WWE is a hot product right now which is evident by all of the money NBC and Fox are willing to drop on Raw and SmackDown Live. But it looks like things got pretty heated when WWE was trying to find a new television home because a Fox executive apparently questioned NBC’s loyalty to WWE’s product in a big way.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Marisa Gutherie reported that Fox Co-Chairman Rubert Murdoch told WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon that “[NBC is] embarrassed by your product,” while referring to Raw.
Fox and WWE reportedly agreed to a massive $1.025 billion five-year which will see SmackDown airing on Fox starting in October 2019. It isn’t known if SmackDown will continue to be live, but a lot of analysts are guessing that it will be considering the fact that Fox is paying so much.
This leaves other unanswered questions like what will happen to 205 Live and if WWE on Fox will be affected by any other sporting events later on. But for over $1 billion WWE is probably going to work around any semantics.
It is interesting that Murdoch would reportedly say this considering WWE’s relationship with NBC Universal that has spanned a great deal of time. If NBC was embarrassed to have WWE on their channels then you would think this wouldn’t be the first time we’re hearing about it.
At this point, NBC hasn’t spoken out about how they feel about WWE but the huge price tag they agreed to pay for Raw might be an indication that they’re at least going to stand by the product. After all, it is still making money and is the only real successful show on USA Network, not only that but USA Network is also airing the upcoming Miz and Mrs show later this summer. Only time will tell how this will affect anything but it looks like there might have been a lot more going on behind closed doors than we actually saw.
