News

The reason why WWE Smackdown is moving to the USA Network sooner than expected

Aaron Rift

In September of 2023, it was announced that WWE Smackdown would be moving to the USA Network from FOX in October of 2024. On Thursday, USA Network announced the following via Twitter/X on Thursday…

“Starting in September and through the end of 2024, @USANetwork will serve as the exclusive linear home of @WWE Monday Night RAW and @WWE SmackDown, which returns on September 13.”

Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com noted the following about why Smackdown is moving to the USA Network sooner than expected…

“The FOX contract expires at the end of September, but FOX was going to move several September episodes to FS 1 due to college football, which is what it’s replacing Smackdown with. So USA agreed to debut the show on 9/13, which is a Friday. Seattle has been talked about a the location for the first show and of course in kicking off on a new station, the idea is to load up the show.”

Both RAW and Smackdown will be on the USA Network for the final quarter of 2024 until RAW moves to Netflix in January.