“Smackdown”, which moved to the NBCUniversal-owned outlet from sister Syfy in January, will be broadcast live for two hours every week starting Tuesday night, July 19, resulting in five hours of live WWE programming on the network each week.
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With 874 original episodes, Smackdown is the second longest-running weekly episodic program in U.S. TV history, according to the companies, behind Raw, which just aired its 1,200th episode.
The WWE Universe responded immediately on Twitter.
Nonetheless, it’s very interesting to know which superstars will be drafted on what brands or what titles will be on each show. Of course, this isn’t the first time the WWE has split its brand.
That initial brand split was met with mixed reaction, opinions that resurfaced on Wednesday. Pay-per-views were re-branded in 2003 for Raw-only rosters and SmackDown-only rosters.
At present, Smackdown is taped on Tuesday evening and aired on Thursday night on USA Network. This could also mean a shake up as to how the WWE books its PPV events. WWE’s announcement said it will come before the live premiere on July 19th. These Superstars and Divas are expected to compete exclusively on their brand, meaning that each program will have its own set of storylines and rivalries to spotlight – just like before. Now there are only five main roster titles: the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, the Intercontinental Championship, the WWE Women’s Championship, the WWE Tag Team Championships and the United States Championship. Some claim the CEO position makes the most sense due to the fact that Vince McMahon took on this role along with his WWE Chairman duties when his wife, Linda McMahon, left to run for government office.
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The debut of a live “Smackdown” comes as two of the WWE’s biggest attractions, John Cena and Seth Rollins, are returning to competition from injuries.
