How I Would Fix Raw
Someone asked me this and I wrote it out in a comment, but I thought others that don’t read the comments might like this too.
Assuming I’m stuck with the three hours, the most important thing I’d do is cut out the freaking recaps. SO much time is wasted on the recaps and there’s no point in just talking about stuff we just saw. On top of that, drop the GM/boss stuff. There is zero need to have it on Raw or Smackdown and you can just say someone made the match and go from there. On top of that, mix things up. As in don’t use the same plot devices (champion loses to a challenger then has a rematch on PPV for the title, guy’s music comes on to distract someone and the opponent gets a rollup pin, evil GM etc) over and over again. There are unlimited story possibilities but they use like five. Also, perhaps most importantly, develop the characters more. Look at what happened with HELL NO: they were shown out of the arena and got to show what they’re like outside and the characters EXPLODED. Show Alberto blowing money or being cheap or something like that. Let them be creative.
To sum it up: mix things up a bit. That’s how you fix things. Let people have some creativity instead of doing the same stuff over and over again.
Oh and one more thing: better storytelling. Look at Orton vs. Del Rio. Orton has beaten him time and time again and the feud just keeps going with Del Rio ignoring every single loss and acting like it doesn’t happen. If he doesn’t care and nothing changes, why should I care as a fan?
Except WCW’s Sets for Nitro,Thunder,and the PPVs looked the same by the end.
The whole look of the show needs to be revamped. Its been pretty much the same set up for almost 16 years. Adding the red lights in the audience doesnt help at all. IMHO it makes it worse. Plus they need to get rid of the white ropes. Were the red ones not PG enough?
I remember when Bischoff took over Raw, they moved the announcers away from ringside and near the entrance ramp. Little things like that make a big difference.
All their shows and now ppv’s look almost identical.
It hasn’t exactly been 16 years. MOre like 10.
The sets all being the same really does hurt. That’s one of the things I miss about WCW: their sets were themed to the PPV which made a big difference.
No big deal, but Im gonna disagree with you there. The ramp and titantron came into effect in 1997.
Yeah, and that’s about it. The color of red, the shape of the tron to the shifted to one side rectangle and the letters changing all happened in 2002.
But mixing things up would derail WWE’s plan to make every superstar absolutely generic.
Getting rid of Smackdown might be a good idea as well as at this point it hinders the characters and story developments more than helps it.
The solution isn’t to drop Smackdown. It’s to let it be its own show, not a Raw supplement.
Why do some people thinking dropping Smackdown needs to happen? Its a VERY BAD IDEA!