Most WWE fans, especially the diehard followers of professional wrestling, have been deeply disappointed by the changes around the company since the TKO takeover.
There are gripes about the advertisements plastered all over turnbuckles, the canvas, and anywhere else an ad could possibly be, as well as serious concerns over the show’s presentation and the booking of certain wrestlers, including the doomed Jey Uso push.
Even long-time wrestling journalists like Dave Meltzer have lamented the troubling direction WWE is going in under the TKO banner. Perhaps no move exemplified how out-of-touch the new suits in charge of the promotion can be than their release of long-tenured veteran and locker room glue guy R-Truth.
Fans and co-workers rallied behind Truth, and WWE/TKO were forced to admit defeat on that front and bring Ron Killings back on a contract with more favorable terms for the veteran pro wrestler.
WWE can’t forget the sweet spot with weekly shows
At least TKO are admitting defeat on obvious mistakes, and although this error wasn’t nearly as grave as releasing R-Truth, it looks like TKO are backtracking on another of their significant mistakes.
According to a report from PW Insider’s Mike Johnson, WWE SmackDown will be moving back from three hours to two hours going forward in July, starting with the special Fourth of July episode.
SmackDown airs on the USA Network on Friday nights, and WWE recently moved it to three hours with Raw currently sitting at a 10:30 p.m. ET end for a total of a two-and-a-half-hour run time.
So combine SmackDown and Raw, and WWE was running nearly six hours of total programming per week, not including NXT and the Premium Live Events and Saturday Night Main events.
SmackDown has been better than Raw since the Netflix move
Having too much television time can water down the product and fatigue viewers. While SmackDown has remained high in quality after Raw’s move to Netflix and is seen by many as the better show without the gimmicky Netflix-y presentation, it was getting nauseating some weeks at three hours, which hurt the overall impression of the show.
Fans tend to prefer wrestling shows to run two hours and not three hours long, as two has seemed to be the right sweet spot between getting enough action and enough people on the card while maintaining the attention span of the audience.
SmackDown was always a welcome change of pace from Raw at two hours compared to three, so the switch to three hours was not met favorably. Now, starting in July, WWE fans can be happy to get a little bit of a reprieve, which will allow them to focus on more of the highs of the show, such as the programs involving big-name superstars like John Cena, Cody Rhodes, and CM Punk.
Joe helped manage the pro wrestling site Daily DDT from 2017 to 2019. He has appeared in many wrestling podcasts and has had his work featured by mainstream media sites and professional wrestlers themselves. Joe also covers soccer, writing about Tottenham for Hotspur HQ, Real Madrid for A Trip to Cibeles, and general world football for The Trivela Effect.