Figure Four Weekly: Looking at SmackDown’s move to FOX

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While much of the focus has been on the AEW vs. NXT Wednesday Night War, WWE main roster television materially changes this week with SmackDown’s FOX premiere.

The magnitude of WWE airing live on network television every week has been apparent since news of the FOX move broke, but it didn’t fully set in until FOX started promoting the show. WWE personalities have been featured on FOX’s most valuable sports properties, with them appearing on NFL, college football, and MLB coverage. The promotion WWE would get on FOX was said to be one of the selling points of the deal, and FOX has already been as great of a partner as WWE could have hoped for. The promotional opportunities that FOX affords have the potential to make a real difference for WWE. Not every appearance will go perfectly (FOX’s Mark Schlereth saying Rey Mysterio was “like Nacho Libre” was pretty lame), but wrestlers being positioned as on the same level as other professional sports stars in FOX’s portfolio is gigantic for WWE.

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