Today’s WWE product has come under a great deal of criticism. Some fans believe that there is too much weekly television, while others believe the product simply isn’t exciting. I’m going to examine both sides of the issue and draw a conclusion.
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Monday Night Raw has been a three hour show for nearly three years. I believe this was at the call of the USA Network for them to make more money through advertising revenue, although I’m not 100% certain on that one, forgive me if I’m mistaken. At first, it was exciting and gave more time for more superstars to be featured on WWE’s flagship program. As time went on, it started to have negative effects. Smackdown more or less became irrelevant due to the fact that the same superstars who appeared on Smackdown were also featured on Raw. Adding to that, matches would be repeated quite often, giving the shows a re-run vibe. Today, three hour Raw’s drag to the point that I just want the show to be over with. That’s not the vibe to have when watching Raw, or anything else for that matter. NXT is one hour and fans love it, it doesn’t drag, is action packed, and fans can’t wait to see what will happen next week. With Raw, it feels like the same old, same old, and fans aren’t nearly as excited about tuning in next week.
In WWE currently, you have Raw on Monday for three hours, NXT on Wednesday for one hour, Smackdown on Thursday for two hours, and Superstars and Main Event (if those count as main shows at this point) on WWE Network and online. If you add all of that up, that equates to eight hours per week, eleven once or twice a month if this a pay-per-view that week. That’s a lot of TV hours for one type of entertainment. Fans can become burned out and lose interest if they’re exposed to too much of the same thing, and that could be a reason why a large number of fans aren’t overly excited about today’s WWE product.
Now, there’s the other side of this issue. Is there anything about today’s product worth being excited about? Unfortunately, there’s not much. Like I already stated, matches are repeated, and on top of that, the writers can’t create exciting storylines. It’s like they don’t care about creating exciting television and are just going through the motions. If the writer’s don’t care, why should the fans? If WWE’s creative team put in more effort into creating excitement, fans would be more interested in the product and there would be far less complaining. I don’t like seeing or hearing fans complain, I like hearing about how great WWE television is. Unfortunately, that’s a rarity these days.
In conclusion, I would say the problem lies within the lack of effort to make exciting television. With about ten hours of weekly content, yes it can be a bit much at times, but if the effort is there to make those hours fresh and exciting every week, fans wouldn’t become burnt-out and bored with the product.
Until next time, create excitement to avoid burn-out,
-Nick
