Fox Sports to Sign Exclusive WWE Deal after Wrestlemania 37
Wrestlemania 37 takes place in a few days, but afterwards, WWE Is expected to make some major changes to the structure of its programming. After 28 years of Monday Night RAW operating as the flagship show of the company, it will finally be coming to an end. WWE will not be renewing their deal with USA Network, and instead be signing a massive exclusive programming deal with Fox Sports to continue airing Smackdown Live on Friday Nights and make it the #1 show in the company.
With this happening, WWE will be moving away from its current brand split format, and all of its current championships will either be unified or rendered defunct, and the Cruiserweight Championship currently exclusive to NXT, will be moved to Friday Nights. This will leave the WWE Championship, Intercontinental Championship, United States Championship, Smackdown Tag Team Championships and Cruiserweight Championship as the main titles on Smackdown Live. The women's division has been cut entirely, in a controversial move, however there are rumors of WWE possibly starting a new women's exclusive show down the line.
The advantage of having one unified roster means instead of WWE viewers being subjected to the same, stale matchups week after week; there will be more superstars available allowing for unique matchups. Additionally there will be no question of whether the WWE Champion or Universal Champion is the top guy, or whether the Smackdown or RAW Tag Team Champions are the top tag team. There will only be one top singles superstar and one top tag team, allowing WWE fans to have a proper understanding of who the main guy is, and also giving WWE itself and its sponsorship partners that clarity as well.
Fox Sports has wanted WWE to move a little bit away from being pure entertainment and more towards sports entertainment in line with some of its other programming as well. WWE expects to act on this by doing certain things like keeping track of and publicizing superstars' win-loss records, hosting tournaments to compete for championships, and having more athletically demanding and appealing matches. This marks a new direction for the company, but also one that's expected to grow a fanbase that is still largely remnants from the more popular Attitude and Ruthless Aggression eras. Vince McMahon is expected to still be in charge, but take a backseat in day-to-day operations and allow Triple H more creative control, a welcome change for any fans of his work with NXT.