@4:00. Agree with John in that AEW should remain at 2 hours. 2 hour episodes of Dynamite and Collision are best for AEW right now. The AEW shows should feel special. A focused, must-see, 2 hour show is ideal for generating and maintaining interest in the product. On the other hand, WWE has established an impressive loyalty to its brand over decades. WWE fans will watch an extra hour of Smackdown regardless of whether the additional content is worthwhile.
One week of WWE TV with RAW, SD & NXT equals the same time investment as watching a full 8x1h HBO season of properly produced TV. Over one year, quitting WWE would let you watch 52 seasons of such TV. I wouldn’t be surprised if SD falls to 1mil over time as the quality simply hasn’t been there to justify that time investment and ratings been suffering heavily as well.
But this is where it's important to pick and choose. Like Wai and John said, it's possible nowadays to put your energy on what you really like and seek out what other wrestling segments or matches got buzz during the week. Not everybody is willing to watch everything and it's OK.
Honestly not sure, another hour of WWE might lower their number of engaged fans, but it could do the same to AEW. With that group that watch both a lot in the last 18 months decided to watch WWE over AEW and I could see people who watch 3 hours of Raw and 3 of SD not finding time for Dynamite
IMO, this might be the tipping point in WWE’s hot streak. 3 hours is a long time for a television show. Now for 2025 and beyond, we are going to have 2 shows a week that are 3 hours. Raw and Smackdown. That is so hard to watch live. We have seen over time how the viewers have diminished in the 3 hour format with RAW. The same will happen to Smackdown.
I'm already only watching Raw so this doesn't have an effect on me. I don't like either companies in the USA to watch all of their programming on a consistent basis. I think Wai is right that more people will drop AEW but I also agree with John's perspective. Word of mouth will get people to revisit SD over the weekend.
They got nobody to blame but themselves when business metrics go down because of too much product and the creative starts to suffer from burn out. There gonna hit an iceberg in 2025.
Netflix is likely gonna be more flexible with Raw, depending of the weeks. Some weeks, I think we'll get 2 hours, sometimes 3, but in average around the 2h30 mark.
SmackDown expanding to 3 Hours was inevitable. I saw this coming back in 2021 when WWE added an Extra Half Hour to an episode of SmackDown that aired on FS1 to counter the soon to be defunct Rampage that was being aired by AEW. 3 Hours of WWE Monday Night RAW took time for people to get used to but I believe SmackDown will be fine with 3 Hours.
3 hours is a lot. Less is more.
If you are a wrestling FAn three hours are good- but when you are forced to watch- it maybe it is a bit mucho.
WWE should be viewed as an amusement park as they are clearly prioritizing insignificant content over quality.
It’s even worse when they are expanding more of the PLEs to Saturday and Sunday; I’m sorry I am not watching 4 nights in a row.
wwe is overextending right now, just as the product is cooling off
3 hours made it so that I don’t even try to watch live. It’s just too much to keep up with for me. I end up watching clips.
@4:00. Agree with John in that AEW should remain at 2 hours. 2 hour episodes of Dynamite and Collision are best for AEW right now. The AEW shows should feel special. A focused, must-see, 2 hour show is ideal for generating and maintaining interest in the product. On the other hand, WWE has established an impressive loyalty to its brand over decades. WWE fans will watch an extra hour of Smackdown regardless of whether the additional content is worthwhile.
One week of WWE TV with RAW, SD & NXT equals the same time investment as watching a full 8x1h HBO season of properly produced TV. Over one year, quitting WWE would let you watch 52 seasons of such TV. I wouldn’t be surprised if SD falls to 1mil over time as the quality simply hasn’t been there to justify that time investment and ratings been suffering heavily as well.
Anyone who is not a superfan is going to get burned out by too much content
But this is where it's important to pick and choose. Like Wai and John said, it's possible nowadays to put your energy on what you really like and seek out what other wrestling segments or matches got buzz during the week. Not everybody is willing to watch everything and it's OK.
Honestly not sure, another hour of WWE might lower their number of engaged fans, but it could do the same to AEW. With that group that watch both a lot in the last 18 months decided to watch WWE over AEW and I could see people who watch 3 hours of Raw and 3 of SD not finding time for Dynamite
IMO, this might be the tipping point in WWE’s hot streak. 3 hours is a long time for a television show. Now for 2025 and beyond, we are going to have 2 shows a week that are 3 hours. Raw and Smackdown. That is so hard to watch live. We have seen over time how the viewers have diminished in the 3 hour format with RAW. The same will happen to Smackdown.
I'm already only watching Raw so this doesn't have an effect on me. I don't like either companies in the USA to watch all of their programming on a consistent basis.
I think Wai is right that more people will drop AEW but I also agree with John's perspective. Word of mouth will get people to revisit SD over the weekend.
They got nobody to blame but themselves when business metrics go down because of too much product and the creative starts to suffer from burn out. There gonna hit an iceberg in 2025.
Whats the betting raw is 3 hours aswelll, needless greed from Wwe, which will dilute the quality of their product.
Hopefully, RAW is closer to 2 hours most weeks with special episodes being 3 hours.
Netflix is likely gonna be more flexible with Raw, depending of the weeks. Some weeks, I think we'll get 2 hours, sometimes 3, but in average around the 2h30 mark.
SmackDown expanding to 3 Hours was inevitable. I saw this coming back in 2021 when WWE added an Extra Half Hour to an episode of SmackDown that aired on FS1 to counter the soon to be defunct Rampage that was being aired by AEW.
3 Hours of WWE Monday Night RAW took time for people to get used to but I believe SmackDown will be fine with 3 Hours.
Like half of NXT doesn't really need to be there anymore
Greed$🤑
Should be four hours imo.