Thursday, March 1, 2018

DID FOX SPORTS 1 HOSTS HINT AT WWE-FOX RELATIONSHIP?

Banter during the final moments of the 2/28 FOX Sports 1's Speak For Yourself series may have hinted at a future relationship between World Wrestling Entertainment and FOX.

In the last few minutes of the episode, hosts Jason Whitlock and Colin Cowherd discussed Cowherd attending Tuesday night's Smackdown Live taping at the Staples Center in Los Angeles with Cowherd, who has knocked pro wrestling and its fan base in the past (despite growing up watching Don Owens' Pacific Northwest promotion) praised the experience, comparing the show's atmosphere favorably to a rock concert.

Cowherd noted that he met Stephanie McMahon at the event and commented that WWE was a "professionally run organization," describing, "It was fun.  I had a blast....we laughed for two hours." 

Whitlock noted that he watched pro wrestling as a kid and interestingly stated he was, "looking forward to perhaps getting more involved, watching pro wrestling in the future."

Cowherd responded, "You should.  A very good sport.  Coming to a network near you..." leading to the hosts laughing as their show went off the air.

As initially reported by Sports Illustrated writer Richard Deitsch yesterday, a number of FOX Sports executives, including FOX Sports President Eric Shanks, FOX Sports Producer Jacob Ullman and Cowherd were all at the taping.

WWE is in the process of negotiating a deal for its television rights.  Whether the banter was specifically meant to hint at FOX potentially landing those rights or not still remains to be seen, but the comments have certainly raised a few eyebrows

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