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SMACKDOWN LIVE TO FOX, OCTOBER 2019


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On 7/2/2018 at 11:10 PM, Brian Fowler said:

I think boxing was why they originally went with Sunday

Yeah.  When they started, it was Sugar Ray Leonard, Iron Mike Tyson, and Marvin Hagler dominating headlines and boxing coming down from the golden age of the sport.  It's 30+ years later, and without looking it up, can you name who the Heavyweight champion of the world is?   Or frankly, any weight class?  

The stars in boxing are aging and the sport in general is in a dark period and UFC largely took over its upcoming fanbase, even though that sport is arguably, now in decline too. 

WWE could make the play for Saturday, but why would they?   First and foremost, they run into cable execs who are happy with people (and bars, mostly) paying $100 for the UFC/Boxing ppv of the week -- and who were told to go fuck themselves by the WWE when they launched the Network.   Also, why would WWE want to leave the day that, aside from the fall/winter, is their's alone.    

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On 7/5/2018 at 3:10 PM, Dolfan in NYC said:

The stars in boxing are aging and the sport in general is in a dark period

People who don't know any better have been saying this for the past 15 years. There's plenty to be excited about in boxing if you actually look, especially in Europe. I think the point you were clumsily trying to make is that there's no worldwide, cross-appeal, box office name-star in boxing and to that I would kind of agree. 

Oh and the heavyweight champion is Anthony Joshua, with America's great hope Deontay Wilder currently holding one of the belts.

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On 7/5/2018 at 8:10 AM, Dolfan in NYC said:

Yeah.  When they started, it was Sugar Ray Leonard, Iron Mike Tyson, and Marvin Hagler dominating headlines and boxing coming down from the golden age of the sport.  It's 30+ years later, and without looking it up, can you name who the Heavyweight champion of the world is?   Or frankly, any weight class?  

The stars in boxing are aging and the sport in general is in a dark period and UFC largely took over its upcoming fanbase, even though that sport is arguably, now in decline too. 

Snipped the part about WWE... It's funny that you mention both boxing and MMA being in decline when PPV $$$ are better than ever. I'll admit that boxing was a victim of its own success. When I was a kid you had ONE champion in each division and I could name the top ten contenders in the heavy, middle and lightweight divisions. Then suddenly you had the alphabet soup of sanctioning bodies and more weight classes than any sane person could keep track of. There's still a lot of great boxing action, for my part I'm a huge fan of Golovkin, and look forward to him laying an ass-whuppin on Canelo in Sept. 

MMA and the UFC in particular has learned that with the freakish exception of guys like Mighty Mouse, anyone can lose on any given night and trying to build up certain favorites as the face of the company is a mug's game at best. When freak losses and injuries are a constant threat, you have the more difficult road of selling the brand rather than individuals. What's tough about that is that the casuals don't want to spend the hours of researching fighters like some of us do; they want familiar faces to cheer for and they get upset when their favorites lose.  They didn't want to see Ronda get the snot kicked out of her by Holly Holm (unless you were from New Mexico, in which case you popped open the bubbly), they won't want to see an aging and slower Brock Lesnar get his ass handed to him next year, but that's what will likely happen. There isn't a real easy answer when your best fighters not named Bones Jones speak English as second language or are fairly inarticulate if it's their first language. These people are professional fighters, they aren't pro wrestlers with loads of coaching on how to be a great interview. UFC has to go above and beyond to sell the product to the casual viewer and quit worrying about manufacturing "stars" who are ultimately going to crash and burn. Sell the steak, not the sizzle. If you take the time to explain why fighter A vs. fighter B will be an exciting fight, people will watch.

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Sports Business Journal had a big breakdown of the UFC and WWE new TV deals.

You have to be a subscriber to read it but Meltzer broke it done in the new WON.

Some interesting little facts that I honestly can't remember if we knew already

- WWE did negotiate with ESPN but they both agreed it wouldn't work because no matter what day of the week ESPN would have to pre-empt the show for live sports fairly frequently

- Another source though claims that the WWE actually turned ESPN down because FOX was offering them the Network TV slot.

- The numbers the WWE gave NBC Universal were $260 million to keep RAW, $200 million to keep Smackdown. That is why they decided to focus only RAW

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Meltzer is reporting that Fox has told WWE they went less comedy on Smackdown and have it be more "sports-like."  

Fox is supposedly going to build up a "Weekend sports block" for the 2019-20 season with the NFL on Thursday, Smackdown on Friday, and football on Sundays  (or baseball on Saturdays later on).  

So, I guess enjoy those New Day segments while you can? 

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Do the people at Fox know what they bought? It's like they thought they were buying a Tesla off of eBay, but what they're going to get is a Segway with a funny horn attached.

Jesus, this is going to get cancelled or shipped off to FS1 so fast.

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1 hour ago, Craig H said:

Do the people at Fox know what they bought? It's like they thought they were buying a Tesla off of eBay, but what they're going to get is a Segway with a funny horn attached.

Jesus, this is going to get cancelled or shipped off to FS1 so fast.

Especially the Smackdown crew.  I mean all the serious angles are on RAW so maybe you can get away with it.  But Smackdown has guys thrown pancakes all over the place, guys with rubber sledgehammers,  and Corey Graves and Bryon Saxton acting like 1980's stereotypical territory commentators.  If they want the product to be more serious, the first thing they have to do is hit the mute button

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11 minutes ago, keith_h said:

We can only hope they just turn Smackdown into a 2 hour NXT.

I had a dream where SDL also became 3 hours and it was terrible.

SDL being a 2 hour version of NXT wouldn't be the worst thing, especially with the current roster. I mean, the roster as it is now is amazing for a sports build.

Now watch them re-draft and send most of these guys to Raw and then give Jinder another run at the top on SDL.

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6 hours ago, Craig H said:

Do the people at Fox know what they bought? It's like they thought they were buying a Tesla off of eBay, but what they're going to get is a Segway with a funny horn attached.

Jesus, this is going to get cancelled or shipped off to FS1 so fast.

They know exactly what they bought. They shelled out for brand recognition. And Vince and co. are going to dance for their meal. Or not dance. Whatever Fox wants.

But yeah, count me among those who thinks this is bound for FS1 very quickly. 

New Day doesn't need to split. If Fox is serious about this, a move to Raw is likely. What New Day's really needed for a while now is for guys to pursue singles titles while the group is still active. That's still their biggest need. They're one of the most popular acts in the company. They've long-since earned a jump to the next level. 

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On 10/19/2018 at 1:24 PM, Dolfan in NYC said:

Meltzer is reporting that Fox has told WWE they went less comedy on Smackdown and have it be more "sports-like."  

Fox is supposedly going to build up a "Weekend sports block" for the 2019-20 season with the NFL on Thursday, Smackdown on Friday, and football on Sundays  (or baseball on Saturdays later on).  

So, I guess enjoy those New Day segments while you can? 

Very good news.  Less Vince-ism is welcome.

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21 hours ago, Web Conn said:

I for one think it's high time that the New Day Freebird Rules a single title.

 

Nobody should ever Freebird rule a singles title. How shitty are title changes when someone defends it for someone else because of injury? It's a ripoff.

Look at the shit Fox has on Friday nights now. WWE will be fine.

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1 hour ago, Dewar said:

Nobody should ever Freebird rule a singles title. How shitty are title changes when someone defends it for someone else because of injury? It's a ripoff.

Look at the shit Fox has on Friday nights now. WWE will be fine.

Doc and Teddy losing the tab belts when Bob Sweetan was a substitute is always glaring in the record book. 

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On 10/19/2018 at 10:54 AM, Dolfan in NYC said:

Meltzer is reporting that Fox has told WWE they went less comedy on Smackdown and have it be more "sports-like."  

Fox is supposedly going to build up a "Weekend sports block" for the 2019-20 season with the NFL on Thursday, Smackdown on Friday, and football on Sundays  (or baseball on Saturdays later on).  

So, I guess enjoy those New Day segments while you can? 

They have College football on Saturday also with Big 12 or Big 10 match ups

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Forget DC, we need Josh Barnett to be brought in if that's the case. Have him play the street-tough grandson of Jim M'boy Barnett. This stuff writes itself. Quite how it all ties into the Stud Stable debuting on Fox is something @BEN! will have to figure out

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