10 Things You Just Have To Accept To Enjoy The Modern WWE Product
There's no shortage of them, but WWE's problems shouldn't be insurmountable.
WWE are in a tricky place at the moment. Athletic standards are higher than ever before, the talent rosters are stacked, and guys like Braun Strowman and Neville have been pushed to perfection, though this is all tempered by the company's oft-confusing creative direction.
Things are middling behind the scenes too, as while WWE continue to pull record revenues, they aren't effectively turning it into profits, with 2017's figures way down on the previous year. TV ratings, meanwhile, continue fluctuating somewhere between bad and very bad, with no signs of a long-term improvement.
More and more, WWE are becoming a company you have to keep at arm's length to get the most out of. Chances are that if you still enjoy they product, it's because you've learned how to separate the good from the bad, accentuating the things you enjoy, while distancing yourself from those you don't.
It's far too easy to get swept up in the company's negativity. There are a lot of things wrong with WWE, but learning to live with these problems (particularly those that are never going to change) will almost certainly boost any fan's enjoyment of the product.
10. Raw Will Never Be Two Hours
Oversaturation is one of WWE's biggest problems in 2017, and Raw's length is a big part of this. Expecting fans to sit through a three-hour marathon every single week is a huge ask, regardless of the episode's quality, and it creates problems on the creative side too. The average Monday Night Raw is stuffed with filler: the writers just don't have enough ideas to fill the show, turning huge chunks of it into a long, repetitive slog.
Calling out the show's bloated length is a valid criticism, but ultimately a pointless one. Ratings are bad at the moment, but unless they crash well below their current levels, WWE are never switching from the three-hour format. Why? Because it makes them and their network too much money.
A long show means more time to sell advertisements. Cutting back to three hours might please certain sects of the audience, and may even prompt a few lapsed fans to return, but this probably wouldn't compensate for the loss in ad revenue. Until Raw is no longer one of their highest rated shows, the USA Network shall continue paying for that third hour, and the money will keep rolling in.