Could 3 hours of Raw kill the WWE?

[Headlesspete]

The argument about how Raw being 3 hours has been made before, and i can't say anything more than's already been said. Boring, repetitive, dull ... but what about the longterm affects this is having?

The ratings are in decline, and its because WWE are attracting no new fans! The 3 hours is slowly driving away fans by the week, but WWE aren't replacing them with new fans, because the very thing that's killing their current fan base, is repelling any potential new fans.

Raw is the flagship show, the way in which WWE should be most gaining new viewers and fans of the product, but the fact is that's not happening anymore. I have to question how long before WWE lose too many fans for them to keep going. I don' think WWE are gonna die anytime soon, but there has to be a point where its simply much to ignore. The USA Network and WWE have to see that the short term financial gain of Raw having a 3rd hour, is killing the long term investment they have in WWE.

[The Legend]

3 hour RAWs are so far down the list of problems WWE may or may not have. It doesn't come close to what could kill WWE.

[Hanley!]

I figure it's a bigger problem than you might think.

Pete was right to focus on new fans. Because while many of the older fans are pissed off by the extra hour, a lot of them will continue to watch regardless. However, not all of them will. Even if the show was 100% amazing in every way right now, there's always going to be some natural wastage - fans dropping off and losing interest. It's a natural part of the life cycle of any television show.

The important thing is to be able to replace these losses with more gains. And how many people do you think started watching WWE since the 3 hour Raw was introduced? That's a big undertaking. That third hour can do a lot to put people off. I'm a huge movie fan, but if I check the run time of a film before I start watching it and see that it's clocking in at 3 hours, it massively impacts my level of excitement.

[The Legend]

The real basic problem is that RAW for a long time has been putting out a substandard product. The show formula is too rigid and outdated to work any more and there's not enough detailed storytelling in their feuds. That problem isn't because RAW is 3 hours long, it existed before RAW was 3 hours. It neither improved or damaged the product to be at 3 hours, just means it's more of it. They could put out an entertaining 3 hours of RAW every week, the length of show isn't the problem.

[KaiserGlider]

I think WWE's biggest problem at the moment is the extra hour of Raw.

But while a year or two ago I might have agreed with you that Raw might eventually be the biggest factor behind a real decline in WWE's fanbase, I don't think that's the case anymore. A year ago, Smackdown and all the main roster PPVs were built by Raw. But that show is no longer the only driving force behind WWE's product. Fans have way more alternatives now. Smackown, NXT PPVs, WWE PPVs, and the shows on WWE Network have been firing on all cylinders this year compared to Raw. It's a definite possibility that a large portion of the fans that stopped watching Raw realized, (like I did) that they could just watch the Raw highlights that are posted on WWE's Youtube channel 15 minutes after the show ends instead. And a lot of them, like me, could still be paying for the Network.

So while I of course agree that they should still try to pull in new viewers with Raw and it should be 2 hours, I feel like Raw has become more of a spoke on the wheel among the plethora of different content WWE offers these days - so even if it does badly fans have other stuff to fall back on. You imply that WWE is currently losing fans at a dangerous rate and attracting no new fans, but I'm not seeing it. When I look at the WWE product as a whole, things are much better than they were a year ago. PPV crowds are more enthusiastic. There's more activity on the wrestling subreddit. And the company seems to be doing very well financially. So no, I don't think 3-hour Raw is going to kill the WWE any time soon, and this discussion is happening a year too late.