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| Three hours means more of this. More of this is a good thing. Photo Credit: WWE.com |
WWE's contract to air Smackdown on SyFy is up soon, which has generated all kinds of fun hypotheticals. My favorite is Spike TV ditching TNA to take in the WWE's secondary show. However, TSTSNBL "reported" the above "news" (which WrestleChat merely passed along, which is why they're the best) that a WWE official wouldn't be surprised if they got a third hour added to Smackdown. Okay, first of all, that item is barely scraping the bottom of the barrel for news. That statement is the definition of speculation, hopeful speculation within the company at that.
However, let's pretend that Smackdown gets a third hour. Right now, the reactions I'm seeing on Twitter indicate that the expansion will somehow further dilute the WWE product on Friday nights. Oh no, WWE is going to give us another hour of programming for free! The same cries are going up that were heard and read when WWE tacked another hour on RAW, only with less volume. Y'know, because we're talking about Smackdown.
I maintained from the start that RAW going to three hours wasn't a bad idea because we might get more wrestling, and lo and behold, since the move, the number of free TV match of the year candidates has gone drastically up from when they were at two hours. The quality of the show has remained stable or improved a little bit. I will say that when RAW is bad, it drags because of the length, but most Mondays, WWE puts on a damn good show.
With RAW as the model, I fully expect a three-hour Smackdown to follow a similar trend. The show already had the reputation of being the "wrestling" show, so the addition of longer matches, or more of a volume of long matches, is only more appreciated, especially with their current roster. Furthermore, with a third hour to fill, I would also expect the writers to pay a little more story attention.
With that in mind, I also think that extending the Friday night telecast would help bolster an strengthening midcard. Since I would expect the usual suspects (CM Punk, John Cena) to get the Tuesday taping off, more focus can then be spent on secondary feuds. The time spent on things like the World Championship and feuds like the Damien Sandow/Cody Rhodes tension will still get the time analogous to what the WWE Championship and sub-main event feuds get on RAW. With three hours to fill, now even lower card feuds like the Usos vs. the Real Americans get to go from random match that may or may not be touched by Bullshit Parity Booking to getting the time the main feuds on Smackdown get on RAW.
I won't try to pump sunshine up your collective ass about this hypothetical move being completely positive. For as consistently good as RAW has been lately, WWE has churned out some uninspiring episodes of Smackdown with more frequency. I also do not know whether expanding the timeslot is even going to happen. Remember, "sources" told a dirt sheet reporter that a WWE official expected something to happen with no names attached, nebulous reporting at its worst.
However, if the move to three hours does happen, the worst thing that will happen is that you end up having to record one or more of the hours of the show while you do something else if you can't sit there for that long. The rap WWE has had is one of a company that doesn't care about wrestling. I think getting more and more hours of television a week and filling those slots with actual matches is a step in the right direction. I think it's certainly better than networks cutting back on hours by far.