Yesterday, beloved WWE wrestler John Cena took to Twitter and tweeted the following…

It seems more people are against this than in favor of it. I think it certainly can be a tremendous thing for WWE if everything is done right. If they fuck up and do what WCW did, then it’s obviously not going to work. The two greatest things about Raw going three hours is it will be good for up and coming talent, and storylines can develop better with the extra hour. Jordan will be giving her thoughts but she will be focusing on the ‘cons’ side of things.

The Pros

– Good to feature up and coming talent

As we’re reading and discussing the announcement online, it could be a good thing for us especially that Raw will be going 3 hours. We should get to see more of the up and coming stars. Talent like R-Truth, The Miz, Zack Ryder, The USO’s, Kofi Kingston, and the best god damn jobber in the business Dolph Ziggler. We will hopefully see them wrestle more, talk more and watch them develop into big stars. That’s what we want as wrestling fans, seeing young stars rise to main event level. After all, they are the stars who will carry the company for years to come. I think if WWE were more patient with building their stars, we would be watching a better product.

– Storylines can develop better

With an extra hour of Monday Night Raw, stories have more time to develop. WWE have a Pay-Per-View every month, with roughly five hours of Raw programming excluding  the commercials. Now they will have around eight hours of Raw programming before going into a Pay-Per-View. With more time, you’re more eager to watch the match it has all been building up for. Look at it like this, Rock vs. Cena with a years build would be a lot better than three months build. Just using that as an example, may not be the best one though. Or imagine how Brock and Cena would of been if they spaced out all those promos/interviews/flashbacks at us. They could open the show with one and end with the two or just one of them at the end. You have the best part of two hours to work with and focus on the other talent. For some reason, I have no interest in any of the matches at Over The Limit apart from CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan. That is because the stories have not caught my interest. With better build and more time, that extra hour could make the difference in me buying it instead of not.

The Cons

-Worked Great for WCW In January of 1998, WCW Nitro became a three hour broadcast. Many people consider 1998 the year that WCW began to die. The shows became lackluster, and the fans tuned out, one reason being over-saturation of the product (read further) Less than a year later, RAW took over the ratings war.

-Over-Saturation  I love pizza, I really do. Does that mean I want to eat pizza every night of the week, though? Of course not; I’d get sick of it, and you would too.   You eat too much of something you’re going to get sick of it, the same is true when it comes to watching wrestling (or any show). It’s called over-saturation. Now think about this, next year, this could all be programming WWE wants you to watch from week to week: 3 hrs of RAW, 2 hrs. of Smackdown, 1 hr. of Superstars, 1 hr of NXT,  1 hr of Tough Enough (if it’s ever brought back),  a 1 hr. Countdown show, the several different YouTube shows, and then there’s 13 ppv events, so that’s, let me count….37 hrs, and when you’re not watching the current programs, they want you to be glued to your television screen, watching the WWE Network.  Don’t forget to buy the dvds!

I love wrestling more than anything, but I’m sorry, there is no way I’m investing this much time into watching something that has stunk for the past six years. Clearly, thousands of other fans are in the same boat, as the ratings for Smackdown dwindle.

-Fan Interaction One of the key points WWE executives made clear in the press release regarding this change, is more fan interaction. Apparently, fans are going to be able to vote on matches they want to see. To anyone who thinks this is smart, I have three words for you: Viewer’s Choice RAW. This was a three hour episode that featured such classics, like a Dance-Off between Santino and Vladimir Kozlov, the Big Show and Chris Jericho pitted against one another in a Bodyslam match, Edge vs. Randy Orton in a “One Arm Tied Behind the Back” match, and The Hart Dynasty going up against The Great Khali and Hornswoggle.

Of course, there’s always speculation that WWE riggs and/or alters the voting in same way. Honestly, though, I do not give two flying frog splashes about random matches voted on by the fans. I want to see storylines created, stars developed, and matches that serve purposes.

#RyderRevolution says “hi” by the way.

-When was the last good 3 Hr. show, anyway?  Anyone? Seriously, most WWE three hour specials are horrible, with the majority composing of filler and ridiculously unfunny, downright insulting to your intelligence, comedy skits.

–Current Ratings Trend Over the past year, RAW has been subject to a bad trend. No, I’m not talking about “Anal Bleeding” trending on Twitter, but rather, the shows hourly ratings. The second hour of the show has consistently drawn a poorer rating than the first. Which means, viewers are tuning out as the show goes on. So, how in the World does WWE expect to keep viewers engaged for three hours, if they can’t even manage two? The additional hour also has a nasty habit of decreasing the average show rating, granted, this is due to fans forgetting to tune at an earlier time.

-Current Product Draught Speaking of the last six years, yeah, they’ve been bad, and there’s no sign of things improving. “But J, The Rock and Brock are back”- Cool, now let me know when the company invests in some good midcard talent, creates a tag team division, fixes the Diva’s division, and hires a creative team. Obviously, the biggest argument for this added hour, is the hope that it will lend way to more talent being featured, in more matches, and better storylines. Let me tell ya something; if they wanted to feature more talent, they would, and if they wanted to have more matches, they could. And honestly, I have no clue where some of you people got the idea that an extra hour will mean better storylines. I mean, for one, you have to have storylines before you can develop them. Secondly, the creative team has to you know, be creative, and Vince has to approve those good ideas and not change his mind dozens of times, up until showtime.

RAW has been a two hour program for nearly it’s entire existence, and they seem to have managed just fine. They didn’t need three hours to make Bret Hart a star, to make Shawn Michaels a star, to make Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, John Cena, and countless others, stars.

Take everything you dislike about RAW currently, and add another whole hour of it. Another hour for recaps. Another hour for horrendous WWE Studio’s movie ads. Another hour of listening to a horrible commentary team, stumble through the broadcast. Another hour for boring matches. Another hour for plothole filled “storylines”. Another hour….well, I think you get the point, unless you want me to go on for another hour. Below is what our followers on Twitter thought of Raw going three hours!

@bakerthepatrick – PROS: Could have longer matches, showcase guys better. CONS: Just get loads more filler so #Raw will still be shite.

@el_swiftelero – WWE barely has enough to keep 2 hrs entertaining. No idea what they’re gonna do to make 3 hrs every wk. More @CMPunk time?

@21Maxwell – Positive, if it allows more time for the under card and their character development.

@Mental_EMP It’s risky. It can work, although it probably won’t.

@tajealthea – I think the 3 hour #Raw show will be AWESOME

@NatLovesCena – I think its gonna be interesting in terms of quality and ratings wondering how they gonna manage to keep that up

@TremainesAngelx – AMAZING! I hope this means more wrestling, great angles and a better chance for the midcarders to perform.

@mistyreneepeet – I think it would be awesome.

@JX2001 – Well the upside is that half the show won’t be wasted on promos anymore

@JayeshGASatsfan – It’s a good idea to see an extra hour of Raw but i’m not sure if it will work or not

@scottlufc19 – pro chance to showcase more talent, con more john cena @JakeRobbins9 – I reckon it will be great for storylines but there might be more filler matches

@Tembo4Real – Theres never enuff wrestling so hell yeah! gimme more! lol

@helenrobinson82 – Awesome, but Tuesday’s just got a whole lot tougher!

@WhataManeuver – I think at the moment there struggling to fill 2hours with an entertaining story, so I would bring up some more FCW stars.

@DAZTOM91 – I think the #3HourRaw could potentially be a bad idea. No doubt they will just fill the extra hour with crap. Hope not.

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Thanks for reading. Make sure you follow @J712v2  @RayTheRambler and @WrestlinRambles on Twitter. Laying The Smackdown coming tomorrow, Insight Into Impact coming Sunday so make sure you visit back. We’d love to know the thoughts of those of you who tweeted us, even if you didn’t, still give your thoughts on the situation. You don’t need an account nor an email address to comment, you can simply pick a name, log in using Twitter or Facebook account. Hope to see you rambling 😀