25 ways WWE could make Raw better in 2018
WWE love calling Monday Night Raw "the flagship show" of the company even though the "B show" Smackdown Live is ironically light years ahead and the "developmental" brand NXT is the hottest show on the network today.
While some would argue that Raw is still the most important brand in the company today, as it was the hottest wrestling show on the planet back in the late 1990s and 2000s, in 2018 Raw has become increasingly embarrassing to watch. As the state of WWE's 'premier' product has degraded to a boring, monotonous snooze fest that has the company's fanbase begging for the return of the attitude era.
While from a fan perspective the creative booking of Raw is terrible, WWE's new TV deal with the USA Network has seen their revenue increase, thus, would this indicate a change in the presentation, booking, and execution of their narratives?
Well, that remains to be seen, but at the moment, Raw is a hit and miss show that delivers matches which makes wrestling fans revel in its glory and at other times creates absolutely terrible segments which force people to change the channel.
For a company as big as the WWE, this has to change as lousy booking is affecting their viewership, live attendance records, and overall fan interest, but small changes in the usual schedule on Monday nights could make Raw a watchable wrestling show once again.
#1 Make the opening segment more impactful
How many times have people switched on their televisions expecting to witness an exciting start to Monday Night Raw, but instead received repetitive segments that become hard for even purists to bear? And by now it is quite easy to predict the start of every episode of Raw, as the standard booking tropes include two or more superstars come down to the ring, they argue, they brawl and Kurt Angle makes a match between them later in the night. It is predictable, it is boring, and it has to change.
One of the biggest surprises from Raw earlier this year was the excellent two-hour gauntlet match that took every wrestling fan by surprise, and it made them question if they were watching the same show that usually has more talking than wrestling. Alternatively, the more recent beatdown Alexa Bliss received from an irate Ronda Rousey, a beatdown which set the crowd of fire. WWE need to analyze the success of those segment/matches and book similar ones, as the opening segment sets the tone for an incredibly exhilarating Raw or a skippable one.