The thing is, three hours is really only too long because of the way they tell their stories.
Because they are so insistent that you should only care about a half dozen members of the roster, you are conditioned to not care about anything that doesn't happen at the top of an hour or before the end of the show.
They did that to themselves. The company has more than enough talent for a three hour weekly show, and the three hours would give them plenty of time to get everybody over.
For example, why not start the show with a hot tag team match "in progress", during a high spot and the crown going nuts, with maybe Hunico & Epico vs The Uso's? Then let them tear the house down for 8 minutes, instead of the usual 3 minutes you would give them, and open things up with that instead of yet another main event promo that you have another 2 hours and 52 minutes to squeeze in? Have the announcers explain that the winner get a tag team title shot on Smackdown this Friday (I know, whats Smackdown? well, maybe if you give people a reason to watch...). Then, give the winners promo time (OMG, A NON MAIN EVENTER WITH PROMO TIME??) to call out the champs and set up Smackdown.
The previous paragraph isnt reinventing the wheel, its wrestling 101, but doesn't it feel different and new?
I mean, you could do all sorts of shit and try to get new people over. They just don't do it. They follow the same tired formula, week after week, and feature the same 6 people. Three hours isnt the problem, its how they use the three hours. This played out just like we said it would on the podcast.
