Hey Scott,
I read the 'open letter' than Russo had posted to McMahon yesterday, giving his thoughts on what worked and what didn't on Raw. I have to say, I'm no Russo fan, but he did make some valid points, particularly one about how TV matches shouldn't go two segments.
Now, I'm not saying matches shouldn't be of epic length on Raw, but do you agree that there's some merit to the notion that TV matches going 10-15 minutes or longer dilutes the product a bit? I expounded on this a bit at CamelClutchBlog today, and it seems like they just give away too much specialness from the performers. If I'm watching Rollins, Ziggler, Bryan, Ambrose, Cesaro, whoever work 15 minute matches every other Raw, could that be a reason the PPVs are less special? Well, besides awful booking and planning.
I guess I'm of the mind that TV should build the PPV, and thus six-eight minute teasers would logically build 15-20 minute payoffs. Especially when the TV matches never solve anything aside from, 'enjoy the workrate before the screwjob finish!'
Well, you initially lost me at "reading anything from Russo" but then you got me back, so well done there.
I too am tired of the trope of the matches running through the commercial break, because now it happens every single show multiple times instead of being something special to indicate a classic. When "RAW rolls on!" every single segment there's a problem. And yeah, part of the issue is that they do lengthy matches and then waste them with a shit finish, like the Rollins-Cena main event last week. They should utilize more "make a tag team match, playa" type of booking to put the PPV guys in the ring together in a long match without giving away the match people want to see. Crockett did that for years to great effect. The other problem is of course that RAW is too damn long, so they have to book 15 minute matches just to fill time. I mean, it's not like they have a giant roster of guys that they're not using because creative has nothing for them! That's just crazy talk!