Mick Foley believes WWE is attempting to bring RAW's third hour to the Attitude Era

By Harrison - June 4, 2019

WWE’s product as of late has gotten stale and so the company has been trying everything they can in order to help with the dwindling ratings. They also have major competition from AEW that makes the situation all the more pressing.

The third hour of Raw as of late has gone through changes. WWE has been experimenting with the lighting in order to give a more grittier feel.

While speaking to ComicBook.com, Mick Foley talked about the direction WWE is taking for the third hour of RAW. The company wants to do something that will keep the fans engaged. Hence it feels like WWE is trying something new.

“The idea is that the third hour is going to get rougher, wilder, and more unpredictable. When I was GM, I knew that people were breaking towards the SmackDown show because it was the darling of the Internet.”

“The idea was ‘why don’t you try [having] a third hour.’ It was like a giant albatross around your neck. The third hour is really difficult. I think it’s an idea to have the third hour more unpredictable and more like the Attitude Era.”

We will get to know in good time whether WWE’s attempts at making the third hour more interesting will result in better ratings.

Alan Jones J

Have a NXT/205 live/NXT UK and The Coalition, was a professional wrestling stable in the World Wrestling Entertainment lasted from August to November. The stable came about as a result of the WWE’s purchase of World Championship Wrestling in March 2022
Dirt McGirt

Bring back bra and panty matches. I’m not saying you put the likes of Charly and Kayla out there to do it, though I would DEFINITELY watch that, but you could put someone like Alexa Bliss out there against Dana Brooke, have a competitive match, and the loser get humiliated after getting stripped down. The problem isn’t that WWE was doing them back in the day, the problem was that the women were ONLY seen as T&A and not athletes.
Sparti Love

The third hour will bring back “Raw is War”

In all seriousness, I can barely watch the first two hrs, let alone turning the show on anymore. Its a shame, I got my wife into wrestling 4yrs. She would get excited and text me that wrestling is on tonight. Now she rather watche Netflix. I am feeling the same.
CC

FOX has said they want more wrestle focus and less drama. How is that telling them they have free reign to do what they like?
As for the whole attitude era stuff etc, that has nothing to do with “the network” and everything to do with WWE wanting to entice more sponsors, hence the PG rating and toned down storylines. We will not be seeing any attitude era stuff while WWE is focussed on pleasing sponsors.

You have to remember that the only reason WWE removed the name Moolah from the battle royal was because of sponsors not being happy. And the only reason they “fined” Lars Sullivan was due to sponsors once again forcing their hand.
Nicholas Giambattista

Fox wants the WWE to run Smackdown how they like. If you seen a lot of Fox shows from the past they will love WWE to bring the attitude era back.
CC

Most people think three hours is way too much, and I am inclined to agree. If though WWE are intent on continuing with this format then making the third hour different is not the fix they need. For people to stay for the third hour you have to concentrate on making hour one and two better, then give them a reason to stay for hour three. If you are already bored with the show or dislike what you have seen so far, why would you stay for hour three because it has “different lighting” and “unpredictability”?
CC

Fox has given the WWE the greenlight to return to the attitude era? Since when?
All the news stories that I have heard is that they want it more wrestling orientated and less story, which is a far cry from the attitude era where story was key.
CC

So you define whether something is good or not by whether there is blood?
NXT Takeover this Saturday had no blood and was a PG rated show, and for my money it was better than Double or nothing overall.

If people are bleeding all the time, then it has no impact.
Darrin Tyler

They haven’t tried “everything” yet…once I start seeing blood then they g
Have at least got it in the right direction. Until that happens the third hour is just as pointless as the first 2. Back in my day All of Raw was good….
Rinn13

1. The Attitude Era was not anywhere near as great as people seem to want to remember. It had its moments, but it was also full of a lot of really dumb/pointless/bad content. Being “PG” has never at any point been modern WWE’s problem. Not by a longshot.

2. Having a three hour show is overkill. It’s bad enough doing that for an NFL game, but sitting through three hours of wrestling, let alone three hours of mediocre wrestling and bad skits? Yeah.

It’s one thing to have PPV events (back when those words meant something), that are three hours+. And honestly even WM these days being like a 5 hour ordeal is ridiculous. But there was never any good reason on earth why a weekly TV wrestling show should be 3 hours long.
Nicholas Giambattista

I believe when Smackdown moves to Fox you may see a little bit more of the attitude era. Fox has pretty much given the WWE the green light.

By the way I don’t really see AEW a big threat to the WWE just yet. AEW still has to build there own stars instead of using old WWE guys that didn’t make it in the WWE.
Keith Learmonth

I agree. I mean, I get that the third hour is often the least watched, but that, in my opinion, is because the first 2 hours can be a bit tiring to get through… especially when the second hour is full of replays of the first hour.

Boost the first two hours, and less people will be willing to turn it off before hour 3 starts.
Can’tGetNo…Stratusfaction

But who’s going to watch three full hours if only the third hour is going to be exciting? No one’s tuning in at 10:00 to watch the one, “unpredictable” hour of Raw. Just make the whole damn show watchable.