With SmackDown Live set to move from USA to the FOX network starting on October 4, many fans have wondered what kind of changes the show will see once the Blue Brand moves to network television. Based on a tweet that started going viral this week, it appears one of those changes will be the show’s logo.
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An image of a reported Fox advertisement started making the rounds on social media this week showing WWE Champion Kofi Kingston, Roman Reigns, Charlotte Flair and Bayley alongside a new SmackDown logo, which appears to have dropped the “Live” portion of its name.
Looks like they’re rebranding SD completely for FOX. Advertisement showed off the dope new SD logo and I think a theme.#SDLive pic.twitter.com/eZ9KWIL13J
— #Y2Legend (@Y2Legend) June 12, 2019
WWE has not confirmed whether or not this new logo is the official one for the show of if this is an elaborate photoshop creation. Only time will tell.
FOX reportedly paid WWE $1 billion for a five-year contract to air SmackDown weekly. The show will move to Friday nights, but will continue to be two hours long. ESPN executive vice president Burke Magnus recently stated in an interview that the show nearly wound up on the sports network instead of FOX.
“We did talk to WWE during their process some months ago,” Magnus said. “Took a hard look at it, we’re obviously big fans of them. We just went into business with them on the XFL indirectly. But we couldn’t find a fit for it, primarily based on schedule.”
“As you know, those properties are 52 weeks a year live,” he added. “And I’m proud to say we have a pretty good problem, which is that we can’t clear anything 52 weeks a year live. We have a pretty full portfolio of content as it is.”
After nearly three years of having a strict brand split between SmackDown and Raw, WWE has recently started to tear down that divide with the “Wild Card Rule,” which allows various wrestlers to jump back and forth between brands. Vince McMahon originally stated that only four wrestlers could go from one show to another on a given night, but that rule has been broke almost every week.
SmackDown was the highest-rated original program on cable on Tuesday night, though its ratings dropped back below two million with 1.93.
