NBCUniversal announced on Thursday that WWE SmackDown will begin on USA Network on Friday, September 13, a move that is earlier than originally expected after the two sides announced a five-year deal for when SmackDown’s rights are up with FOX.
The original press release announcing the deal was for the show to move to the cable network in October. This comes when Raw is slated to leave the USA for Netflix in January, while NXT goes to the CW Network in October.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that FOX was going to move several September episodes of SmackDown to FS1 due to college football. USA agreed to take in the show early on September 13th. The network is in more US homes than FS1.
Seattle is slated to host the return episode and will have a loaded-up card. The idea is to push the week of 9/9 to 9/13 as WWE Week. The network will air Fast & Furious movies in prime time with John Cena and The Rock as well as “Blockers” with Cena and the “Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal” documentary.
Meltzer added that the plan is to keep SmackDown on Fridays when it moves to the USA Network.
