"Super-sized" edition of SmackDown next week, Tony Khan responds

Originally published at "Super-sized" edition of SmackDown next week, Tony Khan responds

Next Friday’s edition of SmackDown airing on FS 1 will be a special “super-sized edition” with the show airing from 8-10:30 p.m. Eastern.

Due to the MLB playoffs, SmackDown is being moved to the cable network next week and will run an extra thirty minutes and therefore, go against the first half hour of AEW Rampage on TNT.

WWE is loading up the episode with the following announcements and matches set for Friday’s show in Ontario, California:
*Brock Lesnar appears
*Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks
*King of the Ring Semi-Final: Finn Balor vs. Sami Zayn
*Queen’s Crown Semi-Final: Carmella vs. Zelina Vega
*Sonya Deville vs. Naomi

After the news of 2 ½ hour edition of SmackDown circulated, AEW president Tony Khan tweeted the following message:

I saw you’re doing a half hour head-to-head with us. I can’t wait to finally beat your main show head-to-head. It’s been a long time coming. See you next Friday for #AEWRampage on @AEWonTNT!

— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) October 9, 2021

AEW will run a live edition of Rampage from the James L. Knight Center in Miami, Florida at 10 p.m. ET on TNT with the following matches announced for the show:
*Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara & Jake Hager vs. Junior dos Santos, Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky
*CM Punk vs. Matt Sydal
*Ruby Soho vs. The Bunny

The last time SmackDown aired on FS 1 was on October 23, 2020, and averaged 881,000 viewers and 0.25 in 18-49. In October 2019, they ran one show on FS 1 that averaged 889,000 and 0.27 in the demo.

Over the past four episodes, Rampage has averaged 643,500 viewers and 0.27 in 18-49. In theory, SmackDown should be the frontrunner for total viewers, but the key race will be in 18-49.

Both SmackDown and Rampage will be airing against the MLB playoff game on Fox.

Great…because what’s better than 2 hours of wrestling on a Friday night? Apparently 3.5 hours of wrestling on a Friday Night. More is More.

I would give anything to have Raw cut to 90min, SD cut to 90 Min, and to have Rampage cancelled…now that’s a best case scenario lol, but its just too much.

Smackdown looks like a big show. Brock and Becky vs Sasha. I’m sure Roman too.

Either way they are changing stations for Smackdown so I’m sure lots of fans won’t realize they have to change the station like usually happens. As has been documented AEW fans are the smarter ones usually.

We shall see what happens but this Roman vs Brock thing is red hot right now

If WWE is on FS1
And AEW doesn’t have a show all week til a Live Friday edition ft CM Punk
That half hour could be very interesting.

No issue with TK stirring the pot, WWE is making the aggressor move.

I’ve been saying for weeks AEW is about to take a dive in Dynamite ratings. Tall task going Sat night during college football season. But the Friday show could get a bump given it’s the first show of the week and some fans will be yearning for it by Friday. I’m surprised AEW isn’t going 2hrs since running Miami live for an hour feels weird (and probably why I’ll go Sat not Fri)

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Yeah they’re definitely taking a hit on Saturdays and it remains to be seen in a couple of weeks when they come back and load up the big show.

It seems like CM punk is losing a bit of that shine because he does the same interview every time and he’s engaged in matches with some lower card guys. I think that’s fine for now but eventually he’s going to need a match against one of the big-name players. Someone like Malachi black might be perfect for that

we expected an initial surge when they had all the free agents but now it’s gonna depend more on how these stories play out. Personally I was turned off by last week so I’m probably not watching for the next little while but it won’t take much to get me to tune back in