It was obvious to anyone watching, and you could tell that it was all Vince's idea. Remember back in the day when Vince said that he didn't give a fukk about the mainstream? That's also when he was most successful. If you're going to do those segments you have to have a wrestling personality there to guide the celebrities.
I think Jay Glazer was the only one that mentioned current wrestlers. Everyone else was clearly saying scripted shyt and mentioning old guys.
We blame Vince but it's been clear Fox is trying very hard to integrate WWE into the Fox Sports ecosystem, with Kofi on First Things First, Roman on Thursday Night Football, Hoegan on Cowherd and Bailey on Kristine Leahy. Even the replays are on the Fox Sports app, not just the regular Fox one. I don't disagree that the NFL guys felt out of place (especially Aikman and Buck), but I don't put the blame solely on Vince because Smackdown is being considered part of Fox Sports.
Clearly Vince not seeing what made WWF/E=/=Celebrities legit from the 80s. Instead of appealing to the mainstream that still thrives off of the Attitude Era (hence why majority of the promos result in Stone Cold/Rock convo than Rollins/Kofi discussion). Go the Rock and Wrestling route. Try Wrestling and Trap movement . Since the kiddies are into hip hop and most of the industry low key love wrestling. Invite dudes like Action Bronson to Raw. Have Post Malone do a segment with Braun Stroman. Focus on building that younger audience, than that past tier money that will never come back. The Fox deal will fukk them sooner than expected. It's not going to last long and it's going to be extremely messy
If they want a real sports like presentation you can do that without it being corny. Look at New Japan. Everyone on the roster looks like a real fighter. They have differences in character and moveset but they all look like they can beat someone's ass and they look current.... not corny and dated. I like 'The Fiend' because he gives me some of that old school early 90's fukkery and he's good at it but he belongs on RAW. Why he was drafted to Smackdown, I don't know, I like the Smackdown roster but I don't think shyt like that is gonna fit on a 'real sports' program. The roster should just be Roman Reigns, Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Ricochet, people who actually look like athletes....
Breh NJPW even has the kayfabe expanding into the news presses. They really go the mile to make the company look like a prize fighting special. WWE on the other hand make their wrestlers look like herbs compared to dudes like Tyson Fury. Imagine Wilder trying to put over Woods throwing pancakes at fukking people. Good grief this company man
When I first heard about WWE doing sports-centric programming for SmackDown, I was assuming something like UFC when they were on Fox, not what...ever that was.
I half agree with this. WWE is in a weird ass position though - they make a PG kids show, and their main viewership is middle aged men. There's not much common ground between those demographics. As far as outside celebrities who helped them expand their reach, Hoegan got hot after running with Mr. T. The A-Team had been on TV for 2 years before Mania I - He was a way bigger star than old 'Hot Dog Skin Terry' Austin's crowning moment featured Mike Tyson, again - a way bigger figure in popular culture than WWE's own talent. There's a common denominator here. I don't think it's a convo that Vince wants to have though In general - pop culture has outgrown Vince - he's a 70+ year old billionaire trying to write something relatable to young people, and he's stubborn about the shyt he wants to see. Lowkey - when they started The Fiend/ Bray stuff on USA they should have approached Sam Esmail direct a 'Firefly Fun House' vignette. Mr. Robot did in two years what Raw failed to do in 23 on the network - win an Emmy. Granted - Esmail would probably have told them to go fukk themselves, because of the Trump ties, but at the very least - it would have been a cool easter egg. That's why the Saudi deal is perfect for them. They get a full arena, a bunch of money and Vince gets to put on a TV show where the quality doesn't matter, because they make millions in a night.
It's ironic that Fox wants to present Smackdown as more of a sports program yet the product so far has been more staged fake bullshyt than what we were getting when Smackdown was on USA.
It's the way you go about it. Having the wrestlers appear on Fox Sports shows is fine, and they get to show their personalities that are restricted in the WWE. The problem is when you force a cross promotion and don't plan it right. If you have the wrestlers appear on the Sunday pregame show to talk about their favorite teams it would come off so much better.
When was this? Everytime they could get a celeb for WM or an angle they jumped on it. WM 1 was built around celeb endorsement.
They really be dropping those "Did you know: Raw had the highest ratings in the first hour of any prime-time show with viewers between the ages of 13-21!" facts every commercial break to convince people wrestling's still mainstream
