WWE: FOX CEO on No Talks Yet for New TV Deal, Liv Morgan on Her Online Meme Moment, More News

FOX CEO Comments on Not Being Engaged Yet with WWE for New TV Deal Talks

Morgan Stanley held a media and telecom conference on Thursday. One of those who spoke at this meeting was FOX CEO Lachlan Murdoch.

One of the topics discussed was Murdoch revealing that FOX has yet to engage in talks with WWE for a potential new television deal for their SmackDown brand.

“They have been great partners. They’ve been great partners throughout our relationship. If they ultimately sell the business, I hope the acquirer will be as great as they’ve been. I hope the management team stays intact there. They’ve done a tremendous job. From a rights point of view, we’re focused on the rights renewal. We haven’t engaged with them on the rights yet, we’re ready to engage with them when they ask and they’re ready. Ultimately, our appetite for renewal depends on what happens with the rest of our sports portfolio.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Liv Morgan Comments on Her Recent Online Meme Moment at a Basketball Game

This past Tuesday’s NBA game of the Charlotte Hornets vs. New York Knicks in New York City, New York featured Liv Morgan among those in attendance. This game was notable for Morgan creating an online meme moment over her lack of reaction during a court-side conversation from WWE Senior Vice President Of Live Events Justin Scalise, who sat next to her.

She definitely didn’t hear one word you just said bro pic.twitter.com/wL5oFRIyHS

— KnicksNation (@KnicksNation) March 8, 2023

A recent episode of the WWE The Bump show featured Morgan as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Morgan’s thoughts on becoming an online meme over the incident.

“I have so many thoughts, so many things I want to say. What a bizarre moment. It’s so weird to me what goes viral and what doesn’t. I want to say that we had no idea we were going to be filmed. We had no idea the camera was on us, which doesn’t excuse anything. That is Justin Scalise, who works at WWE. He’s incredible. He was explaining something to me and I was watching the game and I was listening but deep in my head, thinking my own thoughts, in my own world, just so unaware that this was being filmed. My phone was blowing up and I see this footage. ‘Oh my gosh, Justin, I’m so sorry.’ He’s been such a great sport about it. It’s the most bizarre weirdest thing. Let’s say I was ignoring him, it is women’s history month and we have every single right [laughs]. It’s not what it looked like, but it was weird it spread the way that it did. It was not what it seemed.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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WWE News & Notes

The Nightmare Factory recently announced on Twitter that John Cena made an appearance at their wrestling school on Thursday. It was also announced that Cena was invited to be the guest speaker for their students that day.

As noted before, Kofi Kingston suffered an ankle injury at this past Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Washington, D.C. WWE recently announced that as a result of his injury, they have pulled Kingston from the card of tonight’s SmackDown show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was also announced that Xavier Woods will be replacing Kingston for his scheduled #1 Contender’s Five-way match for the Intercontinental Championship.

As noted before, a lawsuit against WWE over a traffic accident in 2019 involving one of their employees which resulted in a serious injury to another person went to trial this past February. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that the jury trial before the Florida Middle District Court recently reached a verdict of the jury siding with the plaintiff Jackson Parsons based on recent court records. Johnson reported that while the jury initially awarded Parsons $948,000 in damages, the court ruled for WWE to pay $331,800 instead due to the percentages of negligence calculated over the accident. The jury reportedly had decided that due to his own actions, Parson held 65% of the negligence while WWE held the remaining 35% over the cause of the accident.

During a recent interview with MMAFighting.com, Gable Steveson stated that he currently believes he will be making his official in-ring debut in WWE after this April’s WrestleMania 39 event. Steveson also stated that is also currently hopeful of being able to compete in the 2024 Olympic Games.

In a recent interview with PWMania, WWE Hall of Famer Kane stated that he is currently leaving the door open to the idea of him wrestling one more match in WWE in the future.

Post Wrestling’s John Pollock reported that Edge will be in sole possession of sixth place for most pay-per-view matches competed in WWE history at 145 matches following his upcoming match against Finn Balor at WrestleMania 39. Edge is currently tied with Chris Jericho at 144 PPV matches, only behind Randy Orton (181), Kane (176), The Undertaker (174), Triple H (173), and John Cena (163).

As noted before, this past Tuesday’s NXT Roadblock show featured Johnny Gargano making his surprise return to NXT and the official announcement of a match between Gargano and Grayson Waller at NXT Stand & Deliver 2023 event next month in Los Angeles, California. Gargano recently reflected on Twitter about his return to WWE’s NXT brand and his upcoming match against Waller. Gargano stated “Because of you.. my story in @WWENXT ended on a cliffhanger 15 months ago. You took my moment from me and I never forgot that. I waited patiently for the right time & place..April 1st.. Wrestlemania Weekend.. I shut you up & close the book my way. #JohnnyTakeOver #OneMoreTime.”