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Welcome back to the Excellence in Column Writing, coming at ya for a second straight day in a row... Apologies for the lack of RAW comments in my column yesterday but I pulled the trigger on "cutting the cord" on my Cable subscription. With time, I'm watching less and less television and more and more streaming services such as Netflix and recently, Hulu. I'm also getting tired of the open price gouging that occurs with Cable companies and the regulatory costs that get shoved into the pricing. Goodbye... Hulu, however, airs a condensed version of Monday Night RAW that makes doing away with Cable TV much easier. Sure, the WWE makes edits to RAW but that's OK... I struggle to get through THREE hours of live RAW each week particularly the 8-10pm hours. If you have kids, you'll understand... During the first 2 hours of RAW, I'm either spending time with the family or negotiating with the kiddos to get them to bed. I usually hover around the kitchen area during those hours because the main television is getting consumed by children's programming. Many of you wondered why I skip so much analysis of the undercard during my RAW reviews or at least match detail, well, now you know why. And I'm cheap and refused to give the Cable company more money for DVR. But with Hulu, I can conveniently watch a 1 hour, 30 minute show whenever I want to view it. The 10-12 part of the evening is perfect for me and RAW is made available on Hulu sometime during Tuesday afternoon. Therefore, I'll watch the replay of RAW during late Tuesday nights moving forward. Hulu actually helps make WWE Smackdown convenient as well and now I have 2 avenues to watch NXT's weekly show (if or when that happens). This will work out well... Convenience and efficiency, all wrapped into one. And I still have the WWE Network subscription so thus my WWE programming needs are covered. Watching the condensed RAW at a more convenient time will actually make me pay attention better to the overall show. RAW is HULU First of all, the video and audio quality of Hulu's programming and RAW are excellent. My experience didn't see any lagging or freezing and that's a big plus. What was fascinating to me was the placement of Advertisements. There will be various breaks to air a 30 second advertisement and then the programming continues. However, ads were only present for the first 45 minutes of the condensed 1 hour and 30 minute RAW. After that, the next 45 minutes are 100% ad free. Roughly, I had 5 thirty second ads for the entire 1 hour, 30 minutes episode of RAW. Compare that to the 2-3 minute multiple ad blocks that occur about 4 times per hour for 3 hours. What as CUT from the condensed Hulu RAW? For this week, the Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro match was removed. That's a big cut and a match that I'd like to see... But, oh well. I believe the Hulu RAW removed any instant replays of moves or at least significantly thinned them out. Fewer video packages, I think... It is still weird to me to see Sting on Monday Night RAW. Just to show you how institutionalized that Sting has become, he states that he respects Triple H. Awwww... Sting would set the theme with the opening in-ring promo about Seth Rollins wanting a statue. Seriously, that's all that you heard about ALL NIGHT LONG. Statue this, statue that... Sure, it's a lame idea by WWE Creative but someone like Seth Rollins needs to make something of the storyline. He's just not connecting with WWE fans as a main eventer and as WWE Champion. Just brutal this week to hear him complaining about this damn statue. Rusev vs. Dolph Ziggler was up next which continues to prove that WWE doesn't care about either wrestler in this feud and are more focused on Summer Rae vs. Lana instead. Their match was OK but as I said about their SummerSlam match, this was about promoting Summer and Lana. Especially Lana. Afterward, they had a series of segments where Dolph Ziggler was going to shower in his own locker room (!!!) and Summer Rae was shown walking in. Then, Summer left the locker room and Ziggler was shown with just a towel around his waist. To add to the awesomeness of Sports Entertainment, Ziggler was trying to explain to Lana that nothing happened. Ugh... Why can't we focus on the two who will actually perform well in the ring? Sorry, but Lana vs. Summer Rae won't deliver in the ring unless Summer has something from her NXT days to deliver. RAW (at least the condensed Hulu version) was dominated by the Divas division with the "Beat the Clock" one night event to determine the #1 Divas Title contender. I enjoyed it, to be honest... Good to see Becky and Charlotte getting wins on WWE programming and I like how Nikki Bella is beginning to acknowledge that she's about to pass AJ Lee's title reign record. It's all a tease... I believe that Nikki will, in fact, get that record and Charlotte, the winner of Beat the Clock, will come up short. Good chance that PCB could break up to cause that loss... Ryback vs. Big Show was reasonable... What you're starting to see is that by working together repeatedly, some chemistry is developing. Good win for Ryback and he really seemed to be effortless in lifting of Big Show for his finisher. Impressive... Meh to the Braun Strowman debut against Dean Ambrose. Sure, Strowman is a hoss but this is his first match... You would figure that a guy that debuted on the main WWE roster almost 3 years ago and has fought in main events wouldn't get manhandled by a newbie. And I don't care if he's a member of the Wyatt Family. They should have had the Wyatts wrestling a handful of lower midcarders just to have a strong debut for Strowman without consequences. FINGER OF SHAME for the WWE already giving away Dudley Boyz vs. New Day in a stupid non-title match. Simply put, the WWE could have easily had the Dudleys wrestling another team (what, are the Lucha Dragons not available?) and wrestling the rest of the division to earn the WWE Tag Team Title shot. Instead, the WWE hotshots the match up and it won't draw money in the future. Why? The Dudleys already got their win... New Day has been diminished as WWE Champions for losing a non-title match. Time after time, the WWE just puts their money into a gigantic pile and sets it on fire... And we're getting Seth Rollins doing double duty with wrestling TWICE on Night of Champions. Again, Seth's crying about the statue... Argh. At Night of Champions, Seth should just prove himself in the ring and build on the momentum from there. John Cena announced that he's cashing in his US Title rematch clause and because the Authority declared that ALL titles be defended, Seth Rollins must defend his US Title against John Cena in addition to his WWE Title match against Sting. Stupid psychology... For one, Sting has done nothing to earn a WWE Title shot. Second, shouldn't the lesser of the titles be dropped by Seth Rollins? There is precedence in place for several wrestlers who have held multiple titles and the lesser belt is vacated. But I guess not 2015. LAST WORD: WWE Creative nitpicking aside, the experience on Hulu was MUCH BETTER than the 3 hour marathon on USA Networks or Cable/Satellite. Plus, I get to pick my time as to WHEN I get to watch it. I like it and I endorse Hulu to be your preferred way of watching RAW. Show gets a C+ for quality of matches and angles but the experience on Hulu was top notch. SO JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE! Comments and feedback are welcome. Follow and Tweet me @titowrestling or login in below to post comments. © Mr. Tito and LordsofPain.net/WrestlingHeadlines.com - 1998-2015
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