2024 has been a landmark year for the WWE, and fans have praised the company's vast majority of changes in "the Triple H era." Unfortunately, it was clear from the start that Monday Night Raw's switch back to two hours would be met with complaints, and they were indeed flowing online during the first shortened telecast.
Monday Night Raw has been the highlight of WWE's massive year and equally as important as many Premium Live Events. Unfortunately, people aren't so jazzed about what upcoming WWE events look like with the two-hour iteration of the show kicking off, but there's a chance the company can change that.
WWE Fans Were Unhappy With The Rampant Commercial Breaks During Monday Night Raw
Those who watched the latest Monday Night Raw on USA Network had a major bone to pick with the amount of advertising wedged into the shortened episode. A lot of exciting things happened on the show, so it's telling that comments like this on X were among the most popular showing up under the hashtag:
- THESE FUCKING COMMERCIALS MAN - @JuniorYEAH2
- RAW is only 2 hours, but we're still getting the same level of commercials and those filler video packages.Some things never change. - @EliteClubS0B
- At this point we might as well watch their highlights only & wait for their PLE matches especially w/ this 2 hr #WWERaw full of commercials. - @iFollowSP0RTS
- RAW is only 2 hours long but we’re still getting 5 minutes commercials every 3 minutes. Netflix can’t come soon enough. - @voltzsz
- Fitting a 3 hour shows worth of commercials into 2 hours is definitely a choice. - @mpol_mike
As someone who watches WWE regularly, I would say that while the action felt a little light, the ad breaks felt more akin to the average episode of SmackDown. Many have also complained about the Friday show's runtime for a while, noting at one point that the Bloodline segments alone took up over half of the show.
I will concede that USA Network cutting away from Cody Rhodes and Gunther's staredown before they were even fully set was painful to watch as the ep closed out. I hope the company will find a way to make the show feel less rushed, and this won't impact the setup for PLEs still to come.
How Long Will Monday Night Raw Be Two Hours?
Monday Night Raw began two-hour shows on October 7th, and USA Network confirmed they will continue airing with this runtime until the end of 2024, when NBCUniversal's contract for the show expires. Monday Night Raw will then move to Netflix, which will presumably get the back catalog of Raw on streaming when it leaves Peacock. We know that SmackDown will remain on USA Network, and wrestling fans can stream previous episodes with their Peacock subscription.
The answer to whether the wrestling show will remain two hours when it is available with a Netflix subscription is still unclear. Paul "Triple H" Levesque was asked about the runtime at the press conference following Bad Blood and said the following about it:
No matter what the length of time is, it’s just about putting on the best product we can, telling the best stories we possibly can, because at the end of the day that is what this is all about. Sometimes in our business we get so caught up in two hours, three hours, one hour this, but the movie is the movie. When the movie is over, it was either really good or it was not good or it was too long or it was too short or whatever it is. But we’re just making a movie three times a week with more to come. ... That’s how I look at it, let’s write the best stories and then we’ll figure out how to jam it into whatever time slot we have available.
Triple H's answer gives me the impression that there are still discussions with Netflix regarding the runtime of Monday Night Raw, or maybe the show is sticking with the two-hour format. If it were returning to three hours, I would imagine he'd say that to appease the critics of the runtime, though he's not beholden to sharing all internal company conversations with the media.
For now, Monday Night Raw continues its two-hour run on USA Network on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET. As the show rolls on in the wrestling world, head over to our 2024 TV schedule to see what else is on tap for this fall television season.