Posted in: Netflix, Opinion, Sports, TV, TV, WWE | Tagged: Hulk Hogan, opinion, WWE Raw

WWE Raw Crowd Gives Hulk Hogan Thumbs Down During Netflix Debut

During WWE Raw's big Netflix debut, the crowd made it clear what Hulk Hogan could do with his prayers, vitamins, and 24-inch pythons.

There was a whole lot to really love about the debut of WWE Raw on Netflix on Monday night. We saw Roman Reigns, Rhea Ripley, and Jey Uso picking up wins – with Ripley walking away with the Women's World Championship. Seth "Freakin'" Rollins lost CM Punk – we're not too thrilled with that, though. WWE legend John Cena kicked off his year-long retirement run, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Triple H offered some great opening remarks, and Travis Scott made up for not performing the show's new theme by having us all too preoccupied with what that "sage" was he was smoking when he came out with Uso.

But if we had to pick a personal favorite moment, it was how the crowd that made it out the bid debut reacted when Hulk Hogan (accompanied by Jimmy "The Mouth of the South" Hart) was introduced to come out to pimp his new beer brand (an official WWE Raw sponsor) and promote the WWE/Netflix deal. To say that the crowd didn't waste time – and didn't let up – telling the "Hulkster" what exactly he could do with his prayers, vitamins, and 24-inch pythons would be an understatement. You know it's bad when even the WWE can't clean up the crowd's vocal thumbs-down in its social media posts of the moment. Even our closed caption wasn't going to let anyone gaslight what really went down.

Here's a look at the clip that the WWE released, and this doesn't even do it justice:

Triple H Explains Why WWE Raw Runtime "Will Be Flexible" on Netflix

"It will be flexible. It will be flexible in I don't necessarily know the time constraints of network television or cable television apply. It's a slightly different platform. Much like many episodic shows, they have the ability to do whatever the show needs to have down. If this episode needs to be an hour, great, it's an hour. If the next episode needs to be 42 minutes, it's 42 minutes. It's what makes for the best product. I'm not saying we're going to be 42 minutes, but clearly, we'll deliver the product in a way that is best for Netflix and their business model and best for our storytelling." Triple H shared with Jimmy Traina during the latest episode of the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast. "We have averages. For me, the perfect show time is somewhere in the two-and-a-half-hour range. If you had asked me years ago, the two-hour shows, you get into them, and you don't have the real estate on that program to get everything in there you want to get in, all the stories and characters. Sometimes, it's a good thing because it creates scarcity and opportunity for people to be more over, but sometimes there are things you want to get in there."

Triple H offered an example of how a segment going long would impact the rest of the live show. "People lose track of the fact that what we do is live. There are formats we have to stick with and constraints of commercial time. If you run a segment that is scheduled for 10 minutes and it ends up being colossal content and goes 17 minutes, you're now 17 minutes into a show, and you have to find places to pull that out and still hit commercial times and crossover times, which is important for networks. All of that makes it difficult to do," he explained.

"I think we'll have more freedom in the format and more freedom to say… if two hours is not enough, three hours, you can be in the position of 'did you need that or was it important?'" Triple H continued. "I don't want to say filler because I don't want anyone to feel like they're filler. Sometimes, a three-hour show, having hours that crossover, you're so constrained by that that you're putting in the show what we call 'collapsible.' The show is heavy, we get late into an hour, something has to lose time. What is collapsible? What is not the story driving everything? What can be shrunk or can go quicker? The amount of commercial time doesn't change. It's difficult. Sometimes, three hours can feel long, and two hours is not enough. Somewhere in the middle is a sweet spot."

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