTD home page. Also, I would urge everyone to take part in the race for third place in the SLTD predictions league, behind myself and the Boss Man, George, who are both fantastic at picking winners in PPVs and champions at football.
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