Just when you thought your Friday nights were safe, WWE and the USA Network have apparently decided to test the limits of your wrestling fandom once again. According to a report from WrestleVotes, WWE SmackDown is slated to return to a glorious, or perhaps gluttonous, three-hour format starting in 2026.
Circle your calendars, or maybe just brace yourselves. The alleged change kicks off with the January 2nd show in Buffalo, New York. If you thought two hours of the blue brand was the perfect, digestible weekend kickoff, well, prepare for an extra hour of… well, more. More matches, more commercials, more talking heads, and presumably, more reasons to wonder if you should have just gone out instead.
It feels like we just did this dance, doesn’t it? Because we did. This isn’t some bold new frontier; it’s a retread of a path we walked just a year prior.
A Familiar Story for SmackDown Fans
Remember 2025? It was a simpler time. Monday Night Raw had just packed its bags for the shiny new world of Netflix, leaving a Raw-sized hole in USA Network’s programming. The solution? Stretch SmackDown to fill the void. For six agonizing months, from January to June 2025, Friday nights became a three-hour marathon.
The reaction from the WWE Universe was, let’s say, mixed, but mostly positive. Just as we were getting used to it, the experiment ended. The show snapped back to its classic two-hour runtime on July 4, 2025, and a collective sigh of relief was heard across living rooms everywhere. Apparently, that relief was short-lived.
Why The Sudden Change?
The logic behind this move seems to be a classic case of “if it makes a buck, it makes sense.” When Raw moved to Netflix, it reverted to a more flexible two-hour format, ending a decade-long run as a three-hour behemoth. It seems USA Network misses that extra hour of ad revenue. This flip-flopping suggests a network scrambling to maximize profits rather than a creative team clamoring for more storytelling time.
Paul “Triple H” Levesque even hinted at this weird, part-time schedule back in September 2025 at the All In business summit. He casually mentioned Smackdown as a show that’s “two hours — and half the year is three hours — on USA.” At the time, it felt like a confusing one-off comment about the 2025 experiment. Now, it looks like he was telegraphing the future blueprint for the show. Fifty-two weeks a year, with half of them being a test of endurance.
Adding A 3rd Hour To A Terrible Show Is A Bad Choice
This is a bad idea waiting to happen because SmackDown has been absolutely terrible. The Stories have been absolutely boring, and besides the US Title Open challenges the past few months, it’s been a snooze fest.
How is adding a 3rd hour going to help the show except build the company’s wallets? This makes SmackDown more unwatchable, and don’t be shocked if the show gets low viewership again. WWE needs to look at itself in the mirror because this decision makes SmackDown much worse.
Brace Yourselves WWE Fans
So, get ready. The blue brand is bulking up again, and we’re all just along for the ride. Will the creative team, now with a full year to plan, use that extra hour to craft compelling television that has us glued to our seats? I doubt it, but hey, we will be treated to an extra 60 minutes of recaps, endless backstage segments, and matches that could have been an email? My money’s on the latter, but I’d love to be proven wrong. Good luck, Buffalo. You’re getting the first taste.
Don't stop here
Every Score. Every Story. One Home.
Breaking sports, entertainment and news from across the Total Apex network, updated all day.
Get the Full Story →
