The Friday Night War between WWE and AEW is heating up.
Following last week’s SmackDown vs. Rampage showdown, WWE is looking to keep the pressure on Tony Khan’s young promotion.
According to updated TV listings from multiple providers, the Friday, October 29th edition of Talking Smack will air on FS1 instead of Peacock (WWE Network). It will broadcast at 10pm (Eastern) – immediately after SmackDown and head-to-head with AEW Rampage.
Talking Smack normally is released on the WWE Network and Peacock’s streaming service on Saturday mornings. It is not yet clear if this is a permanent move or a one-time thing.
Rampage vs. Smackdown
AEW Rampage and WWE Smackdown went head-to-head from 10PM to 10:30 PM last Friday. AEW also aired a special Rampage “Buy-In” show on YouTube from 9PM until 10 PM. Additionally, Smackdown went commercial-free from 10 PM onwards.
The overnight ratings, which do not include demo information, are in for the two shows. Smackdown was watched by an average of 793,000 viewers on FS1 while AEW Rampage drew 549,000 viewers on TNT. Smackdown was on FS1 due to the MLB Playoffs.
Tony Khan recently spoke to the New York Post and noted that wrestling is better when there are companies competing against one another.
“In wrestling, we’re worth more against each other and we’re better off against each other,” Khan said. “I believe there is greater value in the wrestling market when we’re fighting and people want to see competition in wrestling. I think it’s one of the reasons people lost interest in wrestling was because there was not true competition for 20 years.”
