WWE SmackDown Returns To 2 Hours Next Week (WWE News)

CM Punk mocking John Cena's old 'Doctor Of Thuganomics' persona will go down in history as the final segment of SmackDown's 3-hour era. WWE announcer Michael Cole announced during Friday's broadcast in Saudi Arabia that the blue brand will return to its traditional 2-hour format starting next week.

It won't be a live effort. PWInsider reports that Triple H and crew will pre-tape SmackDown the same night Raw airs on Monday 30 June in Pittsburgh - the show will then air as usual on Friday 4 July. This decision was taken with a view to giving the WWE roster some much-needed time off following their epic travel schedule across the globe recently, which included this week's trip to Riyadh.

There had been question marks over exactly when SmackDown would go back to 2 hours. Most expected it, and Hunter himself had announced that the 3 hour formatting was only a temporary thing right before it screeched onto screens beginning with the 3 January episode earlier this year. It's understood that USA Network's new show 'The Rainmaker' will replace WWE's third hour each Friday night.

Fans who were critical of the 3 hour blocks will be pleased with this change. It's fair to say that WWE tried their best to fill the third hour each week, but some episodes of SmackDown still suffered due to the bloated length; padding things out with ads and hype vignettes became a general rule of thumb for knackered scriptwriters.

There is, however, another side: Midcard talent (primarily in the tag-team scene) had benefitted from SmackDown going 3 hours, so it remains to be seen whether or not some will actually miss out more often due to WWE dropping an hour from the schedule following this Night Of Champions jaunt.