5 Surprising things that could happen on a new "sports-centric" WWE SmackDown on Fox
October 4th is the big day - WWE programming will be appearing on a weekly basis on a major US broadcast network. SmackDown Live will be moving to the Fox network this fall - but not all the current elements of the show will be going with it. It appears some big changes are afoot for the blue brand.
Word has it that Fox would like to see SmackDown become more, for lack of a better word, "sports-centric" - to have it feel less like "sports entertainment" (like how SmackDown and Raw currently are) and something closer to resembling Fox's current sports programming. That's not too surprising, considering that their sports department is one of Fox's big revenue drivers. But, it also presents some challenges to WWE.
Vince McMahon has always seemed to be apprehensive about presenting his product in any way that resembles "normal" sports. The Raw and SmackDown pre and post shows originally presented when the WWE Network first launched are long gone, and you never hear much about wins, losses, or any other "stats", unless it's to further a storyline. Basically, if it's a format that McMahon and company didn't create (even a time tested one), they don't seem to really want to adhere to it.
There's something to be said for that, of course, but now it looks like McMahon is going to have to - oh geez, please forgive me for this pun - play ball if he wants to get that larger audience that Fox can provide. But, that doesn't mean that there can't be a compromise, as well. Plus, as we saw during the Attitude Era, WWE can certainly rise up and meet a challenge when they really need to.
So, armed with nothing but our intuition and other.... brain... things... here are five ways we think WWE will integrate with Fox's current sports programming