Yesterday was a crazy day for news on UPN and WWE Smackdown. First, we reported that Smackdown was canceled by UPN and wouldn’t be renewed. This led to mass speculation about the future of Smackdown and the brand extension.
Then, Dave Meltzer rebuffed our report, post that Smackdown wasn’t canceled but had no additional information.
Today there is a bit more to Meltzer’s view. According to sources with both WWE and UPN, there is no such cancellation decision on the table. The quote from the original story is reportedly several days old and not entirely accurate. The story would have been huge news all over the wrestling industry as well as within the TV industry if true.
Even in the case of a cancellation, Smackdown would find a home on another network. There are continued reports that Vince McMahon is negotiating with the USA Network to bring WWE programming back to USA after the current Viacom deal expires, and the latest news could just be part of that eventual change.
This is certainly the biggest story in the IWC in a while, so check out The Wrestling Blog to talk about it with other IWC writers and fans!
credit: Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer Newsletter
