''WWE Speed'' is an American

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

streaming television program produced by

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

. It airs on the social media platform X and premiered with two episodes on April 3, 2024. ''Speed'' features wrestlers from WWE's

Raw Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...

, SmackDown, and

NXT NXT may refer to: Professional wrestling * '' WWE NXT'', a professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that began in 2010 ** NXT (WWE brand), WWE's Florida-based brand and former developmental territory * '' NXT UK'', the British spi ...

brands. Episodes have one match each with a time limit of three minutes for regular episodes and five minutes for special episodes for the WWE Speed Championship and the WWE Speed Women's Championship. Matches for ''Speed'' are taped in conjunction with WWE's main weekly television programs, ''

Monday Night Raw ''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that currently airs live every Monday at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network in the United States. The show fe ...

'' and ''

Friday Night SmackDown ''WWE SmackDown'', also known as ''Friday Night SmackDown'' or simply ''SmackDown'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that as of currently airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Fox Deportes sim ...

'', and generally occur before the start of said programs.

History

On February 7, 2024, the American

promotion

filed to trademark the name "WWE Speed" for an in-ring program in which the concept would be that the

professional wrestling match Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...

es would have a five-minute time limit. The concept was first tested as dark matches before the December 15, 2023, taping of '' SmackDown''. On February 8 during the

WrestleMania XL WrestleMania XL is the upcoming 40th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It will be held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event is scheduled ...

Kickoff press conference, WWE announced a partnership with X to introduce ''WWE Speed'', which would stream weekly on the social media platform. The deal between WWE and X was confirmed for two years. It was also revealed that the matches for each episode would be exclusive to the platform and would not be repurposed from WWE's other programs, and it would feature wrestlers from all three of WWE's

brands A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

, SmackDown, and

. On March 27, WWE commentator

Corey Graves Matthew Polinsky (born February 24, 1984) is an American wrestling color commentator and retired professional wrestler currently signed to WWE as a commentator and analyst for ''Raw'' and ''SmackDown'' under the ring name Corey Graves. He is a ...

announced that ''Speed'' would premiere on Wednesday, April 3, but matches would instead be three minutes in length. Also announced was a

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

to crown the inaugural

WWE Speed Champion The WWE Speed Championship is a men's professional wrestling Professional wrestling championship, internet championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion, promotion WWE, available to wrestlers from all three of ...

for men. The debut episode, which was uploaded at 12 p.m.

Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small port ...

(ET), saw

Ricochet A ricochet ( ; ) is a rebound, bounce, or skip off a surface, particularly in the case of a projectile. Most ricochets are caused by accident and while the force of the deflection decelerates the projectile, it can still be energetic and almost ...

defeat Dragon Lee. Roughly 30 minutes later, WWE uploaded a second episode in which

Bronson Reed Jermaine Haley (born 25 August 1988) is an Australian professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Bronson Reed. He is a former NXT North American Champion. Professional wrestling ca ...

defeated Cedric Alexander. Graves served as the sole commentator for the episodes. While episodes thus far have only featured matches with male wrestlers, during a conversation on X Spaces on May 1, 2024, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque confirmed that the program would also eventually feature women's matches; this led to the announcement of the WWE Speed Women's Championship on August 9, 2024, where he also announced that there would be a tournament that would begin on September 4, 2024, to determine the inaugural champion. While the program typically airs on Wednesdays, a special Friday airing occurred on May 3, 2024. This episode, which was the seventh episode overall, saw Ricochet defeat Johnny Gargano to become the inaugural Speed Champion. This episode also confirmed that championship matches would air on Fridays and would have a five-minute time limit instead of the regular three.

On-air personalities

Commentators

Ring announcers

References

{{Professional wrestling in the United States Television series by WWE WWE Raw WWE SmackDown WWE NXT 2024 American television series debuts 2024 web series debuts 2020s American television series American non-fiction web series Twitter