WWE SmackDown Returning To 2 Hours In August? (WWE News)
USA Network's new show schedule suggests a Summer revert for WWE SmackDown.
There's been a lot of talk recently about WWE reverting to the traditional 2-hour format for Friday night weekly SmackDown. Initially, reports in late-May suggested that the show would drop 2025's third hour following the 30 May episode, but that obviously didn't happen. Instead, as reported by WrestleVotes Radio, SmackDown ploughed ahead with 3 hours seemingly for the foreseeable future.
All of that could be set to change once again.
PWInsider has revealed that chiefs over at the USA Network plan to debut a brand new show called 'Rainmaker' (no, not starring AEW star Kazuchika Okada!) on 15 August. That'd air in the 10-11pm slot currently swallowed up by SmackDown's bloated runtime. In other words, this new show might impact WWE's product and force them to revert to the old 2-hour formatting.
Some have pointed out online that USA could, in theory, drop something else from the schedule and put SmackDown on an hour earlier instead. If so, then WWE's weekly would still retain the 3 hour length it currently has.
3 Hour Episodes Have Split Opinion Critically
SmackDown went 3 hours at the turn of the year to bring it in line with Raw's jump over to Netflix. Basically, it was argued that the Friday night show needed change to compete and remain relevant whilst everyone fawned over WWE's flagship broadcast every Monday night. However, the switch from 2 to 3 hasn't been universally popular with critics or fans.
Ratings have sagged here or there, and there has been a sense that creative struggles to fill the full length of SmackDown with meaningful content most weeks. This has led to countless ads and/or replays to fill time. The positive slant on this is that various under-utilised members of the WWE roster have enjoyed more match time inside the ring every other Friday.
A return to the 2-hour format would surely be best for everyone though, and it looks like 'Rainmaker' could force that to happen shortly after SummerSlam 2025 (2-3 August) beams live. 15 August is a Friday night, so SmackDown may revert to the original runtime then.
Or, perhaps plans will change all over again in the near future. Watch this space!