Opinion: How the current ratings of SmackDown Live could affect the Fox deal

WWE announced last year that in October 2019, SmackDown Live will have a new home on the Fox network. In terms of Fox having SmackDown, they want it to be presented in a more sports-oriented fashion rather than having a lot of entertainment and comedic segments.

This in itself presents a big problem for WWE who have not really been known to produce wrestling as anything but 'sports entertainment', with more focus on character work. Fox may end up having a lot of say on how the show gets presented and what the matches are for the shows, so as to garner high ratings.

WWE themselves have been struggling with television ratings and attendance figures for quite some time now. It seems that no matter how much they promise change and make the said alterations, the ratings continue to dwindle.

So where exactly is the company going wrong, and how will it impact their Fox deal? To answer this, we need to take a look at the problems.

Firstly, the company has a bad habit of inconsistent booking of superstars, and that affects their careers. Take for example the booking of Elias, Braun Strowman, and Finn Balor. Booking these superstars in feuds that have no meaning or consequences is doing no justice to them or their careers.

These superstars are popular with the fan base and having them in matches with Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley, and Drew McIntyre for months on end is not helping. It doesn't make any sense to have them feud for no reason at all. All six men deserve better than that, even Corbin, as much as we all dislike him.

Some of the matches on both shows are just filler and do not really need to take place, as there are no stakes, and clearly, they are just there to fill out time. All matches need to have some sort of reward or consequence, otherwise, it makes the audience tune out.

Another problem would be the formula the company seems to present its shows in. It has become quite predictable with how the shows are presented. SmackDown doesn't suffer as badly from it as Raw, but SmackDown will need to iron out the creases in its product.

It will probably face a lot of restructuring from the company to suit Fox's demands. Not too much will need to change as SmackDown has always focused on in-ring action rather than a lot of promos and comedy.

The company is going to have to continue implementing changes and unpredictability to its product in order to get the TV ratings up to where Fox wants them. It seems like a big task for the WWE for SmackDown to get 3 million or more viewers, as it has never quite got those high ratings in the past, and has been considered the 'B show'.

If there is any company in the world who could bounce back in bad times, it is WWE. It may have taken something like AEW to get them to change and also getting a new TV network deal with a big company like Fox, but they can certainly adapt.

Fox need to remember though that some choose to watch the product online and are only interested in certain storylines, so they may not get the high ratings they desire.

They could alter the product all they want and it still may not improve the ratings much if at all. It will be interesting to see what Fox will do if the ratings don't get better. Would they pull out of the deal?

Leave your thoughts below, and thanks for reading.