10 Reasons Why RAW Is Quickly Becoming WWE's B-Show
4. 3 Hours Is Too Long For A Weekly Wrestling Show
Fans don't have to dig too deep into the product to find the next reason why RAW is slowly becoming the company's B-show: the three-hour runtime.
Ironically, the shift from 2 to 3 hours was always part of WWE's narrative as a major factor in the demise of rival WCW. It was seen as over-saturating an already overexposed product yet WCW forged ahead with a three-hour Nitro just as WWE has done with RAW since 2012.
To many wrestling fans, three hours is just too long to watch every Monday night. If the show (and Creative) was firing on all cylinders, it would be a lot more tolerable if not still long, but given the current direction of the flagship program, sitting through three hours of RAW has become a chore for even the most passionate fans.
SmackDown benefits from remaining at two hours, the industry standard since around 1997. The Tuesday night program moves along more rapidly, contains less filler, and generally flows a lot more smoothly than the slow, plodding 180+ minutes of Monday Night RAW.