WWE announces SummerSlam will now be 4 hours long

On Monday, WWE announced via press release that the SummerSlam telecast will now be four hours long and will begin at 7 p.m. ET. Rumors had previously swirling that the company was considering expanding the event to four hours. Now we have confirmation!

This means that the top matches will have longer to play out and that the company will ostensibly have room for more matches, so it's likely that more storylines will be playing out on WWE television in the next few weeks.

The only confirmed match for SummerSlam thus far is the main event of Brock Lesnar vs. the Undertaker, but the rumored card includes a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match between Seth Rollins and John Cena, an Intercontinental Championship match between Ryback and Big Show, a WWE Tag Team Championship match between Prime Time Players and the New Day, a triple threat match between the warring Divas factions, Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro, Dolph Ziggler vs. Rusev and Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose (and possibly Sting) vs. the Wyatt Family. That's a lot of matches already and it still leaves players like Randy Orton and Sheamus with nothing to do for the time being.

The full press release from WWE:

STAMFORD, Conn., July 27, 2015 - WWE (NYSE: WWE) announced today that SummerSlam will expand from a three-hour show to a four-hour telecast live on WWE Network and now begin at 7pm ET on Sunday, August 23. SummerSlam joins WWE's annual pop-culture extravaganza, WrestleMania®, as the only two events with four hours of live non-stop action.

Emanating live from a sold-out Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, SummerSlam will feature WWE Superstars Undertaker® and Brock Lesnar® in a rematch of their historic WrestleMania 30 bout where Lesnar ended Undertaker's undefeated streak. In addition, WWE Network will also air a one-hour live SummerSlam Kick-Off Show starting at 6pm ET.

WWE Network is the only place to get all 12 WWE pay-per-views LIVE at no additional cost, exclusive original programming, and the most comprehensive video-on-demand library with more than 3,300 hours of content, including every WWE, WCW and ECW pay-per-view.

Like other digital subscription services, such as Netflix and Hulu, fans are able to sign up for WWE Network online by going to WWENetwork.com, and can watch WWE Network on their TVs through connected devices such as Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Roku streaming devices as well as Smart TVs including Sony and Samsung.

WWE Network is available in more than 175 countries and territories, and reached 1.3 million subscribers as of March 31, 2015.