Jim Ross Discusses Recent Stretch of Poor Raw Episodes

Over the last few weeks, WWE's efforts on Monday nights have been flaccid at best. The reason for these forgettable episodes of Raw may be abundant, but Jim Ross may have it all figured out.

During his podcast, The Ross Report, Good Ol' JR opened a discussion on the lackluster Raws, diving into what has made them so bad. While many main event-level stars are battling health issues, Ross thinks there's a disconnect between WWE characters and WWE fans.

"The last two or three weeks, the feedback I get from Monday Night RAW has not been overwhelmingly positive. The show in the eyes of many viewers has been 'less than.' Let me try to explain how what I think's going on here – to enjoy any fictional entity, you have to have an emotional investment in the characters – have to know who the characters are, what their roles are and why I should either like or dislike them," he said.

Ross pointed out the recent string of heel turns on both Raw and SmackDown. Even though that can be an effective tool to inject excitement into the product, Ross thinks some WWE fans may have a hard time keeping up with all of the switches.

"Well in the last few weeks we have seen, now get this – Bobby Lashley, Elias, Dolph Ziggler, Strowman, Nia Jax, Carmella, Charlotte, Daniel Bryan, The Big Show and Dean Ambrose change their persona. 'I'm a babyface, now I'm a heel. I'm a babyface, now I'm a heel'

It's confusing. So if you're a casual viewer which every entity needs, you expect to get the die-hards. My concern is that sometimes you look at that die-hard list and it's starting to shrink a little bit.

And so if you're a casual fan and if you haven't turned your back on them or disregard them that'd be crazy, if you only watch once or twice a month, there's a good chance you're completely lost. 'Now wait a minute, is he a good guy or bad guy?'"

It's become posh to say that the dichotomy between heels and faces no longer exists. However, Ross dismisses that school of thought as the battle between good and evil is the foundation of wrestling.

"It matters to people and those that say it doesn't matter that you're a babyface or heel just get over it. It sounds really good on a car trip or over a cocktail. It just doesn't work that way. So I think that all these turns are having a negative effect on the viewer.

It lessens the emotional attachment to all those talents I've mentioned and there's a lot of damn good talent I just mentioned. Are they fish or are they fowl? That's always the question."

[H/T WrestleZone]