The Strange Reason Why Talking Smack Isn’t Airing On Fox Sports 1

They weren’t interested. The WWE Network has completely changed the way the wrestling industry works. Instead of having just the same television shows and time slots that have been around for years, That changed in February 2014 when the WWE Network arrived and offered viewers a brand new way to watch wrestling. In addition to the streaming was a host of original content, some of which WWE was unwilling to move up to the next level.

One of the things that WWE offered on the WWE Network were some post shows, including Raw Talk and Talking Smack. The shows featured interviews and recaps of their respective television shows, often with some rather intense discussions. Talking Smack certainly had its niche with Daniel Bryan and Renee Young as hosts, but both were eventually canceled. They are now back, but WWE had an interesting take with Talking Smack.

This Friday night, SmackDown will be airing on FOX Sports 1 instead of FOX due to the World Series, with a special edition of Backstage following. According to PWInsider.com, the original plan was to air an hour of Talking Smack instead but WWE shot the idea down. It is not clear why WWE decided to make the change to Backstage. Talking Smack is still scheduled to air on the WWE Network on Saturday morning.

Talking Smack is a cool show. Check out some of its better moments from the original run:

Opinion: This is kind of a weird decision, but I can understand the idea of trying to protect the WWE Network show. That being said, you would think putting a show on national television would be preferred to the streaming service but maybe they want to run two different shows. Either way, Talking Smack being back is a good thing and I’m still not sure why it was canceled in the first place.

What is your favorite WWE studio show? Which show should air on Friday night? 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 30 wrestling books. 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. Thank you for reading!