— The run-times of WWE Raw and Smackdown has been a topic of discussion over the last few months with new media rights deals kicking in. Late last year, Raw dropped down to two hours and this week, Smackdown expanded to three before Raw adds the last hour back tomorrow for the Netflix debut. However, with Raw now on a streaming platform, WWE is no longer bound by run-time constraints that in the past necessitated segments being cut off or eliminated altogether. Speaking on the SI Media Podcast, WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque spoke of how the run-time for Raw will indeed be somewhat fluid beginning next week:

“It’ll be flexible in that I don’t think necessarily the the time constraints of network television or cable television apply. It’s a slightly different form, it’s a slightly different platform. I think much like many shows, whether dramas, whetherwhatever, but episodic shows, they have the ability to do whatever the show needs to have done. So if this episode needs to be an hour, great, it’s an hour. This next episode needs to be 42 minutes, it’s 42 minutes. It’s what makes for the best product. Now I’m not saying that we’re going to be 42 minutes, but clearly we’ll deliver the product in a way that is is best for Netflix and and for their business model and and what is best for our storytelling.”

“Sometimes you get into the two hour show and you just don’t have the real estate on that program to get everything in there you want to get in and all the stories that you want to get in and all the characters that you want to get in and there are people that are getting left off. Sometimes 3 hours can feel long; sometimes two hours is not enough. Somewhere in the middle to me is the sweet spot.”