4 reasons why WWE SmackDown moving to two hours is a great idea

Friday Night SmackDown is set to revert to its traditional format starting with tonight's episode, which was taped earlier this week following the live Monday Night RAW broadcast (here's why?).

The three-hour format has generally not been received well by fans, and it was always supposed to be a temporary arrangement anyway.

Therefore, in this article, we shall discuss four reasons why SmackDown moving back to being a two-hour show is a good idea for the program itself, the fans, and the company as a whole.

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#4 Monday Night RAW is the flagship

Los Angeles Premiere Of Netflix's "WWE Monday Night Raw" (Source: Getty)

Monday Night RAW has always been the flagship show in WWE, and in most cases, has had the top talent and presentation. During the SmackDown on FOX era, this perhaps changed, but with RAW being three hours, the blue brand was never really the outright A-show.

Now that RAW is on Netflix and SmackDown is back on the USA Network, it makes no sense for the Friday show to be longer than its counterpart. Monday Night RAW's runtime often varies because it's on Netflix, but the standard range is 2:30 hours. With SmackDown going back to 2 hours, we can go back to almost a status quo and a sensible one at that.

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#3 At least 5:30 hours of weekly programming to keep with the core WWE product isn't feasible anymore

The general consensus among fans is that WWE peaked creatively from August 2022 to perhaps the fall or end of 2024. While every business metric continues to grow, and the general sentiment is more positive than anything pre-HHH over the past decade, one cannot deny that WWE's momentum does seem to have stagnated.

One major part of this may be attributed to the quality of SmackDown dipping down over the past six months. RAW on Netflix is still a very entertaining television show. However, SmackDown just feels like a drag at this point, with a ton of filler matches and segments, and not enough stars.

If WWE wants to avoid viewer fatigue, whether among casuals or even the most diehard fans who might consume some combination of NXT, EVOLVE, LFG, documentaries like WWE: Unreal, WWE podcasts, etcetra, they need to focus on quality over quantity.

Furthermore, the aforementioned shows are all WWE IPs, already excluding TNA and AAA, where WWE talent appears regularly and vice versa. One must also factor in the PLEs produced every year, which are the biggest shows on the calendar and separate from regular weekly programming.

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#2 Friday Night SmackDown doesn't have the equity to even justify a three-hour runtime, let alone thrive on it

Besides John Cena's part-time presence, only Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, and Drew McIntyre are truly needle-moving stars on SmackDown. No one knows Roman Reigns' brand affiliation or return status, and the rest of the roster is mostly made up of various Samoan and Tongan men in the Bloodline story.

The Friday show doesn't have a well-formed mid-card (despite the tremendous opportunity to showcase talent on three-hour shows over the past few months), and a starkly lackluster women's division vis-a-vis Monday nights.

Compared with the stacked women's division on RAW (Becky Lynch, Rhea Ripley, Bayley, Iyo Sky, Stephanie Vaquer, etc.) and stars like CM Punk, Seth Rollins, LA Knight, Jey Uso, Sami Zayn, Bron Breakker, etc. and the Netflix flexibility and priority factors, SD's state is not surprising given the lack of top stars. Even LA Knight has seemingly moved to RAW, while Kevin Owens is out of action indefinitely.

Tonight should be the beginning of remedying this fiasco. SmackDown simply does not have the star power to go three hours without feeling like an evident B-show, and cameos by the likes of CM Punk, Jey Uso, Seth Rollins, etc. can only mask the problem, not fix it.

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#1 Three hours is too much for any wrestling show

Is there any show on your TV that goes on for three hours? Are there even more than a handful of movies that run that long? In fact, as for American sports, barely any majorly consumed sports programming goes on that long. Three hours is too much for anyone to sit and watch anything every week, whether on one's smartphone, TV, or in the arena.

With shrinking attention spans and social media access, there is just no reason to watch three hours of wrestling television every Friday night. The pacing for any three-hour show has always been a major issue. RAW also ranged from barely watchable to wildly inconsistent for most of its run as a three-hour show.

With cable declining swiftly, consistency is essential to retaining viewers on a channel like the USA Network. With a two-hour format set to return tonight onwards, one can anticipate more consistent and packed SmackDown programming, hopefully, paced more like RAW has been on Netflix.

Nevertheless, despite the merits of this revert to two-hour episodes, there are also some counterpoints to this argument. Whether the benefits outweigh the potential downsides or vice versa is a decision we shall leave up to the reader to make. How the next few weeks of SmackDown television play out will provide a clearer picture in this regard.