The current era of WWE SmackDown on USA Network has changed formats several times, going from two to three hours in length over the past year and a half. The latest change took place last Friday, with the blue brand returning to the two-hour format. A change that has been well received by the majority of fans, but not by some talents on the roster.
One such case is Brie Bella, who had a brief match against Lainey Reid on Friday's episode of SmackDown. The WWE Women's Tag Team Champion regretted not having more action time, although she understood it. She explained this in the most recent edition of Nikki & Brie Show, where she also revealed that the blue brand will return to the three-hour format in winter.
"As everyone could see in last Friday's episode of Friday Night SmackDown, I finally had an individual match. I had been proposing the idea of having a solo fight for a long time. I had been wanting it for a long time. So, when they finally told me, I was like 'I'm going to have an individual match!'. It made me very excited," she said.
"When they told me the time I would have… it discouraged me. But I also understand that SmackDown is back to being two hours long. It will be a two-hour show until January," she continued. "So suddenly, when you have all these stories developing on SmackDown and you go from a three-hour format to a two-hour one, everyone is fighting for TV time again and they have to condense a lot of things. Part of me understood that."
"I'm not going to lie, I was disappointed. But this is how I see it: they tried to fit a lot of things into the show. Obviously, I'm always grateful to be part of the lineup. Did I make jokes about it? Yes. When I returned backstage, Paige and I were commenting: 'How is it possible that I wasted my time?'. Or that: 'If there's someone we can take three minutes from, it's Brie Bella, because she comes from the Divas Era'. Yes, I made those kinds of jokes," she stated.
"Paige asked me sincerely: 'Are you disappointed?'. And I'm not going to lie. I'm not here to flatter anyone or make others feel good about themselves. Of course, I was disappointed. I think I left the fans wanting more. I'll even admit that when they told me how much time I would have before arriving at the venue, I got angry. But then I thought: 'You know what? Look at what I do to make a living'," she concluded.
The match between Brie and Lainey on SmackDown was not only the shortest of the night (barely 3 minutes and twenty seconds long), but also Bella's first individual match since her return to the company, as well as Reid's first individual match as a main roster talent. The victory of the Fatal Influence member allowed the faction to have a new opportunity for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships in the next edition of Saturday Night's Main Event.
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