Another episode of WWE SmackDown will air live in multiple international locations, but the United States will have to wait until later in the day to catch the show.
Now that Money in the Bank is in the books, the next Premium Live Event set to take place will be Night of Champions, which will air live from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on June 28th. Unlike previous years where the go-home SmackDown would be taped in advance to allow the roster and crew ample time to travel overseas, recent events have seen the final episode of the blue brand air live from the same location.
As seen on WWE’s website and as reported by Dave Meltzer as part of a F4WOnline daily update, the June 27th SmackDown will air live on Netflix at 1 pm EST time [6 pm in the UK], but will not be shown on the USA Network in the States until 7 hours later:
The episode of Smackdown on 6/27 will air live from Saudi Arabia from 1-4 p.m. Eastern on Netflix. So it will air everywhere in the world before the U.S. where it will air on a seven hour tape delay.
The reason for the delay is because the international Netflix deal allows WWE to be shown live regardless of what time the show takes place. However, as the USA Network has an 8 pm timeslot each Friday, the show is unable to air earlier in the day. This was seen over the spring with many international SmackDown tapings airing on delay.
Next WWE SmackDown To Start Build To Night Of Champions
Although no matches for Night of Champions have been announced at the time of writing, it has been confirmed that the finals of the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments will take place. Ahead of the PLE, first-round and semi-final matches are scheduled to take place on Raw and SmackDown.
Featured image: WWE
