The June 27 edition of "WWE SmackDown"is in the books, with the fans in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia witnessing a night full of twists, turns, and technical difficulties. "SmackDown" aired live on Netflix for international viewers, while a taped version of the show aired in its regular timeslot on the USA Network, with edits and changes being made to make the show run more smoothly.
Not only did the Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton segment get heavily edited due to that part of the show being where the Netflix feed cut out for over half and hour, but the main event segment between CM Punk and John Cena was also edited according to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select. Sources in WWE told Fightful that one of Punk's lines that he messed up in the process of trying to rap like a 2003 version of Cena was edited out, and additional crowd noise was also added to the broadcast. Fightful also learned that the reason for the initial feed being cut on Netflix was due to a power outage, making the day even busier than it already was, especially considering the main event segment needed fixing in the end as well.
This week's "SmackDown" was also a special show as it marked the final week where WWE's blue brand will run for three hours, with the July 4 episode returning to a two hour runtime for the first time since the end of 2024. Fightful learned that many people in WWE are excited about the move back to two hours, and that it will definitely be a fixed move, with "WWE Raw" already taking full advantage of the flexible runtime it has on Netflix. Whether "Raw" will gradually stretch itself into a three hour show remains to be seen, but for the time being, WWE will have one less hour of programming per week.
