Going into Raw 1001, we all had our concerns on exactly how the content of the show was going to fill the 3 hour time slot on a weekly basis. I believe it’s safe to say that most of us were quietly remaining hopeful that we would actually get some wrestling and not see an increase of hokey comedy bits.
Well now that 1001 is in the books, how optimistic do we feel? Was this a good sample to get a feel of what it’ll be like or is it still too early?
My reaction to the show as a whole was a surprisingly positive stance because while we still got hokey comedy bits and stupid time-wasting with social media interruptions, we got several good matches that were given a healthy time slot. One of the things that I couldn’t really stand in the 2-hour show was how rushed everything (especially matches) felt and now it seems like everything is getting its time to breathe. However, the only thing that is gonna suck about that is if there’s a segment that doesn’t need to breathe because it’s so terrible that it needs to end immediately (i.e. Del Rio and Santino and Daniel Bryan’s psych evaluation/cheap plug for Charlie Sheen and anything involving Tensai). There rarely were times that felt like it was an obvious was to attempt to kill some time and closest thing that felt like that was Vickie trying to start a dance-off.
Again, the only that that I truly thoroughly despised was all the talk about tout. It’s one of those things where WWE decided to go with the tackiest routes to show that they made a huge investment in this new social media outlet. WWE has always been about interacting with fans, sure, I get that. Lets put it this way, WWE as a whole is starved for attention and has a history for doing whatever it takes for people to invest time and money into their product. All of a sudden, someone in that company (Chris Jericho) trends on twitter and then other people in the company decide that they wanna try to do that too and soon the heads of the company notices and is convinced that trending is a major milestone. And so WWE becomes completely obsessed with that one thing because it was all of the attention at any chance it can get and actually becomes successful at it. Eventually that attention just isn’t enough, because it’s just text on a computer or phone. Then a little company comes up with an unoriginal idea (seriously, tout is just a regulated youtube) that nobody else pays any attention to and WWE sees new territory to take. From that point forward, we are crammed with their attempts to convince us that being on tout with them is a huge deal and we should give a crap because we could be on their show. But let’s take a look at the people that were chosen to be featured so far. Idiots…complete idiots that seem to believe that everything on their TV screen is real. Maybe I’m being to harsh and just frustrated because it seems like its constantly being force-fed just like twitter was (and still is). But I say all of that to say this, if it means that I have to put up with something that pisses me off like that and in return, I get to see the kind of matches we saw on 1001, I’m completely game. We got some of the best and the most well-timed matches on Raw compared to the cardboard cutouts that we had been getting.
The funny thing about 1001 was how it seemed like some of the production crew and on-air talent just forgot how to do their job. First off, there was a fire due to the pyro test but I’m sure the true reason was because of somebody’s lapse of brain activity.
Also, I took note of a bunch of awkward cuts to cameras that were pointing at the stage (no one was standing on it) during a match and then another cut to a camera pointed at the ground.
And finally, AW. Just wow, like I get there were some over-reactions to what he said and it is easy to get hypersensitive over something like this nowadays. However, there’s a couple reasons why this was the worst move he could possibly make.
First off, it’s a nearly 10 year old sports-related reference which that fact alone alienates a huge chunk of WWE demographics. I mean, there’s timelier references out there, because trust me there’s never a shortage of rape allegations within any given professional sport (hell, even within “sports entertainment” organization). The thing is, you never want to try to be cute by making a comedic reference that nobody has heard of. Maybe this statement could’ve worked for another wrestling organization with a more concentrated audience.
And then there’s the glaring reason why this was a terrible move: IT’S A RAPE REFERENCE! Like, all PC notions aside, how does that equate to being a great idea in AW’s head? Even worse, it’s right on the heels of the rape joke fiasco with Daniel Tosh that was widely talked about over the past few weeks so that kinda makes WWE an even easier target. I’m not gonna sit here and preach about the moral ramifications because I’m definitely not any kind of authoritative figure on the subject but from a business and common sense (of which I am the highest authoritative figure), this was appallingly bad. We are talking so bad that I can’t even make myself go back and watch that segment and laugh at because his stupidity hurts me in so many ways.
But all-in-all, how does everyone feel about 3-hour Raw now? Optimistic? Still undecided? It’s going downhill fast?
Does the tout-jamming outweigh everything else in the show? Does the amount of actual wrestling make up for it?
Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do twice,
Chris
The Answer: The laziness that causes the unwillingness to shave always outweighs the discomfort of having a beard.
