After a tweet from The Hollywood Reporter’s Matthew Belloni yesterday stated that NBC Universal would be willing to let the rights to WWE’s SmackDown Live show go to another network (check that out here), many outlets have taken Belloni’s words to mean that a deal for RAW to stay with NBCU is all but finalized. That is not the case however and WWE is currently still at the negotiating table.

Today, Variety is reporting that should SmackDown Live not stick with NBCU, the frontrunners to land the show are FOX, Facebook and Amazon. Variety also speculates that WWE Network could also be an option to be the home of SmackDown Live. Additionally, they noted that WWE officials were not pleased with how Mixed Match Challenged performed on Facebook Live, so that could play a role in Facebook’s chances of securing the show.

EA’s Take: First of all, let’s just get this out of the way right off the bat; There’s a ZERO PERCENT chance that SmackDown Live will be put on the WWE Network, absolutely no way. Someone will pay beaucoup bucks for it and WWE is not stupid enough to miss out on that money-making opportunity. I think the most likely scenario right now is that RAW stays on USA Network, while SmackDown heads to one of FOX’s stations whether it’s FOX itself, FX, FS1 or however they do it. Since ESPN picked up all that UFC programming, FOX has a lot of spaces that they could definitely use it, as long as they’re willing to pony up the dough.

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