WWE Working On Major Storyline For 1000th Raw

As we reported earlier, WWE creative have been told to treat the July 23rd 1,000th RAW as a major pay-per-view event. The majority of the writing team and officials' time and effort right now is not focused on WWE No Way Out pay-per-view on June 17th but the celebratory RAW that begins a permanent move to three hours. Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that WWE creative are being pushed hard to come up with a huge angle that will dominate the summer, similar to how the Nexus and CM Punk angles caught on with fans in the past two years. Specifically they have been told to devise a "knock your socks off" type angle that will broaden interest to fans who haven't watched WWE regularly for the past year. WWE officials currently feel the current product is stagnant and are concerned about the poor ratings. Dave Meltzer also reports that WWE Legends Gene Okerlund, Dusty Rhodes, Roddy Piper, Sgt. Slaughter, Gene Okerlund, Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Jimmy Hart are among those who have been contacted to date. However, they are also looking further a field to former stars they haven't always approached for nostalgia shows. One name that has been mentioned is Bobby "The Brain" Heenan but that would depend on his health. WWE are currently planning the idea for a mixture of an old school production feel along with a new school look to the show. As mentioned previously, The Undertaker is constantly being courted about making a special one-off return appearance on the show in the hopes that it could significantly boost ratings. WWE are under huge pressure to deliver a good rating in the three-hour RAW and there's likely a feeling that if they don't pull out all the stops, the switch to a permanent three hours may look doomed before it is has really begun. To stop this from happening, the WWE are looking to follow the formula they use for pay-per-views, i.e. advertising in a three week TV build, announcing a pay-per-view quality line-up ahead of time and making sure they have a solid card for match quality. New talents are also likely to debut on the show, though the names of who they are interested in introducing are currently unknown.