WWE reportedly planning to utilize 28-year-old female star more after SmackDown becomes 3-hour show 

Some underutilized talent in the WWE locker room may finally get their time to shine as SmackDown moves to three hours in 2025.

WWE reportedly planning to utilize 28-year-old female star more after SmackDown becomes 3-hour show 

WWE plans to utilize Blair Davenport more as SmackDown moves to three hours (via WWE)

WWE has figured out a great recipe for its three-hour weekly episodic shows. A few years ago, sitting through three hours for an episode of Raw felt like a nightmare. However, SmackDown has now also been bumped up an hour, which may be a huge buff for the show. Furthermore, it may mean great things for superstars like Blair Davenport.

According to Chris Prolific, the extra hour added to SmackDown will be focused on showcasing the underutilized talent on the WWE roster. A major name discussed for more TV time is Blair Davenport, who is expected to be appearing more frequently on the blue brand this year.

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It was usually the women’s segments that used to suffer due to a lack of time. When Raw moved back to two hours in 2024, the very first such episode featured a 10-woman tag match, where WWE tried to shove most of the female talent on Raw into a single segment. Each woman got less than a minute each during the match, and they were quickly shoved aside to make room for other things.

The first-ever 3-hour episode of SmackDown was received very well by the WWE Universe. Furthermore, the women’s segments really benefitted due to the added hour. Nia Jax and Naomi put together an incredible match, partially thanks to the extra time they got. Furthermore, Tiffany Stratton had the moment of her career, cashing in Money in the Bank to become WWE Women’s Champion.

Why Blair Davenport’s main roster callup from NXT has been a huge disaster

Blair Davenport was called up to the main roster on Night 2 of the 2024 WWE Draft. She was accompanied by other female talents like Lyra Valkyria and Kiana James. Tiffany Stratton had already become a main roster member at the beginning of 2024. At the time, it felt like WWE had completely cleared out the women’s main event scene on NXT.

Blair Davenport
Blair Davenport (via WWE)

It turns out that this was for no good reason, as the promotion did not have many plans for this talent other than for the current WWE Women’s Champion. Davenport has only had four televised matches since being drafted in April. Apart from that, she has been competing in dark matches, live events, and WWE Speed. Fans criticized the promotion for this decision.

Fans argued that she should have been put in the NXT Women’s Championship picture against Roxanne Perez instead. The developmental brand’s women’s division was also weak at that time, after all. However, at least she is doing better than some of the other call-ups this year. After barely using him since his call-up, WWE did not renew Baron Corbin‘s contract and was let go.

Dijak is also no longer with the company. Ilja Dragunov, despite being severely nerfed on the main roster, was doing fairly well for himself but will now spend a lot of time on the shelf after suffering a torn ACL.

Related: SmackDown star Blair Davenport gets married to 26-year-old WWE star; several AEW and WWE stars react