The Sad Decline Of Monday Night Raw

Last month, The Wrestling Estate staff members shared their top three favorite wrestling TV shows ever. The picks ranged from old-school shows such as Prime Time Wrestling and Wrestling Challenge to current programs such as Lucha Underground and MLW Fusion to even Network features like Ride Along and Table for 3.

One show missing from the 21 picks was the flagship of WWE – Monday Night Raw.

That prompted a lively discussion on Twitter, condensed and edited here for your reading pleasure.

@DaveWritesJunk: (David Gibb) Wow, it’s hard not to read these lists and think about how much shine has come off Raw in the last decade with guest hosts/“Supershows”/ the three-hour era. I also think the Network has led a lot of people to reconsider their effusive praise for the show ‘98-02.

@notready4radio: (John Corrigan) I’ve missed #RAW for the past two weeks and aside from Reigns beating Lashley and Lesnar attacking Angle/Heyman, I have no idea what happened. And I’m content with that.

@jackgoodwillie: (Jack Goodwillie) Likewise, I think if we were to do a table of worst wrestling TV shows Raw would unanimously be on the list, at least from a critical standpoint.

@SteJay215: (Steven Jackson) As you can tell from my list I gave up on #RAW years ago. For me, PPVs are 3 hours or more. Not a weekly TV show in any genre on any network. I do enjoy #NXT, but due to the #SmackdownSix period, #Smackdown won out for me.

Gibb: The PPVs are so dense with action that I find even those tough to watch in one sitting now. In order to process everything properly, I find myself needing to break them up into two viewing sessions…or, as per @Notready4Radio, that could just be me getting old.

Jackson: I don’t think it is anyone getting old. Less is more. That is why #NXTTakeover are much more enjoyable to watch than WWE PPV. There model is still back in 1998, & they need to move into 2018. Regressing back to the less calendar PPV set up is a much better all around

Goodwillie: Old Dave? Never! Raw, or I should say the booking of Raw, is cancerous throughout the entire product. The three-hour shows leave many on an island and they give big matches away for free week in and week out. There is no spectacle in the PPV anymore.

Jackson: It is all so diluted and comfy. Everything feels forced and it is like watching a repeat over and over again with #RAW. I listed #LuchaUnderground because for me, I have never seen anything like it. WWE has the money to produce something like it, but instead officials don’t.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCztQ5tX15U

Gibb: I have talked about this in the past, but when I first started watching again in 07, @THEN1CKSTER & I would pay full price for PPVs hoping for just *one* match to be really, really exciting. Now most PPV matches are really, really exciting, which is weirdly much less exciting.

Jackson: The old “One Match Show” syndrome.

Goodwillie: I don’t know, I see a lot of the matches today as average, and thanks to bad booking, to quote Michael Jordan, the ceiling is the roof. Rarely does a match break the mold and the midcard is barely there most times.

Jackson: It just annoys me that WWE has such a monopoly on the TV pro wrestling business as there are tons of exciting, fresh and innovative promotions that could be on TV and give us much more interesting viewing.

Goodwillie: I don’t mind that as much. It’s the WWE, all we know are them on top, 83 weeks notwithstanding. It’s more the idea that these gaudy rights deals are giving them so much money that it doesn’t matter what they put on TV. Ratings can only move their needle so far in 2018.

Gibb: As @mitchellpwtorch would say, “It’s the midcard era.” Just about everybody is a really solid wrestler who can do a lot of stuff, but none of the matches feel like they mean a whole lot, which flattens everybody/everything out.

Jackson: Also if we think about it, when #WWEHeat & #WWEVelocity were on TV, if they combined them with their larger counterparts, RAW & SD would have both been 3 hours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6RaSZ-V9yE

Goodwillie: Man, I miss those shows. Back when I was younger, it was like I couldn’t get enough and always wanted to see the enhancement talent, so I’d go out of my way to watch those shows, especially Heat before a PPV. Now, everything I need or want is right in my face.

Jackson: Velocity in 2005 was great TV. It was always harder to watch in the U.K. than Heat so it was always a treat to see. William Regal & the Cruiserweights made that show!

Goodwillie: Generally harder to watch here, too, at least at my age. I think it aired at Midnight on UPN Saturdays? Heat, on the other hand, was 7 p.m. on a Sunday. I usually had to organize a sleepover and put it on in the background if I ever wanted to watch it haha.

Jackson: Haha, you’d think with it being shown at Midnight they wanted no one to watch it! Naive me in my youth thought it was all shown “live” rather than taped so it added more intrigue. The joys of being young.

Corrigan: I think Velocity was 10pmEST Saturdays on Spike TV. Loved staying up to watch that, then Confidential and then Impact on FSN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=015z2_X-gH8

Jackson: Also, I just noticed…No #WCW!

Gibb: Obviously, if we had some writers even grayer in the beard than I, a ton of folks probably would’ve said the Georgia/Crockett 6:05 show that ultimately became WCW Saturday Night. But, like Raw, I think the Network has made a lot of Nitro harder to view through rose-colored glasses.

@juan_bautista18: (Juan Bautista) With 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff, that will probably change

Jackson: I much prefer the #WCWNitro home video sets with select moments and matches (Vol. 2 particularly) as you can avoid a lot of the rubbish.