The State of Monday Night RAW Part 1

The State of Monday Night RAW

Part 1

Monday Night RAW is great, isn’t it? Every Monday Night we get three great hours of TV – comedy, skits, promos, sports entertainment, hey we even get matches! Sometimes. Maybe thirty minutes into the show, for about five minutes.

RAW = Really Average Wrestling.

Emphasis on Really. Lacking the Wrestling (at least good wrestling for the most part.).

I’ll be honest, the reason I took first two months of 2017 off writing for WrestleMentary is because of RAW (and to a degree IMPACT – but this is about RAW).

Every week since the Brand Split my commentary basically boiled down to RAW BAD; SD LIVE GOOD. Because that was the truth! It really started before the Brand Split though.

RAW has been on the air since 1991, under the RAW brand.

The timeslot on Monday Nights used to be Prime Time Wrestling, hosted by Bobby Hennan and Gorilla Monsoon, with rotating guest hosts.

They hosted it in studio and played matches taped at house shows. Check it out on the WWE Network sometime.

All RAW was initially was a format and name change. Pre-taped to One Hour Live. Prime Time to RAW. Studio to Arena. (Of course there were a couple of different formats tried between the Prime Time and RAW Arena show that are best left unmentioned.)

My point in bringing this history up is this: Anything on the air this long is going to have ups and down. RAW has had many periods of ups and greatness, and period of downs. No matter what there are times there will be lackluster, even out right bad, broadcasts. That cannot be help. Law of averages.

But this current low has been going on for far too long. It started when RAW went to three hours, continued downhill when RAW was booked around Brock Lesnar’s PT Schedule, and broke loose when the Brand Split hit.

Yes, the broadcast after the Brand Split was great. I mean great. When has anyone said that since the Brand Split? I haven’t. Have there been great moments? Yes. Great broadcasts? No.

Why? I can’t write on anything that happens behind the scene. I’m not there. No one online can who hasn’t worked there. Even those who have (with all due respect), can only truly talk about when they were there, not what is happening now.

I can however write from two points of view: A professional writer, with production and directing experience and a thirty-plus years-long fan who has seen every broadcast.

The actual reasons could be multiple, but here is what I see every Monday since the Brand Split: From a writing perspective: Poor storytelling, in adequate character building, no character arcs, and a lack of understanding the format.

In Wrestling Parlance: Bad Booking and Angles.

For some reason, when it went to a two-hour format it seemed like Creative somehow forgot how to lay out the show. I don’t know why, PPVs are three hours normally and they can do those. RAW shouldn’t be any different.

It seems like an easy idea: An extra hour (40 minutes with commercials taken out); two or three match, with a promo or two.

It may not be just that easy with the logistics of TV. Even if it was, it doesn’t mean what makes the show would be good. It would still rely on the Booking.

There is the overall problem I have laid out: How the talent is used, how the show is laid out, the ratio of matches to promos and the matches themselves.

The Booking.

- Ace

The State of Monday Night RAW – Part Two – Tuesday 3/28