WWE, Their Forumla for Raw, and What That Says About Their Mindset

[Big Red Machine]

I think the reason WWE almost always starts off with a promo segment- usually by the Authority- is because they use it as a device to set up that night's overarching story. It's almost certain that whatever the Authority and Seth talk about here will also be the subject of or impetus for numerous backstage talking segments, and will pay off in the main event. I'm not sure if it's just laziness or they really think it's working, but WWE seems completely ignorant of the fact that people are SOOOO sick and tired of it, and hurts the show because it makes every single show feel the same right from the beginning.

The more I think about it, the more I think it shows a very clear view of their mindset about things. They rely on this set-up (someone comes out to cut a promo, someone else interrupts/creates conflict, then a main event is either booked right there on the spot or we are informed of it soon thereafter) rather than actually announcing matches beforehand, or for something like this week's tournament, having the announcers quickly run it down for us, because they think that interest in the product is driven by personalities in conflict- i.e. their "storylines"- which are always a mutual conflict between two or more individuals- and thus, on every show, they feel the need to start off by creating conflict between two personalities and then pay it off at the end.
Interestingly, this mindset doesn't allow them to tell stories that aren't a mutual conflict between two or more people... by which I mean they never tell a story that is merely one person striving for something (like a championship), or the effects of a certain event (like a big loss) or series thereof on one person.
Think about it. This explains why they booked the Divas Revolution the way they did: They thought there needed to be mutual conflict (this three-way feud which required immediately debuting all three NXT women together and forcing them into these stables) rather than telling the story of one particular woman (Charlotte, for example) chasing the title and wanting to redefine women’s wrestling.
It also explains why wins and losses never seem to matter. In WWE you don’t get a title shot for winning a bunch of matches. You get a title shot because you have a mutual personal conflict with the champion. This explains why Ambrose or Ryback can pin Seth Rollins (or even more to the point, how we had Eva Marie pin the Divas Champion TWICE IN A WEEK last year) without ever getting a title shot. They’re not feuding with the champion, therefore they don’t get a title shot. Big losses never seem to affect anyone emotionally, either, because that’s a one person story, and WWE doesn’t like to tell those.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that a major reason why I enjoyed last week’s Raw so much was because it broke from this mold. The story of the one-night tournament wasn’t about people feuding with each other. It was about eight men each trying to earn a title shot, and the results of their matches along the way mattered. That made last week’s Raw feel so much different than every other Raw we’ve seen for what feels like years now.

[cero2k]

you're spot on, and i'm not sure if they know or who created who, but if you ask anyone of those fans that don't really love RAW, but still watch religiously, the answer is always the same: We watch in case something happens, i don't want to miss it, that's it. people don't want to miss the next Nexus, the next CM Punk shoot promo, and even though nothing has happened in a long long time,they still watch just in case.

So at this point, i'm not sure if RAW decided to never advertise anything because of this fan mentality, or fans just started thinking this because you never know what's gonna happen during RAW, like not even the card.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that a major reason why I enjoyed last week’s Raw so much was because it broke from this mold. The story of the one-night tournament wasn’t about people feuding with each other. It was about eight men each trying to earn a title shot, and the results of their matches along the way mattered. That made last week’s Raw feel so much different than every other Raw we’ve seen for what feels like years now.

this is why i'm loving the TNA world title series, and i think it's someone helping them. straight up matches, easy to follow point system, no telenovela stories, everyone working towards the goal that everyone should have anyway. It'll get tiredsome at some point, but it's a great formula to run in a promotion every now and then

[Big Red Machine]

you're spot on, and i'm not sure if they know or who created who, but if you ask anyone of those fans that don't really love RAW, but still watch religiously, the answer is always the same: We watch in case something happens, i don't want to miss it, that's it. people don't want to miss the next Nexus, the next CM Punk shoot promo, and even though nothing has happened in a long long time,they still watch just in case.

So at this point, i'm not sure if RAW decided to never advertise anything because of this fan mentality, or fans just started thinking this because you never know what's gonna happen during RAW, like not even the card.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that a major reason why I enjoyed last week’s Raw so much was because it broke from this mold. The story of the one-night tournament wasn’t about people feuding with each other. It was about eight men each trying to earn a title shot, and the results of their matches along the way mattered. That made last week’s Raw feel so much different than every other Raw we’ve seen for what feels like years now.

this is why i'm loving the TNA world title series, and i think it's someone helping them. straight up matches, easy to follow point system, no telenovela stories, everyone working towards the goal that everyone should have anyway. It'll get tiredsome at some point, but it's a great formula to run in a promotion every now and then

The problem the World Title Series has is the that the way they had to do tape it due to the circumstances surrounding everything forces them into this extremely repetitive pattern.

[NWK2000]

Another thing I don't get is that with the advent of social media, why could they not use social media, or Raw second screen to set up stuff like this? Why couldn't they put on a match first and use the commentary team to tell us "In case you missed it 'x' will take on 'y' in the main event because....". Or, if we a more old school approach, hype the next week's main event. If you did that once in a blue moon you'd have 10, 20 minutes you could give to the undercard to go out and do a pre-show style match.

[Big Red Machine]

Another thing I don't get is that with the advent of social media, why could they not use social media, or Raw second screen to set up stuff like this? Why couldn't they put on a match first and use the commentary team to tell us "In case you missed it 'x' will take on 'y' in the main event because....". Or, if we a more old school approach, hype the next week's main event. If you did that once in a blue moon you'd have 10, 20 minutes you could give to the undercard to go out and do a pre-show style match.

A few possibilities:
1. They want every show to tell its own little story, starting at the very beginning and ending at the very end
2. They are afraid that if people tune in to Raw and don't see the big stars (who, in their mind, are Cena, Orton, Seth, Roman, and the Authority), that they will just change the channel and never check back in
3. They want everything to feel "spontaneous"- like anything can happen and if you tune out you might miss something- so they insist on all of these "big" or "surprising" things to set up their "big" main events happening on screen in front of us
4. For a bit of a furtherance of #3 as a well as an answer to the question of why they don't hype things up for next week:

i'm not sure if they know or who created who, but if you ask anyone of those fans that don't really love RAW, but still watch religiously, the answer is always the same: We watch in case something happens, i don't want to miss it, that's it. people don't want to miss the next Nexus, the next CM Punk shoot promo, and even though nothing has happened in a long long time,they still watch just in case.

So at this point, i'm not sure if RAW decided to never advertise anything because of this fan mentality, or fans just started thinking this because you never know what's gonna happen during RAW, like not even the card.