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A new report has surfaced revealing that WWE and FOX have had several high-level meeting over the last few months.
According to Fightful Select, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan met FOX Sports CEO Eric Shanks and FS Head of Production Brad Zager for dinner at the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas one night before SummerSlam from Allegiant Stadium. Reports are that the two sides conversed for over four hours, with WWE feeling quite productive once it was over.
In an effort to appease their partners at FOX McMahon and Khan decided to pull an upcoming episode of Monday Night Raw from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and instead host an episode of Friday Night SmackDown at the venue since FOX is based in LA. That show is reportedly going to take place on December 10th, but WWE has yet to issue an official statement.
As far as the relationship between WWE and FOX the publication was told that there was some disappointment from FOX in WWE, citing SmackDown’s poor ratings failing to meet previous expectations. However, Fighful adds that due to the COVID-19 pandemic it is not known where those numbers would have leveled out, nor did anyone expect such an event to occur when the original deal was signed. WWE and FOX are aware that SmackDown is the most-watched wrestling program in the world.
The report also touches on FOX owner Rupert Murdoch and his portrayal in the upcoming scripted Vince McMahon series (The United States of America vs. Vince McMahon), which was said to be a poor portrayal and was a “childish move” that will not help the relationship between the two companies at all. Murdoch personally met with Stephanie, WWE’s Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development Triple H and other WWE executives in May 2018, and said FOX would welcome them as they were after it was said USA Network was embarrassed and ashamed of WWE programming. The relationship between Vince McMahon and Murdoch is said to be “of great respect.”
Earlier this summer it was reported how FOX officials were not happy with SmackDown constantly being used to promote WWE events on the Peacock platform as this is a competitor to their own streaming service. Fightful notes how another FOX source responded to general concerns and acknowledged that the network has not been “over the moon” about constantly promoting another network’s streaming service with WWE’s pay-per-view events airing on Peacock, but WWE and FOX sources have insisted that there has been no issue there. FOX is has also been very pleased with WWE stacking the roster for their return to live events.