Safe On That Front. Here’s Why SmackDown Live Can’t Go To Fox Sports 1.

There’s nothing wrong with some security. Later this year, SmackDown Live is moving over to FOX for the biggest television show that WWE has had in a very long time. With that opportunity also comes a lot of pressure, with FOX needing a higher audience with bigger ratings to validate the move. However, it seems that something fans have been fearing in case this doesn’t happen is off the table.

According to Wade Keller on the PW Torch post Monday Night Raw show, the wording of WWE’s contract with FOX says that SmackDown Live must air on the FOX network. Therefore, a move over to Fox Sports 1, a much lower level channel, is out of the question for the time being. What would not be out of the question though is moving the show to a much worse time slot than 8pm on Friday nights.

You’ll get the idea here. Check out a promo for SmackDown Live moving back in the day:

Opinion: That might be a relief for WWE viewers, but at the same time there is something to be said about the idea of FOX putting the show on at some horrible time like 2am on a Wednesday morning. This deal certainly has its perks, but WWE has a lot to live up to. If they can’t pull this off, it’s going to be one of the biggest wasted opportunities that they have ever had.

Do you think the show will stay in its original time slot? How successful will it be? 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 28 wrestling books. His latest book is the the Complete 2000 Monday Nitro and Thunder Reviews Part 1.

Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. We are proud to offer our popular Wrestling Rumors app and encourage you to download it for an optimized user experience. It is available for Android and also on iOS. Thank you for reading!