The news that Raw will resume being a two-hour program on October 7th, something it hasn’t been since 2012, surprised WWE fans on Monday night.
This comes at a time when the show is transitioning from USA Network to Netflix, with the Netflix deal not taking effect until January. WWE reached an agreement with USA to keep Raw on the channel after the original deal was set to expire this month.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer stated that the USA Network requested the move to a two-hour format, and when Raw returns to Netflix, it will be a three-hour show.
Meltzer: “It’s a three-hour show when they move back to Netflix. Yeah, I had it confirmed a few minutes ago….The basic situation is that it was a USA Network call, not a WWE call. I am not sure why. It will boost the ratings of the show because they won’t have that third hour that drags down the average, but I’m not sure exactly why USA made the call.”
Bryan Alvarez: “Well, maybe they had a plan for the 10 o’clock hour, and then, because originally it was just Raw, was done. And then they signed the Netflix deal and found out, ‘Well, shit, we got three months. We’re gonna be off the air in September, four months.’ And so they made a deal with USA. And maybe USA was like, ‘We already have something to 10, yeah, but we can do 8 to 10.’”
Meltzer: “It could be. It was USA Network made the call.”
Alvarez: “Or maybe they didn’t want to pay for three hours.”
Meltzer: “No, it didn’t have to do that because they weren’t paying for hardly anything for this.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
