-- WWE signed a five year agreement with FOX back in 2019 and with more than half of left, the relationship between the two companies has been a regular topic of conversation, specifically whether this relationship is still going strong or strained to some effect. Fightfulselect.com has a detailed piece noting that while viewership figures are falling well short of expectations, FOX isn't too concerned since it's been difficult to gauge those numbers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, FOX appears happy to claim the title of Smackdown as being the most watched wrestling show in the world.
-- Another topic of interest is WWE's promotion of Peacock's streaming service on Smackdown, which is owned by NBCU - a rival company of FOX. It seems this isn't as big of a deal as suggested as FOX used superstars such as Charlotte Flair and Stephanie McMahon on non-WWE programming to promote SummerSlam and ultimately if the network giant wanted WWE's content and rights to airing PPVs, they would have paid the premium to get it as Peacock/NBCU ended up doing.
-- The report also went on to add that WWE and FOX executives have had multiple "high level" meetings over the past few months, most notably the night before SummerSlam where Vince McMahon and Nick Khan had dinner with Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks and their head of production Brad Zager. The four-hour dinner was at the Wynn in Vegas and was said to been productive from WWE's perspective. WWE had already brought back John Cena for a short stint and the next night, Brock Lesnar and Becky Lynch both returned as well and FOX officials saw that as an effort from WWE to go above and beyond and stack the roster coming out of the restrictions that were in place during the peak of the pandemic. Another move that WWE made to appease FOX officials was to kill an idea of having Raw at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and instead have the first show in Los Angeles at that venue be a Smackdown event on December that is expected to be announced in the near future. FOX is based out of Los Angeles.
