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 âreunion styleâ of a show on Raw last month that averaged 3,093,000 viewers, which was Rawâs 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 UPNâs 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.
Youâd think FOX might want Batista on the show in some way. He was a big part of Smackdown and heâs a huge star now. And Iâm sure The Rock will be there.
One of our first glimpses of WWE âserving two mastersâ 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 couldnât care less about seeing any of those advertised names. At least thereâs a chance Goldberg could do something significant as far as starting an actual program for the Survivor Series > Rumble > Mania stretch.
After having seen previous reunion shows, maybe weâll get a segment involving Rob Van Dam, Ricky the Dragon Steamboat and Eve Torres playing monopoly.
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 donât 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 wouldnât 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.