WWE, AEW Rumors on Rey Fenix & Penta’s Contracts, Bad Blood Main Event and SmackDown

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Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe and AEW.

Contract Updates for Rey Fenix and Penta

Amid rumors that the Lucha Bros are looking to leave AEW to sign with WWE, the contract status for both Rey Fenix and Penta has been made available.

Per Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t WrestlePurists) Penta’s AEW contract is set to expire within the next two months and he is expected to sign with WWE.

Even though Penta can’t officially negotiate with WWE until his deal expires, Meltzer noted WWE has made him a “competitive offer” and that sealed his decision to leave amid “frustration” with AEW.

It could be awhile before both Lucha Bros are in WWE together because Meltzer reported that “right now” AEW is expected to add roughly one year to Rey Fenix’s contract to make up for time missed due to injuries.

WrestleTalk @WrestleTalk_TVDave Meltzer reports that “right now” AEW is adding nearly a year of injury time onto Rey Fenix’s contract:

As far as Fenix goes, right now AEW is tacking on injury time which is nearly but not quite one year. Khan made both significant offers to stay but they wouldn’t sign a… pic.twitter.com/d8Yi6F9Um8

Penta and Fenix have been with AEW since 2019 when they challenged the Young Bucks for the AAA world tag team titles at the first Double or Nothing event.

The Lucha Bros have held the AEW tag titles and trios titles, along with Pac, during their run with the promotion. They’ve mostly been relegated to television matches, be it as singles or as a tag team, for most of this year.

Fenix missed six months from October through April due to an undisclosed injury. He missed another month after revealing at House of Glory’s Cinco de Mayo event on May 5 he wasn’t medically cleared to wrestle.

WWE has been trying to find a masked successor to Rey Mysterio, who is still one of the most reliable performers in the company, for years with no success. Both Penta and Fenix are two of the best high-flying wrestlers in the world and could fill that void if either or both join the promotion.

WWE Still Debating Bad Blood Main Event

One week away from Bad Blood, WWE is going back and forth on which match is going to close the show.

Per Meltzer (h/t WrestleTalk), the plan as of right now is for the tag match featuring Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns taking on Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu to headline the premium live event.

The original plan was for the CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre Hell in a Cell match to be the main event, and there remain “people on both sides of the discussion” at the moment.

There are definitely arguments for both matches to headline the show. The Punk-McIntyre feud has been one of the best things in WWE all year. If this ends up being the blow-off match to their rivalry, it would be a perfectly fine choice for the main-event spot.

On the other hand, everything in WWE has been built around the Bloodline angle for two years running. Plus, this will be Roman’s first match since losing the undisputed WWE universal title to Rhodes at WrestleMania.

The tag match also figures to further the storyline build to a possible Reigns-Fatu match at WrestleMania 41. There is also the upcoming Survivor Series: WarGames event on Nov. 2 that could end up featuring a Bloodline Civil War, especially with rumors that Jimmy Uso could be returning soon.

If you have all of that going on, not to mention Rhodes and Reigns teaming up for the first time after their memorable feud, it’s hard not to argue that the tag bout is the most important match on the show.

SmackDown Expected to Be Three-Hour Show

Amid rumors earlier this week that WWE and USA were in talks to make SmackDown a three-hour show, the expectation is that will be the case starting in January.

Per Meltzer (h/t WrestleTalk), WWE is officially saying that nothing is finalized right now, but “they are likely waiting to make that announcement” until it becomes official.

WrestleVotes Radio (h/t WrestleTalk) reported on Sept. 19 that SmackDown is expected to become a three-hour show starting on Jan. 3.

Meltzer noted that financial details for the extra hour are not known and he was told “negotiations are ongoing” with the USA network at this point.

This is certainly going to be testing the limits of how much time wrestling fans are willing to commit to weekly shows. It hasn’t been confirmed that Raw, which will be a two-hour show starting Oct. 7 through the end of the year, is going to remain three hours when it debuts on Netflix on Jan. 6.

Since Netflix isn’t held to the same scheduling constraints that USA is, Raw could vary in length from week to week depending on how much stuff is booked for the show.

But if Raw stays at three hours with SmackDown moving to three hours, that’s already six hours of programming to keep up with each week. In weeks with a standard premium live event, they will add another roughly three hours on Saturdays.

With SummerSlam going to two nights next year and WrestleMania being a two-night event, then fans could be looking at up to 14 hours of programming in a week. The third hour of Raw was a nice financial boost for WWE, but the final hour routinely drags down the overall rating.

WWE’s popularity is on fire right now, but there is a risk of burning out your audience at some point. But a three-hour SmackDown will also mean more money television money, so that will outweigh any other concerns.

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