From October 7th to December 30th, Raw will be 2 hours long. Once they are on Netflix I would assume they’ll be back to three hours.
I wonder if it’s going back to the old 9-11 schedule or if it will run in the 8-10 slot instead. I also wonder how much USA saves by dumping that 3rd hour.
It’s crazy to think that a year ago this would be the best news ever, now I’m not so sure, it just shows what a difference a fresh booking perspective can have on the product… I do worry that cutting back will hurt midcard and women’s matches though.
They did seem to imply Netflix was doing 3 hour shows when they made that deal.
USA has been the driving force behind the third hour, though it’s a change WWE has gotten more and more comfortable with over the years. I’m pretty sure they’re losing money by dumping it.
If I had to guess, they are probably shortening the time slot so they could use the lead in to draw viewers to another program, which makes the 8-10 slot the most likely. But I’m not a TV exec, so who knows?
I do worry that cutting back will hurt midcard and women’s matches though.
With good reason cause that’s gonna be exactly what happens. That being said for just 2mo and then it’s back to smoothing sailing with 3h on Netflix, not the worst compromise.
WWE had no choice in the matter really, who makes a deal with a 2 month gap like that? That just came across as goofy to me and USA had all the leverage. I just hate it for people like Otis and it’s probably bad for Not so Spooky Witches/Jade & Bianca as the women’s tag teams are probably the first to be cut.
Least most of the roster knows the “stay home for a couple months” phone call well by now lol.
