Monday Night Raw being kicked off with a 20-minute gabfest was fine when the people doing said gabbing included The Rock, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin or Vince McMahon. However, when the show is being kicked off by Triple H, Seth Rollins, Kane and Roman Reigns, well...let's just say that we've lowered the bar on "great and engaging talkers." WWE has the kind of firepower available in their locker room now to open shows with Kevin Owens versus Neville, Dean Ambrose versus Cesaro, or heck, even Charlotte versus Naomi. To be honest, all of these matches are more entertaining than a Triple H promo. If WWE were to say, shorter the 20-minute promo to 10 minutes and insert it at 9:50 and do a cliffhanger into a match to start the second hour of Raw, that's an idea to consider. WWE no longer needs to lean on this "Greek tragedy" style opening structure to their weekly TV. It's antiquated and for the most part, proving more worthless by the week.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.