WWE RAW is Moving to 3 Hours Permanently & TNA Impact is LIVE

[Derrville]

Big news just dropped, Impact goes live starting May 31st and Raw moves to 3 hours

[EmpireWF]

This is a fucking awful move by WWE although it's clearly forced by USA Network. There's no benefit to doing 3 hours, not from a ratings standpoint and certainly as fuck not from a creative standpoint. It was one of the many reasons WCW went down the shitter and while WWE is not going out of business, NOTHING GOOD CAN COME OF MOVING RAW PERMANENTLY TO 3 HOURS beginning with the 1,000th episode in July.


As for TNA, Impact is going to be live beginning 5/31 and through the summer where they'll then decide if it's worth it to stay live or go back to every other week.

[IamMedellin]

with ratings in the shitter...Really?

[Bigpapa42]

WWE is apparently going full retard. They have their ratings dropping under 3.0 because they are putting on terrible segments like Big Show taking 20 minutes to get fired plus they rely heavily on talent from SD on the show, yet they are going to move to 3 hours? Great? John Cena can now go 40 minutes per promo instead of being limited to 20 minutes. John Laurinitis can now be on 90 minutes of programming instead of just 60.

I have my doubts going live will make that much of a difference for TNA, but at least they're trying something. Next step should really be getting out of the Impact Zone.

[Liquidrob]

Awesome news

[SHOGUN]

The WWE writers must need more time for those already boring and drawn out talking segments.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Awesome news

LOL.

TNA/Spike should hold off until Bellator jumps on board to go live, because they can make a big deal out of the live Impact and Bellator debut being on the same night, build the night around Mo, and try to gain some crossover fans. Oh well, just goes to show that I should be running shit again, but here I am wasting my time selling pizzas.

Anyway, the 3-hour RAW will drag down the rating further because nobody will watch the first hour. This happens every time they do a three hour special. The only good that can come out of this is more guys will get exposure because you need to fill an extra hour. But I can't stand watching 30 minutes of RAW, let alone 3 hours.

[JayDizzle]

If it were more wrestling-oriented, they'd used the time to promote lower card guys/gals, build the tag division up once more, give the I.C./U.S. champions some actual worth and possibly put something together for those who can't have a belt at the present moment.

Since it isn't, shit's gonna be lame and tickets are going to cost more to see the "product" because it's longer running.

As for TNA, they already botch enough as it is... without the benefit of a few days to edit out bad spots and possbily redo them on the fly, everyone is going to look more like shit.

[IamMedellin]

In an announcement Thursday, there was no indication that the additional first hour will be a pre-show or non-arena type show. Instead, Raw will essentially become Viewer's Choice Raw every week.

WWE announced Raw will have "new ways to get involved in the show through WWE.com and social media by deciding matches, stipulations, Superstar development, and more."

WWE CEO Vince McMahon added, "Our new three-hour Raw represents the next generation in interactive television where our fans won’t just watch the show, they will help create it.”

USA Network presidents Chris McCumber and Jeff Wachtel added, "The powerful three-hour block of live TV truly makes USA the year-round destination for young male viewers on Monday nights."

http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/WWE_News_3/article_61517.shtml

:ee:

[JayDizzle]

I can't help but think Vince laughed his ass off after saying this... MFer can't people sneezing at him and he's going to let John Cena-Fan run his shit? :wildthing:

I say it works 2 weeks tops before 'Mr. McMahon' gets antsy.

[Kuzzy Powers]

3 hours and no fucks given. 2 hours of live no fucks given.

[Dan The Man]

A major change in the show is that every episode will have elements of the former Cyber Sunday PPV shows, in the sense fans will be polled throughout the shows and be involved in making matches and stipulations.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Vince always talks a a big game about fans having a voice and the fans deciding the direction of the product. But the reality is, the fans only have a voice when it matches what Vince wants. Fans wanted ECW, Vince insisted on changing it. Fans voted Low Ki the winner of NXT, Vince buried him and pushed Alex Riley. There are a million examples.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Awful ideas are awful.

Seriously...3 hours of RAW when in 2 hours there is maybe 30m of television that could be deemed, even half-heartedly, as watchable. The interactive part? LOL. Vince cares about zero what the fans think. And, only in times of extreme support by fans...like Stone Cold (they were going to push H's over Austin for Christ's sake) do they give in. Hell, you have Bryan Danielson as a top guy in pops every event, and they took the strap off him in a curtain jerker match. At the end of the day, support of fans means little and "drawing" means little because there are very few who move the marker that they react to. I mean, Ryder is the #2 sales pusher right now to merch, but he's a curtain jerker.

Impact moving to a Live show is good for them...but you can't cover up their shit product. Hell, they are known to do re-takes regularly for their show, so I am unsure if this is going to be good for the performers who coast through performances 99% of the time. But, maybe being live will have these guys a little sharper. The idea is good and IMO, important for them, but you can't cover up that shit product they have with frills like "OMG, we b goin liveeee!" Make a good product and the rest falls in place.

[EmpireWF]

Impact moving to a Live show is good for them. The idea is good and IMO, important for them.

Going live is absolutely meaningless for them. They probably think it will help do some kind of a better rating when it's a fact that whether a show is live or taped means jack shit to ratings. Going live won't help them book a show with more quality storylines, writing and the wrestling won't be any better than it is or isn't right now.

When the ratings don't show a positive push, after the summer, they'll probably scale back to their current schedule...much like what happened the last time they tried live TV.

What W2B talked about, sounds like a better idea. Wait until Bellator shows up on the network in January and try and bottle the two together in some fashion so you can build both brands.