The Friday Night Wars will begin tonight when AEW competes with WWE’s main roster for the first time. As we reported yesterday, the two promotions will be on basic cable tonight, making it the first time an AEW show and a WWE main roster show will be on an even playing field on the same night. AEW President and CEO Tony Khan is looking forward to the opportunity for his upstart promotion to compete with WWE’s established brand.
WWE isn’t taking AEW lightly, as the promotion has announced a stacked card for Friday night. Since WWE will be airing on cable instead of broadcast TV, the promotion will make SmackDown a supersized show that will air for 2 and a half hours, with no commercials for the last 30 minutes.
Tonight’s cards are loaded with talent as both companies are pulling out all of the stops to attract the most viewers, especially in the 18-49 demographic. Fans will be in attendance for both promotions; however, cord cutters can find out how to watch AEW and WWE without cable below.
When to Watch AEW and WWE’s Friday Night Showdown
The first entry into the Friday Night War will be a 90-minute battle between AEW and WWE. WWE Friday Night SmackDown! will be a supersized edition that will air from 8-10:30 PM ET on FS1. The show will air live from Toyota Arena in Ontario, California, and the last 30 minutes will be commercial-free.
AEW will have a live hour-long Buy-In lead-in show beginning at 9 PM ET on the company’s YouTube page. A live episode of AEW Rampage will directly follow at 10 PM ET, on TNT, from the James L. Night Center in Miami, Florida.
The match cards for all of Friday night’s wrestling are listed below.
WWE SmackDown! Match Card (8 PM ET on FS1)
- “The Man” Becky Lynch vs. “The Boss” Sasha Banks [Main Event]
- Brock Lesner makes his return to SmackDown!
- Carmella vs. Zelina Vega [Queen of the Crown Semifinals]
- Finn Balor vs. Sami Zayn [King of the Ring Semifinals]
- Naomi vs. Sonya Deville
The Buy-In Match Card (9 PM ET on YouTube)
- Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki
- Bobby Fish vs. Lee Moriarty
AEW Rampage Match Card (10 PM ET on TNT)
- CM Punk vs. Matt Sydal
- Ruby Soho vs. The Bunny
- The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, TNT Champion Sammy Guevara and Jake Hager) vs. Men of The Year (Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky) and Junior Dos Santos (w/ Jorge Masvidal and Dan Lambert)
How to Watch WWE SmackDown and AEW’s Rampage and Buy-In Without Cable
Cord cutters have a few different choices when it comes to all of Friday night’s grappling action inside of the squared circle.
AEW’s YouTube: The Buy-In will be broadcasted on YouTube and available to stream on any compatible device.
TNT and FS1 are available on many popular streaming platforms. Fans can find out which streaming services carry the networks below.
| Channel | DirecTV Stream | fuboTV | Hulu with Live | Sling Orange | Sling Blue | YouTube TV |
| $69.99 | $64.99 | $64.99 | $35 | $35 | $64.99 | |
| TNT | X | X | X | X | X | |
| FS1 | X | X | X | X |