Another Big Change to WWE PPV Events Has Been Revealed

If you’re a big WWE fan and can’t get enough of the product, you’re in luck.

As reported earlier this week, WWE plans on moving all of their PPV events to four hours starting with Money in the Bank. One of the reasons for this decision is the fact that all PPV events will now be co-branded (RAW and SmackDown), so WWE views it as nearly impossible to feature all of their talent on a traditional three hour PPV broadcast.

The so-called “big four” PPV events (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series) will now be a minimum of five hours in length.

The latest information that made its way around on Thursday relates to the start times. WWE had been considering keeping the traditional start time the same (8:00 p.m. Eastern) and starting on hour earlier (7:00 p.m. Eastern). There were pros and cons on each side, notably the fact that starting the shows at the same time but running an hour later would make the shows go until midnight on the east coast. At the same time, starting an hour earlier means a 4:00 pm start time on the west coast, quite early for a PPV event.

In the end, Bryan Alvarez of Figure Four Weekly online reports that WWE has decided to start shows an hour earlier. Starting with Money in the Bank, all WWE PPV events will begin at 7:00 p.m. Eastern (4:00 p.m Pacific), with the kickoff shows beginning at 6:00 p.m. Eastern (3:00 p.m. Pacific). The five hour long “big four” shows will begin at the same time and end an hour later.

PWInsider initially broke the news that all WWE PPV events would be moving to four hours in length.

While fans and reporters alike have been lamenting on how it seems that WWE is simply putting too much product out, this week’s news that FOX is paying WWE over one billion dollars for SmackDown Live would seem to indicate that is not the case.