Between now and RAW's Netflix premiere in January, the show will remain on the USA Network but be cut down to two hours (the same length as SmackDown).
There's been a great deal of speculation surrounding whether that will remain in place next year, particularly as there have long been arguments that RAW is simply too long. Both NXT and SmackDown are two hours, remember.
Talking at Bad Blood's post-show press conference this weekend, WWE CCO Paul "Triple H" Levesque was asked whether RAW will remain two hours on streaming or return to its three-hour format.
"When I find that out, I’ll let you know. We’re just in this moment where RAW goes down to two hours. What does that do for us? It’s an hour less show, right? We found ourselves over time of being in this wild spot. If you would asked me a few years ago...the difference between two and three is just like night and day. I can’t even express to you how much different that is, and then now we’re at this place where we’re doing three-hour shows, and all of a sudden it’s going to drop the two."
"It’s just different and it’s a little bit of a stress because it’s less, but I think sometimes less is more and I think that’s going to be a really good thing. When we get to Netflix, we are still working through all of that. So I think the truth is, you guys will have to watch and see and I am gonna wait and see, but we will deal with it. The truth is, no matter what the length of time is, it’s just about putting out the best product we can and telling the best possible stories we can."
"At the end of the day, that is what this is all about – telling stories. Sometimes in our business, we get so caught up in two-hour – three-hour, one-hour...the movie is the movie...we’re just making a movie every week, every week – twice a week – three times a week. Actually, with more to come so I kind of approach it in that manner. Let’s write the best stories and then we’ll try to figure out how to jam it into whatever time slot we have available."
Recently, WWE has faced some backlash on social media for a lack of Black talent on its PLEs. No Black WWE Superstars competed at Bad Blood and many are questioning why they're not being better represented across the company's programming.
"I don’t see the difference in anyone, I don’t see the nationality," The Game responded. "I don’t see the difference between men and women. I only see the talent." "We tell stories with those talent, and how we can tell those stories and bring those stories forward. I don’t keep track of any of that."
The response to these remarks hasn't been overly positive and the hope is that, with WWE now aware of how fans feel, something might change in the coming weeks leading into Crown Jewel.
As always, stay tuned for updates as we have them.