this might sound crazy, but put Smackdown on NBC from 9pm et-11pm et on friday nights

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: That would be great for WWE, but with the Saturday Night's Main Event shows on NBC having tanked in the ratings, I just don't see NBC doing that.

I think the most logical choice would be the USA network. If Smackdown was on USA, then they would be able to centralize the advertising for wrestling on that particular channel.Smackdown on SciFi doesn't make as much sense, unless they put more of an emphasis on their unconventional characters like Undertaker, Kane, and Khali.

USA Network would be the perfect fit, ECW on Sci-Fi gets less ratings than TNA gets on Spike now. Personally, I get rid of ECW all together. I don't NBC would be interested in hosting WWE's B-show in primetime, even on a Saturday night when TV ratings are already low.

One other thing I don't understand is why doesn't USA do a late-night rerun of Raw like TNT used to do for Nitro?

Vince is a shrewd business man. He wouldn't leave CW if he couldn't go somewhere that would pull in at least the same, if not higher ratings. Thats why I don't think he'd go to a place like MyNetworkTV. I honestly never even heard of that until this blog post.

Shawn, ECW beats TNA in the ratings. TNA has only won two or three weeks. ECW won this week 1.3 to 1.1.

I think airing Smackdown! and ECW back-to-back, one hour each, is a good idea.

The best fit for WWE Smackdown on the NBC Universal family of networks is CNBC in my opinion.

Reasons:

1. Demographic fit: both CNBC and WWE cater to hyper-competitive young males with lots of money to burn on fast cars, alcoholic beverages, and video games.

2. CNBC is basically dead during prime time, with lousy ratings for almost anything except the Westminister Dog Show (and the Olympics every two years.

3. WWE "superstars" such as John "Bradshaw" Layfield is actually a legitimate money manager and financial media commentator who can cross over between CNBC's financial news/information programming and WWE.

4. Conversely, CNBC "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer is just crazy enough to work as a cross-over personality on WWE Smackdown.

The unfortunate reality is USA Network in no way wants Smackdown. Their Friday nights already have Monk/Psych and they have plenty of other "prestige" shows. WWE should not want SciFi because there is absolutely no connection between wrestling and the SciFi brand and the fact that ECW remains on this channel is beyond stupid. Furthermore, most networks don't see a benefit to having WWE programming because WWE fans never become fans of the network that shows it, in other words they turn to the channel just for wrestling and then immediately turn it off when wrestling is over. This always means that the only time a network wants to do business with WWE is when the network is doing such bad business that they are in no position to belittle the thought of having wrestling on their channel. This leaves ONLY MyNetworkTV as an option, which is sad for WWE because this network will soon realize they don't have to offer Vince much given they are the only place left for him to go!

too bad for smackdown honestly to me. that show has been better than raw week in and week out and was the show you could watch for free without having cable. i would hate to see the show to go to any cable network because for as of now and many other people i dont have cable right now and would have to you tube the show like raw. i think no major wrestling show should be one hour it hurts the product that why ecw do so poor. even tna went to a full two hours and some of you wwecw fans got it backwards ecw needs smackdown. smackdown doesnt need ecw

ITS ALL GOOD TO HAVE SMACKDOWN AROUND, BUT CW I DON'T THINK FITS AROUND FOR LONG. WITH UPN IT WORKED OUT REAL GOOD. I THINK FIRST OFF CANCEL ECW BECAUSE ECW ISN'T LIKE THE OLD ONE AND NO GOOD PERFORMANCE. SECOND, WHY PUT SMACKDOWN ON CABLE WITH RAW WHICH WOULDN'T MAKE SENSE. I REMEMBER WITH WCW THEY TRIED TO MAKE THUNDER AND NITRO BOTH ON CABLE AND THAT DIDN'T SUCCEED WELL. 3RD, KEEP IT ON BROADCAST BECAUSE SOME WWE FANS DON'T HAVE CABLE SO I THINK IF THEY PUT ON NBC AND LEAVE RAW ON USA NETWORK, NBC AND WWE CAN HAVE FULL PARTNERSHIP. PLUS CNBC WOULDN'T WORK THAT WAY EITHER.

What is the purpose of TV wrestling nowadays? Rating, sure, but mostly to sell merchandise and PPV's. If you don't have cable you probably don't get PPV's, so too bad for you. Does anyone know what MyNetworkTY is? Mostly the old UPN stations that got screwed when UPN and the WB merged and became the CW mostly on old WB stations. So it would be basically taking Smackdown back to the same broadcast stations it started on.

I think that some customer base will be lost if Smackdown vacated commercial television for cable.

This is one fan that would watch it 7 days a week, especially considering the sorry alternatives and reruns and infomercials on both cable and commercial television.

Also, if enough advertisers opt in, periodic or even regular Internet programming should be considered an option - placing World Wrestling Entertainment on the digital cutting edge.