According to a report on Friday, WWE could have an issue on their hands later this year as some major sports with a big audience moving to one of their key network partners could affect their television time slots for brands like NXT and moreover, for Monday Night Raw.
As per Joe Flint of The Wall Street Journal, "NBC Sports Network is shutting down later this year and big events (NHL and NASCAR among them) will migrate to USA Network." Flint noted that he would be providing a follow up later in the day and offered a bit more detail in subsequent tweets and in an article follow up, he wrote:
The premium properties on NBCSN are the National Hockey League and Nascar auto racing, both of which will start to transition to USA Network this year. Some content will remain on both channels until NBCSN officially turns off the lights. NBCUniversal informed staffers of the plan Friday afternoon in a company memo.
Wrestling fans know that this could mean some changes for WWE as NXT is aired on the USA Network on Wednesdays and its flagship show Raw airs on Mondays. It will be interesting to see if USA chooses to keep both WWE programs where they are considering the NHL runs games on every night of the week or if they'll bump a lower rated show like NXT.
The good news when it comes to the NHL, is that this is the last year of their current television deal and it's more than likely they'll be moving to another network after this season when the contract ends. If so, it won't be professional hockey that affects WWE shows. Still, the NHL is not the only programming WWE might have to worry about.
Deadline has revealed the full staff memo that was issued today by NBC Sports Chairman Pete Bevacqua.
This Is Not A Time For WWE To Have Bad Ratings
Essentially, while there's no telling what this means for WWE shows, it seems clear that this is the wrong time for ratings to be slumping. Obviously, unless it's written into the fine print that the programs can't be moved, USA will potentially go with the show that offers the biggest ratings hit. If Raw is hurting, how long before USA gives Vince a call?
It was speculated by PWInsider that delays which might push NASCAR’s Sunday programming to Monday night could impact WWE RAW show, but USA has not typically pushed Raw in the past. And, USA has heavily invested in Raw and they aren't likely to abandon that agreement... at least not yet.