RAW: The 5 Biggest Flaws with the McMahons' “Shake-Up”
Pretty much as soon as the December 10th edition of Monday Night Raw had finished, it was announced that Vince McMahon would be appearing on the following episode to address fans’ recent concerns with the WWE product.
And so, fast forward to the December 17th episode, and not only were we given Vinny Mac; we were also “gifted” with the presence of Stephanie McMahon, Triple H, and Shane McMahon. Oh, joy…
This comes off the heels of Raw having outdone itself in achieving record low ratings over the past three weeks, and they’ve even had one of their top babyfaces, Seth Rollins, publicly make mention of these ratings on their flagship TV show. Publicising how trash your own product has been? Brilliant logic, eh? Maybe not.
For the week leading up to the Dec 17th Raw, fans were teased with the notion that Vince McMahon was going to make a huge announcement, the change was a-coming, and the WWE was going to receive an almighty shake-up.
After a segment that clocked it at the half-hour mark, fans were promised that they would be listened to going forward, that the McMahons have done a poor job lately, and that wrongs were going to be written.
So let’s take a look at this lengthy segment and dissect five of the biggest flaws with what we heard from the McMahons.
5) Fresh Match-Ups
One of the big things to come out of the McMahons’ Monday Night Raw diatribe was the promise of fresh matches. Great! Fantastic! Wonderful!
Oh, and there will be six talents called up from NXT? Brilliant! Amazing! Splendid!
But wait, what happens when you have these fresh match-ups, when you explore new rivalries, and when you bring in new faces while having to work with a 3-hour Monday night show and a 2-hour Tuesday night show?
To be fair to SmackDown, the blue brand has been consistently impressive over the last year or so. For Raw, however, the three hours is an absolute killer when it comes to keeping things fresh. Having to fill three hours weekly means that match-ups are soon stale, rivalries and feuds become played out well before they should, PPV-level bouts end up on regular TV, and everything soon starts to feel repetitive.
As long as Monday Night Raw is kept as a three-hour show, there is always the problem that anything fresh won’t be fresh for long. And given how there are no signs of Raw losing an hour any time soon, that poses a major stumbling block for keeping Raw feeling new and innovative. It’s certainly not impossible, but it’s clearly an uphill battle.