More Details on When WWE SmackDown Will Return to Two-Hour Format

WWE SmackDown is set to return to the two-hour format in the coming weeks. BodySlam+ recently reported that the Friday night show will return to the two-hour timeframe in the next few weeks.

Dave Meltzer provided more details on this on today’s Wrestling Observer Radio (WOR). Meltzer said that SmackDown will return to the two-hour slot on USA Network either in the last week of June or in the first week of July. He added that the show will return to three hours at the turn of 2027.

Notably, SmackDown returned to the three-hour format in January 2026 after a six-month two-hour runtime that started last July. According to Meltzer, the deal between WWE and USA Network is structured in a way that the show will have a three-hour runtime during the first half of the year and a two-hour timeframe for the rest.
“It’ll go either the last week of June or the first week in July; I believe it’s the first week of July. The contract that they have signed now is January until the end of June would be three hours, then the first of July to the end of December would be two hours, so that’s the way the deal is structured right now,” he said [H/T: WrestlingNews.Co].

When Bryan Alvarez asked if this structure would continue in the coming years, Dave said, “For the foreseeable future, yeah. Probably for the next four years.”