Bill Goldberg, Hulk Hogan, Sting advertised for SmackDown debut on Fox

Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/12/bill-goldberg-hulk-hogan-sting-advertised-for-smackdown-debut-on-fox/

The WWE has announced that the theme of their Fox debut this fall will be the 20th Anniversary of the series with several major names being advertised.

In a release Monday, the company listed Bill Goldberg, Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle, Mick Foley, Lita, Trish Stratus, Ric Flair, Sting, Mark Henry, Jerry Lawler, and Booker T. for the Fox debut on Friday, October 4th. The graphic for the show includes The Undertaker. They are just coming off a similar ‘reunion style’ of a show on Raw last month that averaged 3,093,000 viewers, which was Raw’s highest number of 2019.

Last year, it was announced that WWE would enter into a five-year agreement with Fox Sports worth $205 million annually for the series to air on the network Friday nights from 8-10 pm Eastern.

Following a pilot episode in April 1999, the series was added to UPN’s weekly schedule in August that year and has aired on many stations with the UPN changing to the CW Network, a move to MyNetworkTV and later joining the NBC Universal umbrella of networks with a spot on Syfy and later moved to the USA Network in 2016. The series has been airing as a live property on Tuesday nights since July 2016.

Tickets for the first episode on Fox go on-sale this Friday and takes place from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

You’d think FOX might want Batista on the show in some way. He was a big part of Smackdown and he’s a huge star now. And I’m sure The Rock will be there.

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One of our first glimpses of WWE “serving two masters” with Raw on USA and Smackdown on Fox. USA wants legends? Here they are. Big show coming up on Fox two months later? Trot out the same legends!

To be fair, a Sting sighting is still somewhat special, but otherwise, I couldn’t care less about seeing any of those advertised names. At least there’s a chance Goldberg could do something significant as far as starting an actual program for the Survivor Series > Rumble > Mania stretch.

The 3 way dance between the 3 sounds awful in 2019

After having seen previous reunion shows, maybe we’ll get a segment involving Rob Van Dam, Ricky the Dragon Steamboat and Eve Torres playing monopoly.

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Or they can play Clue. Figure out who tried to murder Roman, where in the arena and with what weapon.

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20th anniversary of what?

The show debuted in April of 99 and became a regular show that August.

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Do not confuse the issue with facts. WWE doesn’t and neither should we.

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I would be very careful how they use your legends. Being on Broadcast tv you are opening up yourself to a whole different market of casual of casual fans or even people who don’t know anything about wrestling or have ever watched it.

I would only use Legends as guest referees, talk show host (like Kings court)
or if they will have a weekly role in the show as a manager or assistant gm or something. With a Goldberg and Undertaker I would be promoting any upcoming matches probably for Saudi Arabia or survivor series.

I wouldn’t use any legends as a quick segment to smile and say there catch phrase.

You will be indoctrinating your new audience with what to expect each week and a month later when its the normal weekly roaster it will be a different show and any new audience member will check out

I would show case and get over your current talent so you an build them up over the course of fox.

I would do a big title match and a title change! problem is you would want a face to win so maybe seth or kofi will get there belt taken off soon and they can get it back (or roman) as the triumph hero to kickoff the fox era.

I could see Lesnar vs. kofi and Lesnar winning the WWE title to show the world that they are on UFC level but Lesnar a heel beating an over face leaves a pretty bad taste.