Thursday, May 17, 2012

My Thoughts on Raw going 3 hrs. and live Impacts every Thursday

Just another news day today, right? Well, the big news that came within minutes of each other is that Monday Night Raw is moving to 3 hrs. starting July 23 and TNA Impact Wrestling is going live every week in the summer as well as moving to 8pm, which was already announced. I wanted to give you my thoughts on both.

Monday Night Raw going to 3 hrs.  You know I have mixed emotions about this. I know some people are saying that Raw will be oversaturated and will become overexposed but there are a lot of wrestling fans, including yours truly, that are going to tune in July 23 at 8pm. Now, I will say that the 3hr.live  shows usually stink. Remember the Blast from the Past Smackdown? The holiday edition of Smackdown where Hornswoggle won a battle royal? Your saying, those Smackdown shows were 2hrs. Yes, they were, but they were live. Usually, the live shows WWE puts out are not that great. Raw is struggling as it is. If your struggling with 2 hour live  Raw shows plus the live Smackdowns that you occasionally do why add another hour to Raw?
Maybe, WWE shakes it up. Maybe, they will have longer wrestling matches and focus more on talent that has been overlooked. I cant see if they go the route of campy comedy, how that will benefit in the ratings? I think WWE going to 3 hrs. plus the PPVs is a lot to ask for people in this economy. I wouldnt really have a problem with this if there was talent that backs it up but lets face it, there has been a lot of talent overlooked (Ziggler, Swagger, Ryder, Kingston etc.) I wonder if they get pushed or not even though they should have been already. Time will tell how these 3 hr. shows go but with football season coming, I think if they dont get off to a good start, they will get buried in the ratings up against the NFL.

Impact going live every week. This could work. But if there are still the same problems that have been hurting TNA for a long time now (Pushing Garett Bischoff, lack of clean ppv finishes etc.) you could put TNA on the moon and it still wont draw. I think a part of me loves the live tv aspect. You get more of an adrenaline rush during live tv. The problem, like I said, is that if its the same old TNA, what difference does it make if its live?  Like Raw going to 3 hrs., Impact will have to deal with the NFL, whether its live or not. Doenst help TNA that the NFL is having more Thursday night game starting this season. We have seen TNA live shows that might look good and not capaitalize on it. Remember the live show when Hogan, Flair and Jeff Hardy debuted? Yes, it was a hot show but did it help in the long run? No, it didnt because the ratings havent moved. They are still floundering around the 1.0 range. So, while I like the aspect of live tv, can TNA get a better rating with the live shows? Can these live shows turn TNA into a major player? We will have to wait and see.