10 Ways WWE Has Changed Since Raw 1000
5. There's A Greater Emphasis On Actual Wrestling
In total, only 27 minutes and 58 seconds of wrestling were shown on the 1000th episode of Raw. This means less than 1/6th of the broadcast was centred around the second 'W' in WWE's name, and the majority of minutes were spent focused on the 'E'.
On the latest episode of Raw, WWE aired 55 minutes and 39 seconds of actual in-ring action bell-to-bell. That's just 17 seconds shy of being twice the amount shown back on 23 July 2012, which is pretty incredible when one thinks about it. Today, there's a greater emphasis on pro wrestling matches on Raw than there was in 2012.
The longest match back then was CM Punk vs. John Cena, and that ran just over 11 minutes. Meanwhile, Seth Rollins vs. Finn Bálor this past Monday spanned 15:20. It's striking to look back on the 2010-2013 era and realise that matches were secondary even on an epic three-hour show.
Like WWE or not, they do present a lot more wrestling these days.