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WWE officially announced this morning that after Wrestlemania 34, all PPVs will be co-branded and feature "the best of Raw and Smackdown Live" stars, beginning with the 5/6 Backlash PPV in Newark, NJ. The announcement was made in an email to WWE Network subscribers, touting the streaming service would give them "More of What you Want."
The move had been suspected after the Prudential Center, which is hosting Backlash, issued an email to ticketholders advising them that Raw and Smackdown stars would be appearing on what had been scheduled to be a Raw-exclusive PPV event. WWE officials declined to comment on what that move meant going forward and WWE talents had not been informed prior to this morning's announcement.
The dual-branded WWE PPV schedule going forward will feature:
| WrestleMania 34 | April 8 | New Orleans, LA |
| Backlash | May 6 | Newark, NJ |
| Money In The Bank | June 17 | Chicago, IL |
| Extreme Rules | July 15 | Pittsburgh, PA |
| Summerslam | August 19 | Brooklyn, NY |
| Hell In A Cell | September 16 | San Antonio, TX |
| WWE TLC | October 21 | Boston, MA |
| Survivor Series | November 18 | Los Angeles, CA |
| Clash Of Champions | December 16 | San Jose, CA |
The move is a rollback of a strategy that began with the brand split of the summer of 2016, which was done to support Smackdown as the series moved to live broadcasts on Tuesdays. The initial strategy for 2018 was to feature five dual-branded PPVs in The Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Money in the Bank, Summerslam and Survivor Series.
The new plan means less PPVs as the company will now run 12 total in 2018, down from the initially planned 14 for 2018. WWE has eliminated the Payback PPV set for this May in Baltimore altogether and will not run a PPV on that date. Their 9/30 Smackdown exclusive Hell in a Cell PPV has been moved to 9/16 as a dual-branded show, replacing the originally planned Raw-exclusive Extreme Rules PPV. Extreme Rules has been bumped up to July as a dual-branded show, replacing the originally planned Raw Battleground PPV.
The new strategy will mean also the elimination of Sunday evening live events for the brands on PPV weekends as well, meaning the company will run fewer live events total.
It should be noted that there has also been a story circulating within the company (which we have not confirmed yet) that with the change, all PPVs will evolve into a four hour broadcast, not including Kickoff show. WWE did not announce that today.
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