For the WWE fans that do not like the three hour shows, brace yourselves for some bad news when it comes to Friday Night SmackDown.
After just over five months of returning to a two-hour show, the Blue Brand appears to be heading back to three hours as of January.
WrestleVotes reported on Friday afternoon that, according to their sources, WWE and USA Network decided to move the show back to three hours, though no information as to why they want to revert has been disclosed.
The change will reportedly take effect with the January 2 show taking place in Buffalo, New York.
SmackDown’s first run as a three-hour show started when it moved from its original two hour runtime WWE RAW’s grand move to Netflix back in January.
It was believed the debut of the show ‘The Rainmaker’ on USA Network was the cause for originally trimming SmackDown. The first season of the show concluded back in mid-October.
Reports following WrestleMania 41 initially indicated the blue brand would return to two hours in June, which proved not to be the case.
As of this writing, ahead of Friday’s episode of SmackDown from Albany, New York, neither WWE or USA Network have officially confirmed the time change for the new year.
The length of the weekly shows has been a hot topic of debate among fans for years. RAW 1000 was when the company officially ushered in the three-hour era, but they had been experimenting with slightly longer run times on and off before then.
During the winter of Vince McMahon’s booking of the company where business was live business was low and fan reception online was frustrated at best, many fans found the shows far too long to stick with.
Also, with the extra TV money WWE earned in putting on the extra hour (Even before Netflix, WWE had deals worth billions with the USA Network and FOX), the talent earned bigger deals and the roster got inflated with talent.
Any hopes for fans that the brand split ended with those moves, too.
But, as business has boomed for the better part of the last three years, WWE has had enough names to carry longer shows across both RAW and SmackDown, so there is certaily pros and cons.
