Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: fox, Smackdown, smackdown live, wrasslin, wrestling, wwe

Because U Demanded It: Smackdown Could Go Three Hours After Fox Move

Published Sun, 31 Mar 2019 16:35:29 -0500

Out of all the complaints about WWE's weekly televised programming — and there are a lot of them — probably the one most people can agree with is that there simply isn't enough of it! With just three hours of Raw, two hours of Smackdown Live, one hour of NXT, one hour of NXT UK, and one hour of 205 Live per week, there are barely 8 hours of WWE wrestling to watch per week, not counting the potentially 6-12 hours added by PPVs and Takeovers one week out of the month. Well, someone at WWE has been listening to these complaints, and they may have the solution: making Smackdown Live a three-hour show when it moves to Fox later this year.

Dave Meltzer dropped this rumor on his Wrestling Observer Radio show, and his comments were transcribed by Ringside News:

It is speculation [at this point] but there is a chance… there is definitely a chance of that because the feeling is that since they have to film anyway and 205 Live is kinda just a waste of air, it's just not working that maybe what they'll do is two hours 8-10 on Friday nights and do hour 3 on FS1 with the idea that they can get another $50 million a year off of Fox by giving that extra hour.

That does make a lot of sense. For one thing, Fox is paying big money for Smackdown, and they're going to want to capitalize on that in as many ways as possible. But more importantly, it solves the biggest problem with Smackdown Live for fans: the pacing is just too fast. Why, there's hardly enough room for multiple recaps of whatever the show's top stars did earlier in the evening, what charity event WWE Superstars used as a photo op this week, or how WWE compares to other sports brands on social media. By stretching things out, WWE will be able to slow down the pace of the show, the way fans like it.

Of course, this is just a rumor for now, but Meltzer is usually pretty on point except when he's body-shaming female wrestlers or disputing Roman Reigns' cancer treatment. In any case, take it with a grain of salt, but we'll be keeping our fingers crossed like you that this one pans out.