Would Raw benefit from being taped?

[Guest The Tino Standard]

I've read that some of the wrestlers say that an added benefit of being on Smackdown is that the show is taped, and errors can be edited out. The show ends up looking a lot cleaner when it goes to air.

 

Would Raw benefit from going to tape?

 

Consider the following...

 

- Segments could be cleaned up with the 'magic of editing'

 

- The cost would be far less than being live because of satellite feed costs

 

- There is no more Monday night competition, so they don't have to worry about competition giving away the results

 

- Online spoilers never really seem to hurt the ratings of Smackdown, so they probably wouldn't hurt Raw either, in theory

 

While I think that having Raw live on Monday nights has become a tradition that probably won't change (obviously, it CAN'T change on weeks with a Sunday PPV), I don't think it would be that bad of any idea for the rest of the month...

 

Thoughts?

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Yes. In fact, the only reason I don't think they have already done it, is that it would change around their events schedule. It would have to be live after PPVs, but could be taped the rest of the time.

 

Online spoilers never really seem to hurt the ratings of Smackdown, so they probably wouldn't hurt Raw either, in theory

 

They didn't hurt RAW in 1998 & 1999 either when it was taped every other week.

 

From a personal standpoint, I would like it to be taped. That way if it looks good, I can check it out. As opposed to now, where I just assume it will suck and watch Monday Night Football instead, not even bothering to switch during commercials.

[Guest BA_Baracus]

Hell yes.

 

Of course there's something to being able to claim that a show's "live" and there's certain things that allows you to do, but really...it does more harm than good.

[Guest bob_barron]

I wouldn't mind RAW being taped. They could do longer matches and a lot of fuckups could be eliminated.

 

The talent would also benefit

[Guest The Tino Standard]

Yeah, they've got quite a few younger wrestlers on Raw (Batista, Nowinski, Maven, and Randy Orton all come to mind right away). I think they'd benefit the most from tape.

[Guest bob_barron]

So would guys who are a bit sloppy. Plus with tapings they can do long matches which could also help the workers

[Guest Will Scarlet]

Yep. I agree that it should be taped. I know the WWF wants an "anything can happen" feel to Raw. The problem is that not much is happening. Wehn the last real big shock angle that happened on Raw? When was the last time a World title changed hands on a Raw? These are the kinds of shocking things that could happen on Raw, but never do. Heck, on Smackdown, when I heard about what happened on the Bill & Chuck wedding, I was quite interested in seeing how that played out. But, yet, when Triple H was screwing a corpse, I actively and vocally disliked it.

 

Perhaps with a few days perspective before seeing the show after reading the results, maybe, I will not be so against what happens on it. Maybe it will numb me to the bad stuff on Raw and have me enjoy the good stuff. That would be a welcome change.

[Guest SP-1]

I'd much rather see RAW be taped, I think. I mean, being at a live RAW is fun and all, but I had more fun at Smackdown!. Plus, for the people that attend, I think there's a certain . . . charm, I suppose, to watching it again to see how it came out on TV.

[Guest treble charged]

I don't know, I kind of like the fact that Raw is live and 'anything can happen'. Bloopers are a fun part of wrestling, and watching SmackDown, I always have this feeling that it's missing something by not being live.

[Guest FeArHaVoC]

I don't know. I don't think I could handle the Canned Heat for Triple H.

[Guest Super Pissed Smark]

Yeah, if RAW were taped the pops Triple-H would get everytime he appeared on camera would blow your speakers out.

[Guest The Tino Standard]

Whew, I was getting worried for a second... We got about 8 posts into this thread I created without any HHHate. I was beginning to wonder if I was at the right forum...

 

Anyway, I'm surprised at the high number of people that would prefer a taped show. And I bet the WWE would be equally as shocked by that.

[Guest RepoMan]

Honestly, the hope that there will be a surprise in really the only reason I watch Raw lately. If I knew the spoilers to Raw for about the past three months, I don't think I would have tuned in.

[Guest Brian]

Cuts down on costs big time.

[Guest AndrewTS]

Whew, I was getting worried for a second... We got about 8 posts into this thread I created without any HHHate. I was beginning to wonder if I was at the right forum...

 

Anyway, I'm surprised at the high number of people that would prefer a taped show. And I bet the WWE would be equally as shocked by that.

It's not because of any positive reasons. If shows were consistently good, we wouldn't want to have surprises ruined.

 

However, when you want to know spoilers to see just how much of the show to avoid--then that's bad, and shows that a huge portion of the show people don't give a shit about.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

It's not because of any positive reasons. If shows were consistently good, we wouldn't want to have surprises ruined.

 

However, when you want to know spoilers to see just how much of the show to avoid--then that's bad, and shows that a huge portion of the show people don't give a shit about.

 

That and the fact that it would cut costs big time. WWE isn't losing that much money. Making RAW taped would probably put them in the black.

[Guest AndrewTS]

It's not because of any positive reasons. If shows were consistently good, we wouldn't want to have surprises ruined.

 

However, when you want to know spoilers to see just how much of the show to avoid--then that's bad, and shows that a huge portion of the show people don't give a shit about.

 

That and the fact that it would cut costs big time. WWE isn't losing that much money. Making RAW taped would probably put them in the black.

At the rate things are going, they'll be having shows take place in a big pink room in a few years if shit don't change.

[Guest BoboBrazil]

I would most likely stop watching if it was taped. It just isn't as exciting to me when the show is taped and I know it has already happened.

[Guest geniusMoment]

Is the wwe production staff that incompetent that they can't work in longer matches on live shows. Nitro used to do it in 1997-98, then went to a more crash tv format when ratings fell. They have 20 minute promos on raw so they could have 20 minute matches if they wanted, I don't understand why you guys are saying raw being live effects match length

[Guest Downhome]

I would rather them just try to throw out the quality of match ups and the such like Smackdown has, I could care less if it's live or taped.

[Guest creativename]

I think a live Raw would be a bad idea.

 

While SmackDown! is the currently the far superior show, there's just something that it's missing due to not being live. I don't get the same feeling watching it as I did watching Raw in the past.

 

But, if they're ever going to start taping Raw, they should do it now while business is sucky. They aren't going to recover business for a long while anyway, and if they go back to being live when business picks up in a few years, that's ok.

[Guest JHawk]

Is the wwe production staff that incompetent that they can't work in longer matches on live shows. Nitro used to do it in 1997-98, then went to a more crash tv format when ratings fell. They have 20 minute promos on raw so they could have 20 minute matches if they wanted, I don't understand why you guys are saying raw being live effects match length

I think it's a twofold situation.

 

1. On a taped show, you can edit the matches down to fit in with TV time if you need to, although I hate this practice because I'm too worried about what I missed.

 

2. When Triple H says nothing in a 20-minute promo, they can edit it down to 8 or 10 minutes and save our ears from bleeding.

 

I still prefer the show to be live and don't read SmackDown spoilers at all for that reason. I don't think I would have enjoyed the Billy-Chuck wedding angle had I seen the spoilers nearly as much as I did without them.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

As long as Smackdown stays taped, Im happy because A)I get to see it B) I get to see it early. If it goes live (Which they are doing for the January 2nd show) I won't get to see it because I don't get UPN.

 

Id rather RAW stay live, but I don't really care if they tape it or not. I probably wouldn't get to see it early because the WWE would probably send TNN the tape directly instead of feeding it on the Satellite early for all UPN Network affiliates to tape so they can air it on Thursday.

[Guest bob_barron]

I would most likely stop watching if it was taped. It just isn't as exciting to me when the show is taped and I know it has already happened.

Did the shows being taped in 98 or 99 not excite you??

 

Just tape the damn show- it really doesn't matter to me since live or taped I don't care- as long as the show is good

[Guest BoboBrazil]

In 98 and 99 I could switch over to WCW, so I wouldn't get bored.