10 Things We Learned From Bruce Prichard’s Creation Of WWE Raw Podcast
4. The One Hour Format Was Because Of Overexposure
If you've ever wondered why then-WWF Champion Bret Hart didn't appear on the debut episode of Monday Night Raw, wonder no more. Bruce reasoned that Bret was probably on a house show loop and unable to appear anyway, but his absence from the show was deliberate and due to worries about overexposing talent.
That's why Raw was only 60 minutes long at first and fans could go weeks without seeing a number of top stars; it was almost like the main event crew were on rotation at times. To Vince, this kept things fresh and prevented people from being bored by the same old faces week in, week out. That's hilarious to anyone who watches Raw now.
At 3 hours, WWE's flagship tends to drag in more than excite. The same old faces do show up week in, week out in 2018, and that's part of the problem. Back in 1993, the WWF were conscious of that and didn't want feature top names relentlessly.