One of the biggest complaints in the wrestling world is the amount of actual wrestling content within the broadcasts. Preying on the attention span of the fanbase, WWE has gotten a little wild with the amount of commercial breaks they spam into each broadcast. And New Wrestling recently dove into the conversation in a discussion based off this short.
The biggest offender is Monday Night RAW, currently airing on USA Network. The three hour show is long on commercial breaks, longer on mic promos and short on actually wrestling. The promo work is what makes fans invested in the wrestlers, but the commercials are there to justify the money back and forth between the network and WWE.
Recently, it was reported that in the very near future, RAW will abandon the three-hour block on USA in favor of a two-hour broadcast. This is because USA recently took over Friday Night SmackDown from FOX, in a deal that is for five years, giving them both brands for a few months.
That arrangement expires in January, when RAW moves to Netflix. Netflix has recently indicated that they will not be going with the three-hour format, but don't feel obligated to limit shows to two hours, either.
So it seemed like the perfect combination. That is until Friday, when it was announced that once USA Network looses RAW, SmackDown will be moving to a three-hour format.
BREAKING: WWE SmackDown is going to be 3 HOURS starting in January once RAW moves to Netflix.
— EliteRockerz 𝕏 (@EliteClubS0B) September 19, 2024
🚨🚨🚨
A 3-hour SmackDown gonna COOK. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/MQ9TpSy9xx
There do not seem to be any changes on the horizon with NXT, which moves to the CW Network from USA in October.
