WWE fans are losing patience with the company’s flagship show, Monday Night Raw, and for good reason. Week after week, WWE fans are provided a three hour show full of commercials, rematches and recaps. After over 20 years as a fan, I am losing patience with Raw and based on the rumblings on the Internet, I am not alone.
The plethora of rematches every Monday night is out of control. It seems as though the night after each pay-per-view, WWE fans are exposed to rematches from the supposedly big event. On the September 22nd edition of Raw, one night after Night of Champions, there were a number of rematches. Dolph Ziggler versus The Miz for the Intercontinental title and Rusev versus Mark Henry. Then, there was AJ Lee versus Nikki Bella and a six man tag match involving the superstars from the United States and tag title matches. These were essentially rematches. Why? Because we saw the same exact six man tag match before Night of Champions.
Rematches of pay-per-view events are not the only issue. How many times do we need to see Bo Dallas and Jack Swagger square off? How many times are we going to see John Cena against Randy Orton? These aren’t matches that are furthering highly important storylines in WWE.
Speaking of the devil, the main events on Raw have generally been very insignificant. How many times must WWE fans watch a main event with a nonfinish? Last night, it was Dean Ambrose causing it, but the Authority’s Kane, Seth Rollins and Randy Orton are responsible for a lot of the no contest matches at the end of Raw.
It certainly doesn’t help that WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar is rarely on WWE programming. It was the same issue when The Rock was WWE Champion. The company doesn’t have enough talent at the main event level to have a must see show. In fact, if you don’t watch Raw, you aren’t missing anything.
You can go weeks without watching Raw and little to no plot progression has occurred. The Miz and Dolph Ziggler have been playing hot potato with the Intercontinental title recently. It’s hard to keep track of who the champion is anymore.
WWE fans who had been watching the product since the beginning of Monday Night Raw were certainly skeptical when the show expanded to three hours. How were they going to fill the extra hour of programming? Maybe it meant more superstars were going to be featured. Well, Zack Ryder is still never on Raw. Perhaps it led to more filler matches like Adam Rose and the Bunny’s feud with Heath Slater and Titus O’Neill.
If you were a fan during the Attitude Era, you are familiar with Vince Russo. The former member of WWE’s creative team has launched his own movement known as the Dear Vince Project. Like many other fans, Russo wants to see WWE make a change to improve their programming. Russo doesn’t blame the talent of the wrestlers or even the creative team. He blames a lack of effort. Maybe it has to do with the lack of competition like WCW during the Attitude Era. WWE was fighting for the company to stay alive. Today, WWE is such a global empire that they can continue to produce boring shows and it won’t matter. Fans will still watch and purchase their merchandise.
For a company that recently lost so much money after the launch of the WWE Network, you would think that they would be putting out their best work now. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Every episode of Monday Night Raw is like Groundhogs Day. What is the point of watching every week if the same matches occur? Where is the motivation to watch Monday Night Raw for three hours every single week? Where?
What are your thoughts on the recent episodes of Raw? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Seth Guttenplan is a math and computer technology teacher for special education students in New Jersey. In his free time, Seth writes about wrestling. Follow Seth on twitter @sethgutt
