By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

There's a lot of ground to cover after being in-person for a three-hour-plus WWE Raw TV taping. In no particular order...

- The theme of this show was "enough about the past, let's talk about the future" to carry Raw into the next 20 years. That was verbalized throughout Raw, and seemed to capture what WWE wanted to do with this show. Vince McMahon meet Alberto Del Rio, Mick Foley meet The Shield, Ric Flair meet The Miz, The Rock meet (The) Punk. Raw didn't quite get "there," though.

The issue is trying to create new stars with lasting power. I'm not sure I saw that tonight. I saw a lot of "fast-food" stars - initial crowd reaction for the first few notes of a wrestler's familiar theme song, some applause and cheers during ring intros, and the crowd waiting for a "signature move" to get invested in a match. Appealing to a mass audience, families, and kids, WWE is trying to condition the audience to respond a certain way, but WWE has an uphill battle on numerous stars.

WWE champion C.M. Punk is above the "fast-food stars" and can push to medium heat, but he needs to work with someone like Rock or Cena to reach the next level of being a draw. Because the adult male audience is not willing to boo Punk, and because WWE did not make Punk's appearance for a match against Brodus Clay feel special or important Monday night, he had to create his own stand-out moment in a post-match promo using his cockiness and arrogance to antagonize the younger audience.

- If it seems like there are fewer ring entrances on TV and now occurring during commercial breaks, there's a reason for it. With these three-hour Raws, WWE has to keep the show moving to keep the audience engaged. WWE loaded up commercial breaks with DVD ads, but also used ring entrances to make sure they didn't lose the audience with too much downtime.

- If it seems like matches have actually become shorter rather than longer during the three-hour Raw era, there's a reason for it. There's only so much energy in the tank for any given audience. They know to reserve energy for the big stuff at the end, and they know something important is going to happen in the beginning. In-between, WWE's variety show format sucks up energy blasting the audience's senses throughout, plus getting the crowd laughing at a Dr. Shelby skit, cheering for Rock and Foley backstage, getting mad a heel, chanting "Yes!" at Daniel Bryan before a match, etc. It's up, down, up, down before trying to reach that final big "up" at the end of the show.

Once WWE gets deep into Raw, though, a five-minute match between two "fast-food stars" has no shot to engage the crowd...unless a signature move is teased or a heel does something to antagonize the crowd. Never before have I sensed a Daniel Bryan match being tedious, but Bryan's match against Cody Rhodes was positioned in the worst spot possible - the last undercard match before the main event. The crowd simply did not have the desire for another chicken sandwich from Jack in the Box, so WWE offered a quick brownie bite.

- One solution to make the middle-of-the-show matches between "fast-food stars" seem more important, engaging, and relevant would be to have a strong secondary title division, which is what PWTorch editor Wade Keller wrote about last year when WWE announced that Raw was moving to three hours. The problem is the Tag Titles are on a comedy duo (Kane & Bryan), the U.S. Title is held by Antonio Cesaro, who needs a real feud and is still trying to find an interesting way to perform his methodical offense, and the IC Title is held by Wade Barrett, who somewhat fits Cesaro's description.

Part of the solution to finding some real opponents for the undercard champions is creating more "contendership" matches that give the crowd a reason to invest in undercard match. Unless WWE changes its presentation completely, I don't see a tournament, schedule, or any type of format that requires keeping track of any statistics ever working because the crowd isn't there to keep track of anything, but to react to what they're seeing and being clued in on. However, executing something very simple like TNA's recent X Division mini-tournament once or twice a month has potential to work.

If WWE linked together four wrestlers in two matches (e.g. Cody Rhodes vs. Daniel Bryan and Damien Sandow vs. Kane) on the same show, and then set up the pay-off on the following week's show, it would create three matches that carry more weight or purpose compared to what WWE is currently offering on the undercard. It wouldn't require a long, laborious explanation from an authority figure, but simply be announced to the TV and live audiences. Plus, if done regularly and consistently, the audience will begin to recognize what's going on, creating a stronger bond to the matches and wrestlers.

Because WWE is trying to connect to 10,000 individual personalities in the arena and four million people at home, WWE's focus is keeping things simple and easy to follow, but they often confuse "simple" with "unsophisticated." You could see this in the moments they selected to "honor Raw's history" - catchphrases, weddings that ended in disaster, and slapstick. Nowhere was there focus on what happened bell-to-bell or to set up the big matches.

Overall, determining contenders in a realistic, believable - yet simple - fashion would bolster a mid-card that desperately needs help if any of the "fast-food stars" are ever going to break out from the pack.

- The Shield definitely has an aura about them, but I fear they're slipping back into the "pack" rather than standing out as a hot, new act. When Shield burst through Section 108 dressed in combat gear with a big spotlight on them, their presence was unmistakable juxtaposed to the regular, Average Joe fans they were parading through before hitting the ring.

However, the group's motives, intentions, purpose, and ultimate goal is soft right now. WWE has cooled off on the "collusion" elements with Shield and C.M. Punk in favor of focusing on Punk vs. Rock, which is smart business, but where are Shield's shaky handheld videos in the interim? Where is Michael Cole venturing another sit-down interview with Ambrose, Reigns, and Rollins to follow up on their first two months in WWE? Where is a spoken word - any word - from Dean Ambrose?

There's a lot more juice to be squeezed from The Shield, but WWE is going to let the juice slip through their fingers if they're not careful. It would also help to have Shield deliver an unexpected attack during Raw or Smackdown. It's one thing for them to make a weekly interruption and get involved in a brawl, but now they're becoming easily forgotten once their segment is over. Shield needs more unexpected attacks after their initial "expected attack" to keep everyone on-edge throughout the show. That's what helped contribute to their rise. Now, they seem like bit players in a two-act play.

- Those are my big take-aways from the Raw taping. There are so many little things that add up to how the paying customers receive the product, why certain things get over and other things don't, and why WWE's mid-card is doomed long-term in the three-hour format unless changes are made. It's one thing to warm up a "Fast-Food Star" like The Miz for a few weeks rubbing elbows with the likes of Ric Flair or to give Alberto Del Rio the World Title on a whim and try to create the next Latino star.

But, it's another thing to have a plan, execute it, be consistent, allow the stars to shine, give the stars meaning and purpose, and then convince the audience why something or someone is really, really important. Sure, if everyone is special, then no one is special. But, that doesn't mean WWE should have purposeless stars coming down the aisle for their latest Even-Steven five-minute TV match before heading to the next town.

WWE seems to be content with only the big stars drawing the crowd, pumping money into the machine, and being involved in important things on a nightly basis, but there's so much more that can be done with the underneath guys on a fundamental basis to make Raw interesting and compelling throughout. Perhaps, along the way, WWE will even stumble upon a new cash cow for the next 20 years of Raw. After all, the theme of this show was "enough about the past, let's talk about the future."

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