MLB World Series Will Preempt WWE SmackDown Live In October

The fourth edition of SmackDown Live on FOX will be preempted this October due to the World Series.

MLB’s World Series schedule reveals that game three of the Series will take place on Friday, October 25th. WWE will still be holding SmackDown that night in Kansas City, Missouri, so the belief is that the show will air that night on FS1.

Looking at FOX’s sports schedule, this looks like the only week of the year where WWE will be preempted.

Tickets for the October 25th edition of SmackDown at the Sprint Center in Kansas City officially go on sale this Friday, which brought the matter to the media’s attention. However, with the presale code “FRIDAY” tickets will be available on Wednesday morning.

WWE officially announced that the first edition of SmackDown on FOX, which occurs on Friday, October 4th, will be a 20th anniversary celebration of the show and include the return of several stars from the past. SmackDown debuted as a weekly series in August 1999, though a pilot of the show was held in April 1999.

The list of stars announced for the FOX debut show include Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Sting, Kurt Angle, Lita, Mick Foley, Booker T, Goldberg, Trish Stratus, Mark Henry and Jerry “The King” Lawler.

“SmackDown has been delivering action-packed, family-friendly programming for two decades, and we look forward to entertaining generations to come as we begin this next chapter on FOX,” Vince McMahon said in the press release on Monday.

“Since we announced our five-year agreement last June, we have been eagerly counting down the days to the launch of SmackDown LIVE on FOX Sports,” Eric Shanks, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Producer of FOX Sports, said in the release. “We couldn’t be more excited and are pulling out all of the stops to commemorate SmackDown’s 20th anniversary celebration.”