Monday Night Raw began its permanent three-hour format after the 1000th episode on July 23rd, 2012. It is said that WWE officials told the writers of the show that it is going to be that way permanently, and there is nothing they can do about it but make it work. This really put the writers on the spot. Naturally, a three-hour format is more money for WWE and more money for the USA Network, who get to plug in more sponsors themselves.The creative team gets a lot of flak, but a former member of WWE creative once told Chris Jericho on his podcast Talk Is Jericho that despite the common notion, writers do in fact come up with some extremely creative ideas, many that would definitely result in great storylines. However, the fact is, it has to go through Vince McMahon and have his stamp of approval before they can go forward with it. This is not to blame Vince himself, but there surely in many cases there must be some circumstances or the other that would prevent him from approving of a storyline or the other.Another issue with the Three-hour Raw format is that it tends to overexpose certain wrestlers. That was a huge problem before the brand split, and now, that situation has improved as there are separate rosters. Injuries happen, and the problem with this is that it can severely affect long-term plans. A recent, significant case was that of Finn Balor.From the get-go, it was obvious that the company had big plans for Finn Balor, when he instantly shot his way to the top of Raw, eventually defeating Seth Rollins in his first Pay-Per-View to become the inaugural WWE Universal Champion. It is being said that that was not the end of his feud with Seth Rollins, but the implications were that he was not going to drop the championship anytime soon. However, due to his injury that he obtained during his Summerslam match, he was forced to vacate the title and is seemingly going to be on the sidelines for the next six months, according to WWE. According to Ringside News, writers for Raw were “scrambling” to get the show done due to Balor’s injury. The ratings weren’t that great for Raw, being 2.34. Not that they put on a bad show, but the situation sucked the air out of the show for sure. However, given how athletes heal, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Balor back in action by Royal Rumble
