By Jason Powell, Prowrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Colin Cowherd spoke about attending the WWE Smackdown television event on Tuesday in Los Angeles and seemed to drop a hint about the company moving it’s programming to Fox. “It’s really a professionally run organization and we laughed for two hours,” Cowherd said. Moments later, he closed the show by saying, “Coming to a network near you.”
Powell’s POV: As previously noted, Fox Sports president Eric Shanks and Fox talent producer Jacob Ullman attended the show with Cowherd. There has been a lot of talk about Fox’s interest in WWE programming and perhaps even in purchasing the company. WWE’s television deal with NBCU expires on September 30, 2019. It’s worth noting that NBCU has an exclusive negotiating window with WWE that expires sometime this spring. However, WWE can discuss a potential sale, and Vince McMahon has declared that they are “open for business” in that regard. Obviously, if Fox were to acquire the company or a major portion of it then it’s safe to assume that WWE programming would be Fox television bound. At the very least, Fox executives sitting in the front row at Smackdown certainly gives the impression that they are interested in WWE television rights, which gives WWE a lot of leverage with NBCU heading into negotiations.
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Great, Fox is the worst. I assume they’ll insist on the Fox Robot being involved?
The end of an era. WWE survived because their owner was heavily invested. To Fox, WWE would be just another acquisition. The curse of WCW!