25 Ways WWE Has Ruined Raw
23. The Opening Promo
It's hard to a remember a time when all mainline WWE shows didn't open with an overlong in-ring promo, such is the extent to which they've become ingrained within the main roster formula.
You know the drill. Almost every single episode of Raw and SmackDown opens with some dull, colourless talking head cutting a dull, colourless promo, before the revolving door stars turning, and the interruptions kick in. It's lazy, boring, predictable, and only ever leads to one of two things:-
1. Absolutely nothing.
2. A spot of on-the-night booking.
This peaked during The Authority's reign, when the toxic group would regularly spit bile for 20-30 minutes at the top of each show, but has shown no signs of ever going away. These promos are, without question, the most tedious aspect of the current format. Fans know they can skip the first 15 minutes every Monday night, because nobody's going to say anything important, and their diatribes will always be replayed throughout the night anyway.