Since the arrival of new company President Nick Khan WWE has been attempting to run their major shows, now known as premium live events, on Saturdays instead of the traditional Sunday slot, with last weekend’s Money In The Bank being a prime example. However, this may begin to cause WWE to go head-to-head with major competition.
According to Dave Meltzer in his latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE’s decision to run major shows on Saturdays puts them up against Dana White and the UFC, who run an event nearly every weekend. The report notes that this month’s SummerSlam (July 30th) will be going up against UFC 277, which will see a massive main event as Amanda Nunes attempts to reclaim her Bantamweight championship from Julianna Peña.
While talking about the subject Melzter also mentioned how AEW President Tony Khan has been moving major events from his company on Sundays to avoid competition with White and the UFC. His full statement was:
“Regarding UFC and WWE going head-to-head, this will happen more frequently because Nick Khan wants to move WWE big shows from Sunday to Saturday, ironically at the same time Tony Khan is moving AEW from Saturday to Sunday (except against the NFL). Since UFC runs almost every Saturday, that will mean more conflicts. On 7/30 for SummerSlam, there will be a UFC PPV head-to-head. I believe there will also be a conflict on 10/8 and also in November.”
We will see if WWE will continue to run on Saturdays in the future following the release of their quarterly report. WWE fans online have made it known that they much prefer the Saturday spot as it gives them one extra day to recoup afterwards.
