WWE News: Major changes to be made to WWE PPVs going forward

What's the story?

Mike Johnson of PWInsider has reported that going forward all WWE specials and PPVs will be four hours long instead of being 3 hours long, which was the norm so far.

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Only Summerslam and Wrestlemania were usually longer than 3 hours, but it looks like from MITB onwards all specials will be 4 hours long.

In case you didn't know...

WWE went through a brand split in July 2016 after Wrestlemania 34, which divided the roster between the two shows: RAW and Smackdown.

This also resulted in the PPVs being split between the two shows with the exception of the Big Four events: Summerslam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania, which saw Superstars from both shows compete.

Even though the brand split has not been ended but WWE made the call to merge all of the PPVs starting from Backlash 2018.

Backlash was a 3-hour event but every PPV from now on will be 4 hours long.

The heart of the matter

With the rosters being merged for every PPV, many raised a problem that with just 3 hours, not enough Superstars will get a chance to get featured on the event and so increasing the length of the show by one hour would be a welcome change.

However, a 4-hour long event could also lead to oversaturation of the product and might lead to disinterest for the show.

WWE has reportedly reached out to its international pay-per-view providers including SkyTV and inDemand, to let them know all shows going forward will begin at 7/6c which is one hour earlier than they do right now.

What's next?

The MITB PPV will be taking place on 17th June 2018 from Chicago, Illinois. The show will feature two MITB matches involving Superstars from both brands.

Author's take

I think it is a good call by the WWE as more Superstars will get a chance to be featured on these WWE specials.