WWE Fans Notice SmackDown Live Had A Different Visual Feel This Week

The final edition of SmackDown Live on the USA Network this week seemed to feature some technical differences when it came to the show’s broadcast.

From the on-set, fans commenting on social media seemed to be noticing a different look to the video feed, pointing out a more cinematic feel and perhaps a different frame rate present. This gave many the impression that WWE may have been testing out some things for their FOX debut next Friday night.

However, it’s unclear if the visual differences fans were noticing this week were due to the USA Network itself and how the feed was being difference, WWE doing something different on their production end, or something else. ComicBook will look to provide an update on Wednesday.

Tuesday night’s production did indeed seem to have a difference in frame rate upon closer examination. Sports are typically presented at 60 FPS (frames per second) and SmackDown appeared to be much slower this week. The technical information during the broadcast on various streaming platforms advertised 60 FPS but this show clearly was not up to that rate.

While many fans were commenting that this issue could be due to new cameras (it had previously been reported that SmackDown on FOX would feature some new equipment), it’s not clear that was the reason for the visual difference on Tuesday night. In fact, it is most likely that cameras themselves were not the reason for the differences. One industry insider noted to me that it seemed to be an encoding issue with how the feed itself was being delivered rather than different cameras being used.

Once again, we will likely have more on this week’s SmackDown production and what caused these visual differences on Wednesday.