A bit of a cryptic heading to a wrestling blog post I must admit, so what do I mean by less is more?
In simple terms. It’s about Monday Night Raw. Back when Raw used to be a 2 hour episode, I used to look forward to the occasional special episodes that are slightly longer. Nowadays with every week being 3 hours, to be honest, it is becoming a chore to watch. You never get the sense that the programming has been done purposely to lead to a new and exciting story, in fact some matches feel like they are there to fill in the time.
Let’s look at the first segment for example, usually something Seth Rollins/Authority related. This is usually elongated for over 20 minutes, with a dragging promo, similar timed interruptions and pretty much identical to the previous week. This then coincides with coming back to the stale Authority/Rollins angle later in the night, again coming across like they just need another segment to fill in the time.
Back when Paul Heyman used to write and structure the SmackDown shows, he has a formula, but was not afraid to change it if need be. The start of the night would always be a match in the cruiserweight division, and the show would slowly drip feed you for the whole night until the bigger more popular stars would come out. It would feel more like a showcase and the main event would feel more significant. While doing that, if still gave other parts of the roster their spotlight and a chance to show off what they can do, in a meaningful way.
Raw has vastly declined in quality since its change to 3 hours. Instead of meticulously planned programming, leaving certain story’s teased for another week makes the audience want to come back for more. In fact, the only advantage of having a 3 hour show in recent weeks has been more exposure for the divas. This is not to say that I feel the divas should be held back, as they definitely deserve the spotlight from their recent storyline. But WWE being as they are, they are likely to cut back from the 2 divas matches and various promos, back to how things used to be.
Another way I see it is that WWE pay per views have always been 3 hours (not including the pre-show). So what makes a pay per view different from to an average weekly episode of Raw? The only I can think of on a broad level is the fact that he pay per view can open with a match instead of a long drawn out promo, that pretty much is a snooze fest at times.
What I think is key, is that while Raw does have the higher viewership, there is still an equally important show in SmackDown. Instead of trying to put everything on one show and making it longer, you can split out the content across the two shows, making better and more exciting TV. At the same time, you being relevance back to SmackDown, a show that I haven’t even bothered to watch as of late.
I do not think all this is a problem that comes from lack of creativity, but a bit more of a lack of passion and effort. Instead of trying to troll by with the bare minimum, the WWE should really try to make each show the best it can be.
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