Well folks, grab your remotes and get ready for an extra helping of SmackDown! Because rumor has it, the already jam-packed two-hour weekly wrestling fiesta might soon expand to an epic three hours. That’s right. As if your Friday nights weren’t long enough, WWE could be delivering even more suplexes, surprise roll-ups, and commercials!
Our favorite wrestling oracle, Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio, chimed in, saying, “It makes sense, it really does… but it’s also a terrifying thought.” Wow. Terrifying. We’re talking Halloween-level fear here. Meltzer went on to explain that USA Network would obviously love an extra hour of action, because, you know, nothing says “ratings bonanza” like a third hour of everyone’s favorite headlocks and heel turns.
“Of course USA wants it,” Meltzer pointed out. “But are they paying for it, or do they expect WWE to just hand over an hour for free? Because that’s a lot of body slams for no extra cash!”
Now here’s where things get as murky as a poorly-executed contract signing. Meltzer says the supposed $279 million price tag for this third hour? Not exactly a raise from what WWE was making on Fox. So much for that rumored 40% increase. Turns out math is even scarier than a 3-hour SmackDown.
To make things even spicier, Meltzer has yet to get WWE to confirm or deny these extra 60 minutes of leg drops. “It’s being discussed,” he said, cryptically. Sounds like a classic, “Will they? Won’t they?” situation, but with fewer love triangles and more pile drivers.
Meanwhile, the red brand, WWE Raw, is getting a makeover. The show will lose an hour when it hops over to Netflix in January. Yup, you read that right. Fewer hours, more binge-watching! Although with Netflix’s free-form episode lengths, we might be getting a rollercoaster of Raw content. Could be two hours, could be ten minutes. Just make sure you don’t skip those sweet Netflix commercial breaks. Yes, even on streaming, ads are forever.