So many times it’s what we didn’t want that ends up working out the best for us, and for Fox is looks like that’s what happened when they got Smackdown instead of Raw.
In what was reportedly a bidding war according to Dave Meltzer, Fox failed to get the WWE flagship show because USA had the right to match any offer and they did. They refused to match the offer for Smackdown, and so the show moved to Fox on Friday night in October 2019.
Meltzer talked about it on a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio:
“You know WWE got that big increase, but it was a unique situation because it was multiple bidders. The deal was FOX wanted Raw, not SmackDown. USA had the right to match any offer, and so they matched the offer that FOX bid for Raw. And then FOX, at that point, wanted SmackDown. And at that point, USA had spent so much money on Raw, it was just kind of like, ‘We’re not going to match you for SmackDown,’ but that’s how the numbers went way up.”
Win-win
While it’s something many of us don’t think about in this day and age when everyone has cable, satellite dish, or streaming services, Fox getting Smackdown bumped the show up to the WWE’s top show because they reach more people.
Fox is on broadcast television while USA is a cable channel that not every package may have, so the numbers along helped out tremendously.
Given Raw’s anemic performance in the ratings the last couple of years, we’re curious if being on a broadcast network would serve them better and if Fox or another network will be a future home to Raw.
But it’s more than the numbers
It’s easy to get lost in the networks and numbers and say this or that is the reason for Smackdown doing better and being considered the “A” show for WWW, but For the last couple of years Smackdown has been the better show creative wise.
While both are still shadows of their former selves, the creative direction on Smackdown has been far more consistent with multiple storylines involving Roman Reigns and the Bloodline.
It’s simple, basic storytelling at it’s best and it’s helped Smackdown move ahead of Raw.
Raw, on the other hand, often feels like an early wrestling video game where matches and feuds are thrown together at the last second and the overall quality has been rough at best with a few decent episodes scattered about.
While there have been plenty of reports that both USA and Fox have regularly demanded better programming, it’s pretty clear Fox came out the leader in this seemingly out of the luck of the draw.
Will Fox get Smackdown next time, or will the networks swap shows? Let us know in the comments below.
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