As I See It: Looking At RAW Going To Three Hours, Punk Vs. Bryan

Lots of news from WWE and Stamford this week; some good...some not so much.

If several years ago, someone had told you that the main event of a WWE PPV would be CM Punk vs. Bryan Danielson, you'd have called them a ROH-bot, or at least suggested that they go somewhere for a nice long rest.

Yet last night's Over the Limit featured just that.

And it was everything you'd expect...but I'd still love to have the "WWE Universe" see what these two could do...ala Ring of Honor...even if in abbreviated form.

Meanwhile, the flagship television show of WWE, Monday Night RAW, is going to three hours beginning with their 1,000 show (actually 999th by count) in July. John Cena announced the news on his Twitter feed earlier this week.

So let me get this straight.

On more than a few nights, RAW seems to struggle to fill two hours of quality wrestling. Mind you, we got the great build to Lesnar-Cena and a PPV match that was ten levels beyond what anyone thought it would be.

But that's not the typical. Instead, all too often we get skits with a guy wearing a pretend snake on his hand and arm... or Paul Heyman is playing Brock Lesnar's lawyer/agent/mouthpiece, or we get more of the mis-adventures of the heel stumbling buffoon/general manager/authority figure trying to show authority and send texts to some mysterious person, all at the same time.... or dance routines from the love child of 2 Cold... er, Flash Funk and PN News, Brodus Clay... and Kelly Kelly trying yet again to run the ropes. Notice you aren't seeing a whole lot of wrestling in all that.

So with all that... WWE storywriters are being asked to give create another hour of programming...live... each week? This, along with eventually (whenever clearances finally happen with major carriers), creating programming for an entire niche cable network.

What makes WWE think people are actually going to watch another hour of wrestling... entertainment instead of the NCIS reruns that were doing just fine in ratings for USA Network? For that matter, what is USA Network thinking?

I can't be the only person who wonders if this 8:00 hour, or the announced interactive format (ala Cyber Sunday) is actually test programming for the WWE Network, when and if it ever takes place.

And of course...there's Linda McMahon running for the United Senate again. This past week, she got the endorsement of the Republican Party Convention in the State. She does still have to win the party primary in August. So we can look forward to more Stand Up for Lind...er, WWE pseudo-ads sticking up for themselves (and Linda) during WWE programming between now and November.

Yippee.

Until next time...