The state of RAW: One fan's opinion

[dablackguy]

So I got done doing the 35 questions thread and question 1 got me to thinking a little bit. (RAW or Smackdown for those that haven't seen it)

For some odd reason, RAW now and days remind of of the last days of Nitro.

This isn't to say that I think the E is going out of business nor is it to say I think RAW is going to be cancelled or anything like that. But some of the things I look at:

1. Like the last days of Nitro, everything seems so fly by the seat of your pants. This is not a good thing. I remember reading (I think it was in Bischoff's book) about how towards the end Nitro was basically booked on the fly. A couple of matches were put on and then the show would start to take on a little more shape as it progressed. RAW seems to follow the same bland format every week: 20 minute interview segment, match, throwaway women's match, 1st main event, interview/talk segment, match, throwaway match, mainevent, end. Its the same running through the motions because we don't know what else to do/don't give a shit idea. Its bad enough the product is garbage, but to give up the same (more or less) format every week makes an already dull and predictable product moreso. Hell, I can schedule my Wendy's/Baskin Robbins/piss runs in advance every Monday night.

2. Like the last days of Nitro, the booking week to week makes little sense.

I don't get it. One week Big Show is a monster. Then we went without seeing him for a couple of weeks. Ted Jr has a great match with Orton but nothing beyond that (How about some significant heat between the 2?) We see the MIz talk a big game for weeks and week and with a couple of losses to Cena gets pushed to the back burner. Don't even get me started on how MVP has been booked... Its like creative can only handle 2 or 3 angles at once. Don't get me wrong, its not like any of us watch wrestling for its compelling storyline, but giving us a reason to care would make sense.

3. Like the last days of Nitro, any ratings grabbing gimmick will do.

Let's call this weekly GM thing for what it is, a ploy. A pretty crappy one at that. The idea of having a GM should be to establish a face/heel role for that person and subsequently develop feuds/alliances to that person. with a revolving door GM, you can't have that. Further, it shits no the product continuity wise. What difference does it make if one GM could override another next week - granted it hasn't happened yet, but I'm sure its not far off.

4. Like the last days of Nitro, the main event is monopolized by 3 or 4 players and the mid card is an afterthought.

This one isn't so much a new issue, but really, its Cena/HHH/Bats before he got hurt vs Orton. I'm enjoying H right now but just feel like instead of shitting on guys like MVP and Kofi and Show, they should also be used as main event (lite) players. This ties a bit into number 2, so I'll refer to that in hopes of not being redundant.

I'd pretty much rather spend my Monday nights watching shitty reruns of something else or even Operation Repo (if anyone here has seen that) than watch RAW. Its gotten to the point where I watch may 20 minutes of RAW in its 2 hour block.

Your thoughts on the state of RAW?

[USAUSA1]

You should re-name this the state of Pro Wrestling?

[DAMN iNATOR]

You should re-name this the state of Pro Wrestling?

No, he shouldn't. ECW right now, in my opinion, even seems to be a better product than RAW, and it's a Tuesday Night show that requires subscription to expanded cable as it airs on SyFy (hate that fucking new name -- gay:n:...ANYway...as I was saying...), and the freakin champion is Dreamer, and everyone actually cares about that because as of right now it appears he's headed for a Fatal-4-Way in just under a week with people who actually DESERVE to main event (Shelton, Christian and Kozlov...maybe the last doesn't deserve to necessarily be in the mix, but he seems like the type of guy that will eventually climb the mountain sometime in the near future.)

SmackDown! is by far top notch of the industry's TV programs right now, but that's mainly due to the fact that it has a writer who isn't inept at making sure everyone who deserves their fair shot at at least being on-camera, and then determining how to use them on a week-by-week basis. Plus they also focus less on sketches and backstage stuff, and even the few minutes they spend with that has been quite entertaining lately...it's nice to see Cryme Tyme and Eve trying to "educate" people on street slang, kinda got mixed feelings about Jesse, though, part of me really REALLY wants to LMAO at him, but I can't, because the way they have him act is like a gay Vanilla Ice or something, I dunno. Also not really too excited with this "'Delicious' Pretty Ricky" crap with R-Truth. I hope they see that this really has adds very little if anything to the show, especially when the guy is still on TV as the rapper guy. But overall, yeah, SD! is first-rate. Kudos, boys.

Finally, last, and, sadly least, but somehow managing to make modest, but not significant strides, is TNA. I really don't know where to begin. I understand they're trying their asses off to provide some competition, but between only having a two-hour network cable channel show (iMPACT!), having unhealthy proportions of top notch to mid-card to lower card to jobber to curtain jerker wrestlers, a joke of a women's division, and a mediocre PPV scene 9.75 times out of 10, plus the fact that it seems like every show, they constantly bounce back and forth between matches, backstage lame-ass sketches, then having to see West or Tenay's mugs on-screen, and the occasional crappy video package, and you've got a product that only the TNA faithful since day one, and maybe a few select others, really care about at the moment (for instance, people who may like to follow former WWE alumni, and tune in just to see what they will do week after week or how far they will go in TNA). Overall it's still the "D" show, but surprisingly, only slightly worse than WWE RAW.

[Emperor Smeat]

Yeah they don't have much excuse to why the summer period is being this bad overall since the only sport they compete with on Mondays is MLB (NFL is seen as the excuse for lower Fall ratings) and most of the major blockbuster shows begin new seasons around the Fall/Spring period.

It is even worse when you realize that if RAW is meant as their #1 show and every few months they do talent swaps to benefit RAW, there should be no reason for stale match ups or storylines. No need for Cena/HHH v Orton to always be occurring when they have a huge roster overall in WWE.

[DAMN iNATOR]

As the lesser of 2 evils, I would much prefer it if Triple H gets his 14th overal World/WWE title reign, than to sit through another mini-Sammartino-esque run with the WWE Championship by Cena of all people.

Also, I would love to have it happen like that, because then, maybe they could build up to the situation between Ted DiBiase, Jr. and Orton boiling over into at least a match at SummerSlam. Wouldn't say Ted should necessarily be allowed to be put over just yet, but if they could draw it out long enough to stretch it to Survivor Series and have all of Legacy plus, I dunno, maybe Matt Hardy and maybe The Miz against whichever 5 superstars from SmackDown!, and have Orton and DiBiase be the last two left for their side, and have DiBiase pull a sneak attack Dream Street maneuver to allow whoever is left on the SD! team to get the pin, then the next night on RAW, have DiBiase confront Orton one last time to tell him that he is through with the Legacy and wants to move on to bigger and better things or something.

[DrA]

The entire company is a giant mess. If I was in charge I would come out tomorrow live on RAW and just say, "We are completely starting over. Forget every storyline that has happened in the last three years." and just go from there.

[USAUSA1]

Smackdown and ECW is not must see tv either. They just look good compare to Raw. Smackdown and ECW is getting their worse tv ratings in history. The whole industry needs a makeover.

[kareru]

Did You Know?
that there are more preteens in a wwe crowd
than a Jonas Brothers concert and Miley Cyrus
concert combined?

i mean seriously have you looked at the age of the crowd when the camera pans the audience? soon they won't need security guards instead they will need babysitters (child minders)

[USAUSA1]

I don't believe that because there are more people going too see Hannah Montana than WWE.

[kareru]

I don't believe that because there are more people going too see Hannah Montana than WWE.

there are more people at a Hannah Montana concert, but they are all single men over 30 , ya dig

[dablackguy]

It is even worse when you realize that if RAW is meant as their #1 show and every few months they do talent swaps to benefit RAW, there should be no reason for stale match ups or storylines. No need for Cena/HHH v Orton to always be occurring when they have a huge roster overall in WWE.

I think there's something to be said for this. If you keep dumping talent into one spot and the product is still awful, its time to consider maybe the blueprint sucks or maybe creative is terrible.

Then again, it could also be a very simple case of too many cowboys, not enough indians, so to speak.

[NoRoolz]

You make some real good points, dablackguy.

[Kane Knight]

I definitely agree with the inconsistencies. One month, Orton is a dominant heel who's devastatign people (Some cheaply, but still) and the next, he's a fucking pansy. The only guys who appear to be consistent are Trips, Bats, and Cena, and that's because they don't really have characters.

[Innovator]

Just watch Smackdown

[DAMN iNATOR]

Smackdown and ECW is not must see tv either. They just look good compare to Raw. Smackdown and ECW is getting their worse tv ratings in history. The whole industry needs a makeover.


Well, maybe not ECW, but even they have a faithful demographic of some sort that I'm sure they've been zeroing in on for quite some time now, but you can only do so many matches and backstage sketches and video packages in 1 hours' time, let alone 2, like with SmackDown!

I must, however, disagree with your assessment of SmackDown!, because it seems from what you said that you may have not watched it since at least the pre-WWE 2009 Draft era, and if that is the case, I seriously beseech you to tune in this Friday, and see for yourself just how brilliantly it's written and how well developed most of the wrestlers areand how brilliantly most of them are booked in matches and backstage sketches and video packages (except for that "'Delicious' Pretty Ricky" bullshit with R-Truth...:nono:). You will not believe your eyes and ears when you see the new and improved SmackDown!, and will think you've died and gone to WWE Heaven, and that's not just during the divas' segments and/or matches, either.:D:y::yes::wave:

[kareru]

smackdown is better than raw but it still sucks, word up with cryme time?
makes me facepalm so hard i almost break my neck

[Hanso Amore]

I definitely agree with the inconsistencies. One month, Orton is a dominant heel who's devastatign people (Some cheaply, but still) and the next, he's a fucking pansy. The only guys who appear to be consistent are Trips, Bats, and Cena, and that's because they don't really have characters.

They have characters...they are guys who never lose. Pretty simple gimmicks really.

[Kane Knight]

They have characters...they are guys who never lose. Pretty simple gimmicks really.

That's not a character, though. that is, as you said, a gimmick at best. Those three are pretty much blank slates.

[XL]

The entire company is a giant mess. If I was in charge I would come out tomorrow live on RAW and just say, "We are completely starting over. Forget every storyline that has happened in the last three years." and just go from there.
Well it certainly worked for WCW :roll:

[DAMN iNATOR]

smackdown is better than raw but it still sucks, word up with cryme time?
makes me facepalm so hard i almost break my neck

The fuck's wrong with you? The only terrible part about those sketches so far have been Jesse...ya take him out of the mix and everything's fine...rather have those than Pretty Ricky sketches.

[mike adamle]

Is kareru kane86?

[DAMN iNATOR]

Is kareru kane86?

Why? You didn't GIVE HIM YOUR ADDRESS, did you?

[Fox]

Here's RAW every week for the past 4 months:

ORTON: I'm mean, and so are my boys.

DIBIASE/RHODES: Yeah!

CENA/HHH: I don't think you should be so mean. Let's have a match over it.

ORTON: Okay.

(Cena/HHH wins OR Orton wins cheaply)

ORTON: Haha, I'm going to be mean still!

CENA/HHH: Damn. I guess I'll try to make you stop being mean next week.

ORTON: Deal.


It makes my head hurt.

[AJHayes]

I don't believe that because there are more people going too see Hannah Montana than WWE.

TO TOO TWO!

LEARN IT!
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

[kareru]

TO TOO TWO!

LEARN IT!
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

getting a little angry their arnt we?

their just typos in my brain

[The Jayman]

It is even worse when you realize that if RAW is meant as their #1 show and every few months they do talent swaps to benefit RAW, there should be no reason for stale match ups or storylines. No need for Cena/HHH v Orton to always be occurring when they have a huge roster overall in WWE.


I am glad somone has noticed this as well. It seems like every week its always Cena/HHH/Legacy in these various types of matches. I understand trying to hype a PPV but c'mon its been this same story since before wrestlemania XXV. Raw needs more creativity and utilize more of their roster. I would like to see either Big Show or Mark Henry fued with Legacy (or team up against them).

[Xero]

getting a little angry their arnt we?

their just typos in my brain

I see what you did there.

[DarKCentaur]

I am glad somone has noticed this as well. It seems like every week its always Cena/HHH/Legacy in these various types of matches. I understand trying to hype a PPV but c'mon its been this same story since before wrestlemania XXV. Raw needs more creativity and utilize more of their roster. I would like to see either Big Show or Mark Henry fued with Legacy (or team up against them).

Agreed. It seems like no matter how much they stack the RAW roster, they only use the same guys, really. They're constantly swapping the mid-upper card and proceed to never do anything with them.