WWE SmackDown expanded to a 3-hour format this past Friday (January 3, 2025), but the show will drop the extra hour later this year. Triple H, WWE’s EVP of Global Talent Strategy & Development, confirmed this transition during a Monday appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.
“Look, there are some parameters that we have to hit, but it’s no different than episodic television shows,” he began. “Sometimes there’s an episode that’s 45 minutes, the next week it’s an hour, right? It depends on what you need to put into that show.”
Triple H provided insight on the production-aspect of show lengths. “Sometimes when we do three-hour shows there’s a little bit of collapsible stuff in there that’s put in on purpose. It’s a little bit of fat in the show that you can trim off if you need to.”
When SmackDown will return to two hours
He added that sometimes with a two-hour show, they need to cut things out to keep the show as tight as possible. “So somewhere between that two and three-hour window, to me, is the sweet spot.”
“The Game” emphasized that while SmackDown is presently a three-hour spectacle, it is slated to return to the two-hour format in the foreseeable future. However, he refrained from specifying an exact date for this change.
“Yes, for right now (it is three hours), and then it switches back to two.”
Triple H confirms WWE SmackDown is returning to a two-hour format in 2025
Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics says SmackDown is slated to go back to two hours in June 2025 and credits Wrestlevotes with the scoop.
Meanwhile, WWE Raw, another flagship show from the wrestling giant, is gearing up for its Netflix premiere. The inaugural episode is scheduled to air on Monday, January 6 and the show will have no set run-time each week, a unique perk they’re afforded on Netflix.
42-Minutes? Triple H Says WWE Raw Runtimes Will Be Flexible