FOX Unhappy With WWE For Promoting Peacock On SmackDown?
Per reports, USA Network aren't the only disgruntled WWE broadcast partner at the moment.
FOX officials are reportedly unhappy with WWE for constantly promoting Peacock on SmackDown.
Peacock is owned by NBC Universal and is therefore seen as competition by FOX, who carry SmackDown every Friday night. This, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, is the source of the unhappiness, with several people at FOX involved.
The problem with this is that Peacock is now WWE's exclusive streaming partner in the United States following NBCU's billion-dollar deal to effectively acquire the Network earlier this year.
News of potential FOX/WWE discord comes days after a similar report revolving around WWE's other broadcast partner, USA Network, which puts out Raw and NXT every Monday and Tuesday. Andrew Zarian reported on last week's Mat Men Pro Wrestling Podcast that NBCU (which owns USA as well) weren't happy with last week's Roman Reigns vs. Rey Mysterio match being pulled from Hell In A Cell 2021 and put on SmackDown instead.
Effectively, WWE took a potential headliner from an NBCU show and gave it to FOX. Officials were said to be "very unhappy" about this, but not necessarily "fuming," in Zarian's words.