8 Big Questions About HUGE NBC Peacock/WWE Network Deal
1. Will WWE's Television Improve?
No, is the painfully short answer.
SmackDown's quite the subjective beast in its current form - praise is heaped on the blue brand often thanks to how far ahead of Raw it is as a viewing experience in 2021 - but neither show can get away from the numbing way the company produces programming.
The main roster as a whole has been in grim stasis/decline since before the pandemic. Stories that are barely told or dropped without trace, characters that are impossible to relate to unless you plug into the whims of a disconnected septuagenarian billionaire, and matches follow a disparate made-for-television formula that so often strips them of drama.
And yet, thanks to money deals like this and the 2018 payments agreed by Fox and the USA Network, Vince McMahon must surely feel like he has mastered the art of how to promote pro wrestling on television. This curious manifestation of the product has benefited so spectacularly from a streaming bubble that hasn't yet burst that McMahon will, if anything, double down on how missable and illogical it is.
By all means expect new ways to watch the shows, but don't hold out for any change in how they look.
WWE Quiz: How Much Do You Really Know About NXT?
