From the WWE rumor mill: Rumor killer on Vince McMahon's views of Talking Smack
What's the story?
According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the reports of why Vince McMahon decided to cancel Talking Smack are false. It was originally reported that Vince didn't like the unscripted nature of the show, but it was actually based on the viewership figures.
In case you didn't know...
Talking Smack was a show that debuted shortly after the brand split last year with host Renee Young and a few co-hosts joining her such as Daniel Bryan, Shane McMahon, and JBL. They would talk about the events of the Smackdown Live episode or pay per view prior, as well as interview the WWE Superstars.
The heart of the matter...
Meltzer indicated that the final edition of Talking Smack before its cancellation finished 18th overall in viewership. It was significantly behind two episodes of WWE's version of ECW in 2006 and the past two weeks of NXT.
A source with the WWE denied the story of Vince cancelling it due to the unscripted nature of the show not serving the best interests of the company. That source also iterated that they will continue the show after pay per views. The source reportedly said the following:
Despite all rumors, Vince doesn’t hate Talking Smack. Also, he does not watch it but gets a weekly report about it every Wednesday. The one thing he didn’t like was when the New Day appeared right after Kofi (Kingston) got cleared (the 5/23 episode). That was technically their Tuesday night debut and Vince felt the first Tuesday appearance should have happened on Smackdown.
The problem with this report is that it contradicts WWENetworknews.com, who stated that Talking Smack was in the top 5 most viewed Network shows and not as far high. WWENetwork news.com does have a good track record when it comes to Network figures.
What's next?
There will be a Talking Smack this Sunday on the WWE Network after the Battleground pay per view. Some of the major matches that will headline Battleground include the Punjabi Prison Match for the WWE Championship (Jinder Mahal vs. Randy Orton), the United States Championship match (Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles), and the Flag Match (John Cena vs. Rusev)
Author's take...
It is definitely disappointing that there is no more Talking Smack on a weekly basis. It was a show that I looked forward to after 205 Live on Tuesdays.
I'm not sure if the viewership is truly the reason as I have seen recent rankings of on demand content viewership of the WWE Network show Talking Smack as high as 5th in a recent week higher than 205 Live.