Why WWE SmackDown Is Really Having Its Time Cut
Triple H has confirmed that WWE SmackDown will quickly be going back to a two-hour show and now the real reason for that switch has been revealed.
2025 has already seen sweeping changes for WWE as SmackDown aired as a three-hour show for the first time before Raw made its highly anticipated Netflix debut.
Triple H has revealed how Raw’s runtime on Netflix will work but he’s also confirmed that SmackDown’s switch to a three-hour show is only temporary.
During an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, while discussing various WWE topics, Raw announcer McAfee mentioned SmackDown going three hours, which led to Triple H revealing there is a change coming there.
Yes, for right now (it is three hours), and then it switches back to two.
WWE SmackDown Switching Back To 2 Hours
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer explained what lay behind WWE’s decision to revert back to a two-hour show and why the company might not have made any extra money out of a temporary switch to three hours:
From my impression, it was always the idea (to have the show move to 3 hours temporarily) they just didn’t announce it at the time.
[…] I think the deal is that the USA Network has a programme they want to debut and they want to use SmackDown as the lead-in because SmackDown’s a fantastic lead-in to debut a new programme. The programme is debuting in a couple of months. The thing that’s interesting is losing that hour really hurts the USA Network weekly numbers, that’s probably why they picked it up in the first place.
[…] WWE never announced anything about any extra money so I don’t think they got it. It was just one of those things that USA didn’t have any ideas [for what comes after SmackDown] so maybe they paid them a bit extra for a couple of months because they had nothing better to put in the time slot. In a couple of months they’re gonna have a show to put in the timeslot and that’s when it goes back to two hours.
If you use any quotes from this article please credit original source and then h/t with a link back to TJR Wrestling for the transcription.