WWE: SummerSlam Update, More on New Rule for Brands, Money in the Bank’s Show Length

WWE’s Current Plans for SummerSlam 2020’s Status

As noted before, this year’s SummerSlam event in Boston, Massachusetts is currently in serious doubt due to the city’s public gatherings ban being expected to last at least until early September. WWE is currently rumored to be working on contingency plans should the event need to take place elsewhere and/or at a later date.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Vince McMahon is currently determined to have a live crowd for this year’s event. The current feeling within the company is that McMahon likely will push back the event’s date to September if it means a better possibility that fans would be allowed to attend.

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More on WWE’s New Brand-to-Brand Invitation Rule for RAW & SmackDown

As noted before, WWE introduced a new form of their “Wild Card” rule for their RAW and SmackDown brands, which was revealed at this past Monday’s episode of RAW.

While WWE initially was vague about this new rule, it appeared that at least one talent from each brand would be allowed to appear on the opposite brand’s show each week.

During this past Friday’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown, Michael Cole provided more details on this new rule and stated that every WWE superstar will be allowed to appear on the opposite brand four times per year.

RAW’s Charlotte was the first talent to officially use up one of her allowed appearances while SmackDown’s Baron Corbin and RAW’s AJ Styles are currently scheduled to use up one of their allowed appearances for next week’s shows.

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Note on Money in the Bank’s Show Length

This past weekend’s Money in the Bank event featured both a cinematic style match produced for the Men’s and Women’s Money in the Bank matches and a shorter than usual pay-per-view show run time.

This year’s event was around two hours and twenty-four minutes in length, which is much shorter than the usual length of around three hours for WWE pay-per-view events. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE currently does not have an internal doctrine in place stating that pay-per-view events have to be shorter in length due to the current empty arena nature of their shows and the decision for a shorter length was made specifically for Money in the Bank, although this could become a general rule going forward until fans are allowed back.