WWE News: Triple H Says ‘RAW’ Is Too Long, Promises That WWE Is Fixing Their Creative Issues
The fan interest for WWE’s current product has hit an all-time low over the last couple of months, partially due to injuries to guys like Seth Rollins and Cesaro, and due to the temporary departure of WWE’s biggest stars John Cena and Brock Lesnar.
Both Cena and Lesnar will be returning to WWE television within the next couple of weeks, so their presence on the show will almost certainly help raise WWE’s falling television ratings.
Other than injuries and absences, the biggest issue for WWE has been creative. Over and over again, they’ve failed to deliver compelling storylines and provide the matches that everyone wants to see, hence why their audience is getting smaller every single week.
Creative has been an issue in WWE for quite a while, but due to the fact that they had a healthy roster, the bad creative was able to be, for the most part, covered up, although some would argue that there were obvious flaws in the show while guys like John Cena and Brock Lesnar were around.
WWE is well-aware that their fans are quickly becoming ex-fans, and that they need to make some major changes to not only get some of those people back, but to get new fans to sample their product.
Triple H, who is the head of talent relations for WWE, and who has been involved in the creative process in the company for quite some time, acknowledged WWE’s creative issues while promoting next week’s NXT Takeover: London special on the WWE Network.
“We just have to become more disciplined and more creative with how we do things, and how we operate the shows. We’ve had some unfortunate situations with injuries and everything else. It’s on us to be more creative and come up with a better format; a better show. We hear people’s frustrations, and in a lot of ways feel the same way. It’s fixing it, and, trying to fix it. It is what it is. How we fix it, we’re not 100 percent sure yet. But, we will get there. Trust me.”
Due to the success of WWE’s developmental brand NXT, Triple H was asked if turning one of RAW’s three hours into an NXT hour would help the show’s ratings, and Triple H responded by saying that, if they were to do an NXT segment on RAW every Monday, that the NXT show would just seem like any other WWE show, therefore it wouldn’t feel different or special.
Triple H also added that, in his opinion, RAW may be too long, which is something that WWE fans have been saying since the show moved from two hours to three.
“If the thought would be to do it there that night, then you’re just doing a third hour. Then, it’s not NXT, then it’s not different and not a different feel and flavor. Is there a way to do that? Maybe. I think at the end of the day, three hours – no matter how you do it – is extremely difficult. I’ll be the first guy to admit that if I go to a movie and it’s longer than two hours, then I’m looking at my watch, no matter how good it is.”
If you’re hoping for RAW to move back to two hours, then you’ll have to wait at least two years for that to happen. Why? Because that’s when WWE’s deal with the USA Network expires, and their current deal with the network is paying them handsomely for the third hour of RAW. So, unless something drastic happens, RAW will be three hours long for the foreseeable future.
[Featured image via WWE]
