While SmackDown has had its fair share of monumental moments since its 2002 inception, the Blue Brand has never been able to transcend its “B-Show” vibes. But $1 billion of Fox’s money may have just changed that.
On Monday, news broke that Fox officially purchased SmackDown’s television rights in a five-year deal paying WWE around $200 million annually. This is WWE’s first journey into network television—most would have put their chips behind RAW leading that charge. However, for the first time in WWE history, RAW will have to follow SmackDown.
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“SmackDown has to be the A show, their ratings will be the most important number for WWE’s finances long-term so therefore they’re gonna have to move top stars to SmackDown,” said Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio.
For too long, SmackDown paralleled a cobwebbed Montana estate Vince McMahon bought on a whim. While it’s a live show now, it used to be a mailed in, pretaped exhibition of middling Superstars on a channel that may be owned by Vladimir Putin.
It’s had a nice renaissance in recent years, but now Fox will command WWE to save its the best content for Friday nights. And that begins with stocking the “B-Show” with an incongruent amount of firepower.
With the Superstar Shake-Up WWE already has the mechanism to move talent from show to show. But the next installment could make RAW’s roster look like something Rachel Phelps designed.
There’s still a lot of pertinent issues to be settled. I’ll guess SmackDown remains a live show, but will it balloon the three hours? That’s impossible for a plebian like myself to know, but it has to be something Vince McMahon prays for every night. However, three hours is a doozie of a burden to carry on a weekly basis and WWE won’t have the same benefit of the doubt on fox as they do with NBCUniversal and the USA Network.
WWE and USA’s relationship stems back about 25 years and RAW has become a Monday night behemoth that the USA can put on autopilot. However on FOx, WWE will be under a new set of criticizing circumstances and the onus to perform will be demanding, to say the least.
However, history has taught us that it’s foolish to underestimate Vince McMahon. At 72-years old, the wrestling tycoon shows no signs of waning ambition. He’s seemingly placed the NFL in his maniacal crosshairs by his reboot of the failed XFL—a move that could be part of yet another Fox package down the road.
WWE became an American institution years ago. With no competition in the world of wrestling, it seems that WWE lacked the same fire that made it a monopoly. However while we all yeared for the Attitude Era, WWE was consumed with establishing itself across the globe. Now that that’s complete it will now vie to become Americans number one source of entertainment.
[H/T r/SqauredCircle]
