Reasons why WWE RAW moving to two-hour format is a mistake

WWE RAW is soon moving to a two-hour format

On the September 9 episode of Monday Night Raw, it was announced that Raw will be moving to a two-hour format for the final three months of its run on the USA Network. Thereafter, the rumor is that when Raw moves to Netflix, both Raw on Netflix and SmackDown on the USA Network are going to be three-hour shows.

This announcement came as a relief to many fans, as they had been demanding this change for a long time. A three-hour show means a lot of filler, and it becomes really difficult for people to sit through that on a weekly basis.

However, it is also important to mention that this is no longer Vince McMahon’s WWE. Under his regime, three hours of Raw was a painful thing to get through. The same cannot be said for Triple H.

Monday Night Raw is clearly WWE’s best brand right now, and Triple H has really done well with the three-hour format of the show, effectively integrating important backstage segments and even making the mid-card rivalries and the filler rivalries feel very important. It seems every superstar in the WWE has a role to serve right now, which hasn’t been the case in a really long time.

But Raw will be moving temporarily to the two-hour format for the next three months, and that comes with its fair share of repercussions. Here are five reasons why the red brand moving to a two-hour format is a mistake:

Less TV time for mid-carders

As is the case with SmackDown, a two-hour show allows you to build the entire episode around two main storylines at most. Then you have one slot available for the midcard, one slot for the women, and that’s it for the show.

While this might not hurt Gunther and The Judgement Day or CM Punk or Rhea Ripley or someone who is the midcard champion like Jey Uso at the moment, it will definitely hurt guys like Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston or Karion Kroos, who were all having interesting storylines revolving around them, which will get abruptly cut off due to the time constraint.

This is very sad, as Raw made absolute stars out of midcard guys like Bronson Reed and Chad Gable, who were suffering immensely under the Vince McMahon era.

Tag team division will suffer more

If there is one division where the blue brand is miles ahead of Raw, it will be the tag team division. SmackDown has the likes of Street Profit, DIY, RKO, and A Town Down with them. At Raw, you have Finn Balor and JD McDonagh from The Judgement Day as tag team champions, and they have only had one title defense, even though they have been champions for almost 100 days now. This shows how weak Raw’s tag team division is.

They have the LWO, who, let’s be honest, aren’t a legit threat. Then there are the Authors Of Pain, but they are heels too, so they aren’t chasing the titles, while The New Day is having their own personal issues. This shows the clear lack of tag team talent in the red brand, and the ones that are there are all bad guys, so they can’t go for the champions who are also heels.

Now, to add to all that, Raw will be two hours long only, which means even less time to fix what went wrong, so we can’t expect many title defenses or anything to change in the Raw tag team division in the next three months. If anything, things can go downhill.

Less TV time for women’s division to shine

The women’s division will also take a major hit owing to Raw moving to a two-hour slot. We all know Rhea Ripley vs. Liv Morgan is still the number one story in Raw, with now Raquel Rodriguez being added to the mix.

This means we won’t be seeing the likes of Lyra Valaria and Damage CTRL taking on the new faction of Pure Fusion Collective formed by Sonya Deville. I don’t think many will complain about this story not being displayed on our screens, as it was really boring.

But the change will also mean that we will see fewer and lesser of women wrestling in the red brand in the next three months because they have a lot of important stories happening outside of the women’s division, which can’t be compromised. So, that means if you are not in the world title picture, you aren’t likely to be a part of Raw.

Women’s mid card titles won’t be coming anytime soon

A lot of fans were demanding a women’s midcard championship, saying that it would give the women’s midcard a much-required relevance. Fans also said that it would be perfect for a character like Chelsea Green or Lyra Valyria, who are abundantly talented but, as the current landscape stands, won’t be getting a sniff around the world titles anytime soon.

WWE also seemed to be very much into that idea, as they were already experimenting with the NXT Women’s North American Championship at NXT. But with both Raw and SmackDown moving to two-hour programming, there isn’t enough time available to build an entire midcard division that will support the feuds happening around the championship.

So, until one or both the brands move to support three-hour programming, we can’t expect to see the women’s midcard titles being introduced.

More budget cuts are likely to take place

One thing about the new regime of the WWE is that they have been absolutely ruthless with the budget cuts. Anytime they find a talent that isn’t being used properly in the current landscape, they just let them go. They fired certified main event guys like Braun Strowman and Jinder Mahal in the past too. A lot of them get brought back in the future, but certainly, many of them don’t. And if you are someone who is yet to make a name for yourself in the business, this can be career-ending for you.

With Raw moving to a two-hour format, they won’t have use for several stars in the show anymore, which can put management on alert, and when the next due date comes, they will probably be the first ones to get fired.

This is quite sad, but that is how a business works. Let us hope Raw moves to a three-hour format once it moves back to Netflix, and it doesn’t affect anyone’s livelihood in the process.

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