WWE SmackDown has several potential suitors for a new TV deal and one entity listed is quite surprising.
According to Dave Meltzer, Wells Fargo recently had a report that while NBC aims to remain committed to WWE Raw, big changes could be afoot for SmackDown when the show’s television deal expires in October of 2024.
The WWE stock prices indicate that SmackDown will have expected starting bid of $300 million, something that is far above Fox’s desirable price range, who reportedly doesn’t aim to go higher than $205 million.
Who Are The Potential Suitors For WWE SmackDown?
According to the Wells Fargo report, several major suitors could be in play for SmackDown rights including Amazon, Netflix, FX/Hulu and Warner Bros Discovery. If the latter presented the biggest paycheck, that could certainly change the pro wrestling landscape considering that they’re currently the television residence of AEW programming.
All that being said, many signs are showing that WBD is extremely happy with AEW as its primary pro wrestling provider. Not only do they have Dynamite, Collision and Rampage as part of their weekly lineup, but several reports by Fightful indicate that the company’s TV deal with the former home of WCW is very close to occuring. Even during a recent media call, Tony Khan didn’t dismiss the idea that AEW wouldn’t be getting a new deal with WBD and there’s a report that the company could be building its annual PPV calender per request of the network.
No matter what media conglomerate gets SmackDown, they could be making a strong investment as the program has been doing extremely well in viewership in 2023.