Report: FOX Owner Rupert Murdoch Said NBCU Was “Embarrassed” By WWE

Those sound like fighting words. In what is likely to be the biggest wrestling story of the year, WWE will be moving SmackDown Live over to the FOX network in October 2019. The deal, worth over a billion dollars in a five year agreement, will see WWE TV on its biggest platform ever. That being said, it goes without saying that such a deal would involve some bargaining, which seems to have gotten fairly nasty this time around, at least in one particular area.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the meeting where the deal went down (more details can be found here) saw FOX owner Rupert Murdoch and other FOX executives meeting with the WWE contingent. During the meeting, Murdoch turned things a little more vicious by saying that NBC Universal was “embarrassed by the WWE product, which wouldn’t be the case at FOX. Instead, Murdoch laid out his vision for the partnership, which will include WWE programming being advertised during FOX’s mainstream sports coverage.

After the meeting was over, Murdoch’s son Lachlan called Vince McMahon himself to say this would be the marriage of the McMahon and Murdoch empires, comprised of rebels who build media empires. That line was enough for McMahon and the deal was made, though it has yet to be publicly announced.

What could be embarrassing about something like this?

Bobby Lashley ends Sami Zayn's disrespectful hoax: Raw, May 21, 2018

Opinion: I can’t say I’m surprised by things getting a bit more personal like this, but I find it hard to believe that a company giving WWE over a hundred million dollars a year to air Monday Night Raw is embarrassed by the product. It benefits WWE to be on FOX, but that’s quite a leap in logic to me. At least WWE sounds like it’s going to be in a good place with the new deal, and that should be good for all fans.

Do you like WWE being on both networks? How big could this be for WWE? Let us know in the comments below

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 27 wrestling books. His latest book is the NXT: The Full Sail Years Volume III: From Dallas To New Orleans.

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