WWE Reportedly Making Change to Length of 'Raw'

Technically, Monday Night Raw lasts three hours. But since the days of the Attitude Era, WWE has [...]

By Jeremy Snodgrass

Technically, Monday Night Raw lasts three hours. But since the days of the Attitude Era, WWE has enjoyed a 15-minute overrun making WWE's flagship show air for almost 200 minutes. However, those days may be done.

Fightful.com reports WWE will now end Raw exactly on the three-hour mark and lead naturally into the USA Network's next program.

"Fightful.com has learned that WWE Monday Night Raw has a hard "out" time of 11 PM EST, as opposed to the soft end time that they've enjoyed since the 1990s," the site notes. "We're told this will begin with next Monday's edition of Raw, and will continue for the foreseeable future. This is already the case for WWE Smackdown Live on Tuesday Nights."

The overrun was initially installed as a competitive advantage over WCW during the famed Monday Night Wars. With Raw getting an overtime each week, WCW fans could flip over when Nitro finished and catch WWE's final segment. But with no competition, that extra time didn't serve much of a purpose.

Many WWE fans have been calling for Raw to be cut down to two hours, not just the snipping of 15 minutes. There are no details on why WWE and USA made this decision, but it will be effective immediately.

It's hard to get a hold of the implications of this move, but Raw, at least by a smaller margin, will be a tighter show.

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