Is Monday Night Raw Must-See Television?

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

So here's a pretty legitimate question: Is WWE Monday Night Raw must-see television?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say "no". I think the vast majority of us who watch it, watch because it's out of habit. We watch because we've watched for years. What else we do on a Monday night than tune into Raw? Go outside? Read a book? Have a social life? Fuck that noise. Monday night is Raw night, and occasionally flipping the channels between football, or prime time series premieres.

But does WWE know that? Do they realize the ratings are going to hover around a 3.0 every week, regardless of what they do, and have fallen into laziness? The thought crept into my mind this week, as after this weekend's "huge, monumental, never-before-seen, greatest-match-in-the-universe" between John Cena and Randy Orton. We've got a new WWE World Heavyweight Unified Championship of the World...and I'm expecting something interesting to happen on Raw. The Authority gets some heat on Bryan and Cena. Shawn Michaels shows up and does something besides joke around and do that annoying "I'm a heel but you love me too much, so I'm just gonna crack wise". But nope. Nothing. Nothing important happens at all, and I'm left feeling enthused, and completely without reason to tune into next week's pre-recorded show.

Raw this week had great matches. Some really solid tag team matches, a great main event, and a couple of the under-card feuds were furthered (Brodus Clay, Dolph Ziggler, Big E Langston, etc.). But honestly...what happened that you can't just catch on YouTube? That you couldn't surmise from Twitter or the forums? Give me ONE SINGLE reason that I MUST SEE this week's episode of Monday Night Raw?

Last week's ascension ceremony was the first time since SummerSlam that I thought Raw was a must-see occasion. And really that's just in hindsight because the segment wasn't announced until shortly before Raw, and nobody expected it to be that great until it happened, and it was. Raw isn't must-see television, and in my opinion, it's because they are taking two or three weeks of TOTAL storytelling potential, and stretching it out over four months.

Here's what we've seen out of the main event picture since SummerSlam:
-Nothing

Randy Orton was champion. Randy Orton remained champion. Randy Orton is still the champion. The Authority is still the same lukewarm pseudo-heel faction with no heat that it has been since it formed. They are still making babyface decisions and treating their HEEL champ poorly. Nothing has actually progressed. The only thing that has changed is we magically have one champion instead of two, and all the stories told since SummerSlam really could have been told in 2-4 weeks. And they WOULD have been if this were another era of wrestling.

Long story short, take the poll, discuss whether or not Raw is must-see television, or if you just tune in because you always have, and you always will?

 

[ThePhenomLives]

That was spot on mate, couldn't have said it better. I watch Raw out of habit but usually download it on tuesday morning if there's a football ("soccer") game on monday night. WWE has been dreadful since Summerslam, probably the worst I've ever seen. So no, it's not must-see, it's hardly see.

They don't care (taking selfies during a match, christ), why should we? Truth is we shouldn't, but the majority of us on these sites are hardcore wrestling fans and so we watch it, but as a life long fan seeing this current product makes me sick.

 

[Cade]

Seems I can't vote (I assume there's a minimum post limit before being allowed to vote on polls), but I generally either keep Raw on in the background and hardly pay attention, or just watch out of boredom if there's nothing else holding my attention.

That said, TLC was one of the few times in the last year I actually found myself interested in what was going on. Not that I was terribly excited for Orton vs Cena in particular, but the title unification and two handicap matches seemed to be signaling that finally, finally, there was going to be some sort of movement in the 'Authority' storyline. Whether it was a clean win, another screwjob, a big swerve - it felt as if this was the breaking point where something finally had to happen, whatever the outcome of the match itself. TLC + Raw the following night had my interest.

After being interested for the first time in quite awhile, I don't think I could be any more disappointed. I didn't necessarily expect to like what happened, but I expected something.

The way things played out, it seems to me that they essentially took a two-month intermission and picked up exactly where they left off at Hell In A Cell. Storylines are being no-sold like crazy left and right (Bryan showed precisely zero interest in what should be an ongoing issue with the Wyatts after his loss at TLC, The Shield didn't even address their loss and got a win to even things up, etc) and the World Heavyweight Championship feels more 'retired' than 'unified,' given that they appear to be resuming the Bryan-Orton WWE title feud, with an injection of Cena, and didn't even bother to get creative with the booking, given the cheap ending that fit right in with the matches they had at NoC, BG, and HIAC.

Ah, well. RAW will still be on my TV on Monday nights, but I can't promise I'll be paying much attention.

 

[A11oftheLights]

It once was it now is not when I watch a PPV like TLC that was crap and think raw use to be better than this but is still worse it isn't. Between Michael Cole going on and on about the app, crappy repetitive story lines, shit commentary and Vickie Guerrero & other pointless on-screen personalities.

 

[dman1373]

you cant blame it on the 3 weeks thing because there has been monthly ppv system since 1995. Look at 97. The best year in the history of raw (in my opinion). Hell smackdown used to be must see tv when michael hayes was booking for it.

 

[Mustang Sally]

I wouldn't miss it. I love watching and look forward every week to what's coming next. Sure, every single thing that happens during a 3 hour show doesn't thrill me, but watching these people ply their trade every week is something I'm so appreciative of that it has me looking forward to Monday nights.

True, if there's something else to do that evening, I'll do it.....but that's why the good Lord invented VCRs, right? I'll tape the show and watch it later, flipping through the commercials, which makes it even better.

I'm sure WWE is happy with you folks that watch the show only out of habit/boredom, but rather than taking the whole thing for granted, I'm forever appreciative of how hard it is to do what the makers of Raw do every week to put out a superior production.....and in addition to the performers, I'm talking about everyone that works at putting the product on the air, from Creative....to camera operators.....to Zack Ryder.

So sue me; I'm a fan.

 

[Blade]

It's uncool to like WWE, I'm aware of that. Does that stop me from enjoying it? Absolutely not.

The problem with a lot of people on here is that they don't try to enjoy Raw because they think it might hurt their internet cred or something. But goddamn, it's a wrestling programme, it's entertainment, not a political debate. Why do people find it so difficult to sit back, not take it so seriously, and just enjoy the programming for what it is? Because 'it's still real to you, dammit'?

Are some episodes of Raw bad? Absolutely. There's no such thing as a TV show that only has good episodes. Even the Wire, the Sopranos and Breaking Bad have the occasional below average episode. But I'm always excited for Raw. I care about the characters I'm watching. I care about CM Punk and Daniel Bryan and John Cena and the Shield. And I even care about Randy Orton to some extent.

I'm quite a cynical person when it comes to a lot of things. But I never forget why I'm a wrestling fan. I'll cheer for the people I care about, just like I did when I was 5 because, hey, guess what, it's fun. Wrestling fans seem to forget that. And, even worse, some wrestling fans make fun of children and John Cena fans for actually enjoying the product. Putting aside how screwed up it is to make fun of children for what they enjoy (which is actually something the Rock has done while feuding with Cena), remember that many of us here were wrestling fans as children. And a lot of us here became wrestling fans between 1991 and 1996, when the product was far worse than it is now. Does that mean we, as children, were stupider than kid wrestling fans today? Maybe we should be learning from the children on how to just enjoy the damn product for it is.

To paraphrase Dean Ambrose from an old shoot interview: 'People forget that wrestling is supposed to be fun. It's fucking fun. People take everything so seriously, having big, long conversations about what's wrong with the business today. But dude, wrestling is supposed to be fun. When you really think about it, it's fucking stupid. We're all running around in our underwear, making ugly faces. Wrestling is fucking stupid, but it's fun, so I love it.'

And that's why, even if he wasn't as talented as he is, I have the utmost respect for Dean Ambrose.

To end this rant, I'd also like to point out that Raw's unpredictability does make it must-watch to an extent. I stopped watching WWE for a while between 2005 and 2008, and I missed some great moments. I missed the rise of Batista and Cena, and the first few Money in the Bank cash-ins. If I kept missing it, and I hadn't seen the Nexus debut or Punk's pipebomb, or if I had missed matches like Cena vs Punk this year on Raw, or Bryan vs Orton last night, I would regret it. Those things are why we're wrestling fans.

Okay, my rant is over now.

 

[MCMG]

Living in the UK it is a little different (it's on at 1am here) but my whole life I've been excited about Raw. When I was younger it was on Friday nights. It was the weekend and I could stay up to watch Raw. Then, they started to show it live, paired with it being very easy to record TV, I watched it on Tuesdays. It made me anticipate Tuesdays. I occasionally watch it live on Monday nights but if I have something on the next day; I tend to just catch up.

For this weeks Raw; my excitement was higher than usual. I was expecting something big after TLC- so it made me interested. Same with the Slammy's because I knew I was getting to see HBK and the New Age Outlaws. Very small things ensures I am more interested than I would normally. That's not to say I'm not excited every week - because I am.

I've been a wrestling fan all my live. I love wrestling and the WWE. Of course I'm excited about Raw.

 

[The Butcher]

No. WWE is one of the longest-tenured and most treasured occupants of my entertainment pantheon, but their flagship show isn't "must see". I voted for "habit/boredom" because that's how the options are presented, but there's a middle ground between "excited to watch" and "watch out of habit" which I happily occupy.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

I voted "No and I stopped watching" because there is nothing about WWE right now that is interesting to me. Truth be told I love wrestling, I will never stop watching wrestling but I'm not going to watch a television show if I'm not entertained, Raw stopped entertaining me a long time ago so I don't watch.

Truth be told I think differently on a lot of things, just being unpredictable isn't enough for me to watch, just being wrestling isn't enough for me to watch. Maybe I was spoiled in the 80's and 90's and it's made me cynical but I truly believe the quality of product isn't what it used to be. From a business point I understand it but just because I understand it doesn't mean I'm going to accept it, because I'm not entertained by it.

I think Cena is tremendous, I think he is head and shoulders above the whole roster (even after all this time) but I don't really give a shit about the guy, there's just nothing about him that really resonates with me, the emotional connection just isn't there. I have some emotional connection to Daniel Bryan but since Summerslam that has attachment has dissipated greatly.

I feel most (if not all) WWE storylines either end way before they should or they drag on long after it becomes interesting. They often all start off with a bang (whether it was Punk/Cena from 2011, Nexus from 2010, Authority storyline at Summerslam, even Triple H vs. Lesnar) but it feels like they can never keep that momentum going and that's my biggest issue with them, almost every story kills my interest before the payoff comes and by the time the payoff comes I simply don't care anymore.

Lastly so much of each show feels incredibly recycled. I'm not sure if its lazy writing or the head of creative is very fickle but it hasn't made for a lot of solid Raw's. There are 12-15 hours of Raw a month and it feels like creative only has about 6 hours a month of material and because of that we see a ton of time dedicated to PR shit, did you know factoids, seeing the same match 10 times in 1 month and little to no story progression a lot of the time. Take the Bryan/Authority storyline for example. Every Raw in the 1st month ended the EXACT same way, the storyline progressed the EXACT same way every single Raw, it was like watching a rerun every week, not a new episode. By the time Night of Champions came around I was pretty much done with the storyline, a month before I was absolutely amped for the storyline and thought it had a world of potential, before Orton/Bryan had their first real match of the storyline my interest was gone. Call Bryan all you want (not a draw, not really over, ect.) but you can't blame the guy for not overcoming absolutely horrendous writing, outside of Cena there is not one guy on the roster that could overcome that, not even C.M. Punk.

Raw has a few good things going on (I enjoy the Wyatt's for example) but overall there is nothing on that show that is must see in my opinion.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

This thread screams of the WWE General Complaints Thread.

So the measurement of WWE's success is based on a tired catch phrase from a time when NBC was considered a juggernaut on one night of the week?

I'm not exactly sure what Mike means by "Must-See". To me no television show is must see and certainly not must see live. I don't think WWE or Raw in general was ever in the must see category. If I am going to judge Raw this year or this fall compared to the past (or the AE because that is what every Raw comparison comes back to) I'd say it has been very entertaining and very competitive. The only area where it feels it lacks is drawing me in with the cliffhangers from the previous show. In this way Raw is less "Must-See" than 15 years ago but once I turn the show on, the product has been very entertaining. If it's not, I just ff'd to the next segment.

 

[He's Phenomenal]

Seeing as I haven't tuned in for about 4 years I would have to answer with an emphatic NO! Thursday Night iMPACT is the only must watch wrestling show for me. I watch that every week without fail, because stuff actually happens. Now obviously I'm not up to date on WWE's current product (although I read the odd report) but when I did watch RAW nothing really ever seemed to happen. I never remembered anything I'd just seen, never thought I have to watch next week to see what happens and usually thought to myself why did I just watch that, so in the end I just stopped watching.

Even in the time of not watching and reading reports nothing has ever happened that's made me want to tune back in. Tell a lie, I did Youtube Brodus Clay's debut as it sounded hilarious and I had to see it for myself. I also watched the RAW a couple of years ago when they brought all the old guys back but I knew they wouldn't be back next week so neither was I. I read a while ago that one of my favourite wrestlers of all time, Rob Van Dam, had returned to WWE but did I even bother tuning in for that? No. Can anyone here honestly tell me that I missed anything by not watching? I'm guessing you can't. I don't know when WWE stopped trying as I stopped watching wrestling in about 1999 and only started again (TNA) in 2008, but it was blatently obvious when watching RAW again in 2009 that they had stopped trying. WWE has the biggest budget of any wrestling promotion but they put in the least effort and I can't really see myself ever tuning into WWE again, which is a shame as I do enjoy professional wrestling when done properly with interesting characters.

 

[mlp420]

If you have low expectations because you never watched when it was actually good, or you just like watching something that a lot of other people watch, (though only half as many compared to the past...) then yes, it's must see TV.

 

[NegativeFeedback]

I felt like writing "No" as a one-word response, but then I would have been flagged for spamming.

WWE isn't "must-see TV" and they actually prefer it that way. Hell, people paid 60 dollars to see some stories develop on TLC and they actually UNDID a bunch of them on Raw:

1. Dolph Ziggler/Fandango- This was filler and its only purpose was to trade back the win that Dolph gave Johnny last night.

2. Shield/Punk and Usos- Great filler, but filler nonetheless. They traded back the win from Punk to Shield, and Shield didn't show any dissention among their ranks. That doesn't mean the breakup story is dead, but it definitely wasn't followed through on Raw. Nothing "must-see" here.

3. The six-divas tag- More filler. We've seen random variations of this match for a long time without any sort of consequence whatsoever. Not every match needs to have stakes, but they should at least move some sort of story further along. The divas NEVER do.

4. Big E and Henry vs. Real Americans- More filler. It's cool to see Big E dominant as IC Champ, but we all know this won't lead to a feud. He's coming out next week and moving on to the next opponent.

5. Opening segment- Orton won and Cena looked positively depressed, but today he no-sells it as if it was nothing. Great way to undo the emotional turmoil of last night's climax.

6. Shawn/Punk- It lasted a few seconds and went nowhere. I don't see what was the point. It didn't even foreshadow anything.

WWE is putting on 7 hours of programming a week without counting the occasional PPV, Total Divas and Saturday Morning Slam episodes. 7 hours of programming is a lot and only about 2 of those 7 hours actually have any consequence in WWE's long-term plans. The rest of it is huge filler.

There were 3 aspects of last night show that weren't just "filler".

1. Brodus Clay vs. Xavier Woods- This led to Clay's heel turn so we all know there will be consequence for next week. Now, my only gripe is that he's been doing the same heel turn every week. Next week he might come out with the gang, and turn on them again just so the announcers react "Oh no, how could he??"

2. Rhodes Bros vs. Big Stereo- A non-title loss for the champs to push some new contenders. But same as how you didn't really need to see Brodus' segment had you watched Raw last week, did you really need to see this if you caught TLC last night? When WWE decides to create a story, they do the same thing over and over again just to fill time and prolong its eventual climax.

3. Daniel Bryan vs. Orton- Now this was just a GOOD match. I'm guessing the low blow is leading to a triple threat soon. That's good. But on a 3 hour show, only the main event really set up a future match.

That's not good for the long run. WWE needs to be interested in their own show if they want others to be interested. If they are filling their 3 hours with random crap biding time for the main event, then why should we watch those 3 hours? Had you caught the above 3 matches and nothing else, you would have wasted much less time than I did.

 

[#tamale]

To me it is because it's one of the very few things I make time to watch. Outside of the Patriots, some NFL games, the Spurs, and X favorite TV show at the moment, Raw is still one of the things I watch. Can it get really bad at times? Absolutely, but a wrestling show is not going to be bulletproof. If it sucks, I skip it. If it's good, I'll watch it. I have my favorite characters and I have the characters that I dislike. I don't want to miss something great. Because of my love to watch Raw or Nitro for a period of time, I have been witness to some great moments in wrestling.

 

[L@RISANO]

Seems I can't vote (I assume there's a minimum post limit before being allowed to vote on polls), but I generally either keep Raw on in the background and hardly pay attention, or just watch out of boredom if there's nothing else holding my attention.

That said, TLC was one of the few times in the last year I actually found myself interested in what was going on. Not that I was terribly excited for Orton vs Cena in particular, but the title unification and two handicap matches seemed to be signaling that finally, finally, there was going to be some sort of movement in the 'Authority' storyline. Whether it was a clean win, another screwjob, a big swerve - it felt as if this was the breaking point where something finally had to happen, whatever the outcome of the match itself. TLC + Raw the following night had my interest.

After being interested for the first time in quite awhile, I don't think I could be any more disappointed. I didn't necessarily expect to like what happened, but I expected something.

The way things played out, it seems to me that they essentially took a two-month intermission and picked up exactly where they left off at Hell In A Cell. Storylines are being no-sold like crazy left and right (Bryan showed precisely zero interest in what should be an ongoing issue with the Wyatts after his loss at TLC, The Shield didn't even address their loss and got a win to even things up, etc) and the World Heavyweight Championship feels more 'retired' than 'unified,' given that they appear to be resuming the Bryan-Orton WWE title feud, with an injection of Cena, and didn't even bother to get creative with the booking, given the cheap ending that fit right in with the matches they had at NoC, BG, and HIAC.

Ah, well. RAW will still be on my TV on Monday nights, but I can't promise I'll be paying much attention.

It felt empty didn't it? RAW last night. Read on some sights it was a great show. Wrestling wise, it was indeed quite good, better than TLC even, but the storytelling was zero.
Yes, it will still leave you wondering, but not in eager anticipation of next week but rather hoping that they actually give the story a good follow-up.

The Handicap Stories with Punk and Bryan got no further.
Punk v Shield: It was to facilitate the Shield's break-up which has been brewing for weeks. What happens...the Shield win easily against 3 men, a night after losing to one man. All the while their mis-communication problems completely disappear? Now what will happen? And no, I am not eagerly anticipating,rather waiting and hoping they don't throw the story in the trash can like it never happened a la Big Show v Triple H.

Same with Daniel Bryan v Wyatts: Again, I expected that the Wyatts would interfere in the Main match between Orton and Bryan,but no, nothing at all. No acknowledgement by Daniel Bryan that it ever happened or that he was in the least bit worried.

It is a habit of ours as fans of wrestling rather than being excited. At least we have our own imaginations that we can air on the forum before we get disappointed time and time again...