Veteran on WWE possibly making big Royal Rumble change (Exclusive)
WWE has held the Royal Rumble premium live event every year since 1988. Vince Russo, the company's head writer in the late 1990s, recently gave his thoughts on rumors of a possible change to the annual show.
In 2020, WWE began staging WrestleMania across two nights. It has been announced that SummerSlam 2026 will also be a two-night event, prompting speculation about the Royal Rumble's future.
Speaking on Sportskeeda Wrestling's Writing With Russo, Russo made it clear he does not think a two-night Royal Rumble is a good idea:
"These people that all they do is watch wrestling, there is a good representation of them on social media and podcasting and dirt sheet sites and this and that, and, bro, I'm just telling you, your level of intelligence is coming across. I'm just being totally honest with you." [8:40 – 9:04]
Russo added to host Dr. Chris Featherstone that fans should do something else with their time instead of watching more wrestling:
"If this is what you're doing for hours and hours and hours every week, I mean, Chris, I swear, man, I can be sitting down watching television, bro, after a half an hour I will say to myself, 'Bro, is there not something more productive that you could be doing?' I mean, I will. Half an hour into watching anything on television, I will catch myself." [9:05 – 9:31]
Watch the video above to hear Russo's take on WWE's plan to turn SmackDown into a three-hour show in 2025.
Vince Russo explains why WWE is not must-see TV
In the late 1990s, Vince Russo was RAW's head writer when the show ran for two hours and regularly drew high viewing figures. Heading into 2025, WWE could produce a combined eight hours of weekly television shows between RAW, SmackDown, and NXT.
According to Russo, the oversaturation of wrestling programming means nothing is must-watch these days:
"Three hours RAW, three hours SmackDown, two hours NXT, two hours [AEW] Dynamite. Are you [kidding me]? And you know what, bro, here's the thing, there used to be a thing called must-see TV. When you have 10 hours of wrestling, nothing is must-see, bro. Nothing. Zero is must-see. Nothing is must-see." [9:42 – 10:09]
On October 7, RAW will be shortened from three to two hours on the USA Network before moving to Netflix in January 2025. The runtime of RAW episodes on Netflix is currently unknown.
Do you think the Royal Rumble should become a two-night event? Hit the discuss button and let us know.
Please credit Sportskeeda Wrestling's Writing With Russo and embed the video if you use quotes from this article.