Think of it as an example of "almost-a-sport" siphoning.
On Oct. 1, WWE's Friday Night SmackDown will debut on NBCU's Syfy with a live two-hour event from the Ford Center in Oklahoma city. The show is usually taped.
Friday Night SmackDown had been on MyNetwork TV, and UPN before that.
Wrestling
used to be a staple on local broadcast TV, including for WWE--formerly
WWWF and WWF--which syndicated matches featuring iconic figures
including Chief Jay Strongbow, Ivan Putski, the Baron,
and Gorilla Monsoon to local stations across the country. This marks
the move of all of WWE's programming to cable.
WWE is
cross-promoting the switch with an appearance by "Superstar" wrestler
Cody Rhodes on Syfy's Warehouse 13 detective drama, a series of videos
on select Virgin Airline flights airing in December during busy flight time
and a flight of commercials across NBCU cable platforms including
Bravo, MSNBC, USA, Syfy and others.
