The Top Rope 5: Improvements to RAW

Three hours is too long for a wrestling show. The crowd has seen everything by the end of RAW and just wants the show to be over.

All in all, I think the biggest problem is that people are expecting WWE to give us the world each and every Monday Night. I feel with some tweaks to their show that they can get the machine rolling once again and give us a product that we can be proud of again.

Before last night, the Divas Division was at its absolute rock bottom in years. AJ Lee had been long gone for  some time leaving Nikki Bella to reign supreme alongside her sister Brie and new ally Alicia Fox. Her competition flip flopped between either Paige, Naomi…or both. The variation was lacking, as was the product in general. It’s not to say these women were not working hard- they just had zilch to work with in terms of material.

Despite a few logic black holes and lazy booking (twin magic, Brie’s support of Nikki after last summer’s feud), WWE has managed to create the duo as their top heels and rightfully so. The two come off incredibly heelish naturally, especially the supplementation of Total Divas. The majority of their time bringing viewers to WWE via E!’s reality show had little to do with wrestling, and more to do with how catty they can be outside the squared circle. This created quite a divide: those like AJ Lee and Paige who were seen as wrestlers, and those like the Bellas and Eva Marie who were seen as simply divas.

The third piece of this #GiveDivasaChance triangle is the women of NXT. For a while, fans waited for the likes of Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair to be called up. Becky Lynch has grown in spades, even leapfrogging fan favorite Bayley onto the main roster. After last night, the divas division has been officially shaken to its core, but it’s just the start.

It’s almost impossible to remember a time that the show lacked an evil authority figure who presented challenges for faces. Ever since the days of Austin/McMahon, WWE has looked to continue this narrative at all times. While it worked for them during wrestling’s boom, they continue to beat a dead horse. Not to say having authority figures can’t work- they can. Just in doses, and not week in and week out, multiple times on a show.

That brings us to the current iteration of said authority figure: The Authority. What was once used as a vehicle to jet Daniel Bryan to superstardom is almost a shell of its former self. They have gone up against John Cena, Sting and now Brock Lesnar. But what is most perplexing is their constant in-house bickering. They constantly set up challenges for their golden boy champ, Seth Rollins. And when it’s not him, they were ganging up on another of their own, Kane. It’s almost like they grow tired of being in charge and set up obstacles for the sake of doing something. It’s not just stale. It’s moldy, stinky and full of booking crutches. If they stay together any longer, they’ll make TNA’s Aces and Eights look like a flash in a pan.

I’m looking at you, R-Truth, Kane and Big Show. Not to say I dislike the performers or want to take anything away from them, but their relevancy is waning to put it gently.

R-Truth’s height was in 2011, when he concocted Lil’ Jimmy and even managed to get a title match against then champion John Cena. Later he’d team with Miz to form a loose cannon sort of alliance. Ever since, he’s been the black version of Santino Marella. And hey- it keeps him on the show and there’s a small market for that sort of entertainment. Just not week and and week out in the ring, and especially on pay-per-views. And if I never see him face Wade Barrett again, it’ll be too soon.

Kane had his time as well. But his prime is long gone, and even his Authority character is beginning to grow old. His matches bring no sense of excitement or unpredictability. An even worse damning factor? Beating him doesn’t give the rub to a young up-and-comer. Everyone beats Kane.

Big Show is simply a bigger, older, male version of Alicia Fox. He switches from face to heel and back, sometimes in the same show. He, like Kane, has had his time in the ring. He is simply plodding in the ring, and his matches bring no energy to the show.

Another crutch WWE loves next to the show-opening 20 minute promo: the show-closing Contract Signing. Nothing gets me more hyped up for a PPV main event than two men signing a piece of paper. I kid, but it’s one of the absolute laziest booking moves in all of WWE. We all know how they end- spoiler alert-  in a physical altercation. And when they don’t? They are quite underwhelming. Last night’s ending to RAW felt even more odd. They build to Lesnar destroying Rollins and Kane, only to have it end with Rollins disparaging Kane on the mic, then fading to black? Talk about anticlimactic.

To go off what John said, and to add a little more- the same guys fighting each other week in and week out is rather tiresome. Feuds don’t rely on two guys constantly fighting to build it to a fever pitch. But this hamster wheel argument is not only relegated to feuds, but the same match-ups week in and week out, singles and tag matches alike. Barrett and R-Truth have fought, what, 1,000 times since May? Orton and Sheamus have fought ten times that since 2009. Years ago, it was Ziggler and Kofi Kingston. This constantly books angles into corners when neither guy can afford to take a loss.

Suggestion: Tease physicality, and save it for the blow off to the feud. Mix it up with interview segments or, I don’t know- be creative. Enough with the tired tropes of distraction roll-up and DQ finishes.