WWE SmackDown’s three-hour run comes to an end on June 26, with Dave Meltzer confirming on Wrestling Observer Radio that the Friday night broadcast will shift to two hours after that date as part of a six-months-on, six-months-off contractual structure.
The reasoning is that the three-hour SmackDown broadcast runs from 8 PM ET to 11 PM ET, with “Everything On The Menu With Braun Strowman” taking the immediately following slot at 11 PM ET. The shift to two-hour SmackDown after June 26 would move the show to the 8-10 PM window, with the Strowman show then moving to 10 PM ET.
“We’ve got three hours until the end of the month, June 26 is the last three-hour show. Originally, I was told six months, January through July, and the idea was that would be it for the whole five-year deal: six months on, six months off. But then they announced the Braun Strowman show. They previewed it last week, and even though the first episode has already aired, the official start is this coming Friday. So I figured, okay, it’ll be at 10, but it’s going to be at 11 for this first month. Why debut a new series at 11? It’s fine, honestly. It’s got a SmackDown lead-in, it’s the hottest show on the whole station, so it’s in the most advantageous slot either way. It would obviously do better at 10 than 11, but the contract is six months on, six months off. So through June 26, the three hours is tough.”
WWE moved SmackDown to USA Network in 2024 as part of the broader media rights expansion. The Braun Strowman show received its first episode preview last week, with the official start set for Friday.
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