7 Better Uses Of WWE Raw's Awful 3rd Hour

2. Longer Matches Featuring Lesser Used Talent

Neville Zayn Raw 2014
WWE.com

There are reasons why the jobber-tastic likes of Heath Slater aren't allocated twenty minutes with which to work - they don't have the repertoires or storytelling ability, primarily. They'd also be betraying their role as jobbers in the first place; they're meant to directly enhance the talent they're working with as well as indirectly reinforce the real stars by simply not being able to hang that long in the ring.

This wouldn't pose a problem a little further up the card, however. Cesaro turned many heads with his mini-series with John Cena over the U.S. championship. By merely wrestling for close to half an hour, the Swiss Superman established his main event credentials and won the considerable respect of his opponent. It's no coincidence that those episodes of RAW were among the most acclaimed of 2015.

There's an argument against giving away lengthy matches on free TV, the most obvious being that it detracts from the singular appeal of pay-per-views, but booked on something like a fortnightly basis, with talents who aren't already involved in major programmes, again serves more than one purpose.

Watching Neville unleash the as-yet-untapped resource of his full aerial arsenal in a twenty-five minute match would both add a memorable element to an all too often inconsequential TV show, while also giving The Man Gravity Forgot a platform on which to demonstrate his upper card credentials.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!