Several changes will reportedly be happening with WWE when The FOX deal starts up this coming fall especially when it comes to the touring schedule.
According to Dave Meltzer on a recent edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, once the deal with FOX starts up SmackDown LIVE talent will be doing a road schedule from Thursday through Sunday. The second night of the road schedule will be live TV. For years now, the four-show per week road schedule has been a WWE tradition.
SmackDown currently tours from Saturday through Tuesday, while RAW tours from Friday to Monday with both tours ending with their respective TV Tapings.
As previously reported, the first Friday night episode of SmackDown LIVE on FOX will be taking place on October 4th from The Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The next shows will be October 11th in Denver, Colorado, October 18th in Columbus, Ohio & October 25th in Kansas City, Missouri.
There have already been reports that SmackDown LIVE could be moving to three hours when it starts with FOX, with the third hour airing on FS1 following the two-hour show on FOX. MKM Partners Analyst Eric Handler recently raised his target price on WWE stock to $110 from $95 a share based on “the relaunch of The WWE Network, monetization from a third hour of media time for SmackDown LIVE, and added revenue from three more television networks.”
RAW’s schedule will not change as they will continue to do Friday through Monday. SmackDown has been a part of WWE programming since 1999, starting on UPN. It has since been shown on The CW, MyNetworkTV, SyFy and most recently, The USA Network.