There has been some speculation that the brand-split could end in 2019 when Smackdown moves to Fox next October. Speculation has been that WWE will want the ratings for both shows to be high initially after the move.
According to a recent report from the Wrestling Observer, however, Fox does not want to co-promote the same talent which will be on Raw every week.
“There was speculation going around that with the move to FOX that they would go to one brand because they would need all the top stars on FOX because of how important network primetime numbers are,” Dave Meltzer wrote. “That was denied to us and said that FOX doesn’t really want to cross-promote the same talent as NBC Universal and the expectation is split crews would remain.”
There are no plans at the moment to move back to single-brand PPVs, however.
WWE New Television Deal With Fox
WWE’s new television deal with Fox begins on October 4th, 2019 when Smackdown will move to Friday nights. Vince McMahon released the following statement shortly after the 5-year deal was made official.
“Fox and WWE are a perfect match. Moving SmackDown Live to broadcast TV and having the ability to leverage Fox’s extensive portfolio of world-class sporting events will expand the reach of our flagship programming.”
