WWE: FOX Considering Moving SmackDown to FS1 This September, Wheatley Vodka Named as New WrestleMania 40 Sponsor, Corey Graves

FOX Considering Moving WWE SmackDown to FS1 This September

FOX Sports announced that FOX will be airing college football games on Friday nights starting this Fall.

While no broadcast schedule has been officially announced yet, the AP News reported that FOX might end up moving WWE’s SmackDown to FS1 during the month of September if they were to air games on Friday nights during that period.

This network move would only affect WWE for the month of September due to their new television deal with USA Network for SamckDown officially starts this October.

---

Wheatley Vodka Named as Official Vodka Sponsor of WrestleMania 40

The Sports Business Journal reported that WWE recently signed a new sponsorship deal with Wheatley Vodka and is currently believed to be the first ever spirits sponsorship deal in WWE history.

It was reported that as part of the terms of this new deal, Wheatley Vodka will be official vodka sponsor for next month’s WrestleMania 40 event.

It was also reported that Wheatley Vodka will also be the official sponsor for several other upcoming WWE events, including an upcoming six-part series on WWE’s social media and digital channels.

In the article, TKO Group Executive Vice President and Head of Global Partnerships Grant Norris-Jones stated in an interview that TKO is also currently seeking an official beer sponsorship for WWE as well.

“Our strategy now at TKO is to open up new categories and sign bigger, broader deals. We’re out in the market looking hard for an official beer partner [for WWE].”

---

Corey Graves Comments on Triple H Giving More Space & Freedom for WWE Announcers to Work During Shows

A recent episode of the Short and to the Point podcast featured WWE SmackDown lead commentator Corey Graves as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Graves’ thoughts about how WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque has given WWE commentators more space and freedom for their commentary work for shows.

“Triple H is another guy that I owe a great deal, if not everything in my career, to. He’s the one that took a chance on me as a wrestler in NXT. I know we’ve had a few conversations since then. Him having to shut me down broke his heart as much as it broke mine. He’s always been sort of silently supportive. He’s always been in the back. If I need something, I’ve never hesitated to go to him and ask. He also is really cool and sort of refreshing in the sense of, he gives us space when he’s in Gorilla, like where the old boss sat. Instead of being told and promoted, ‘Hey, you have to say this, you gotta do it this way, you have to use this verbiage,’ he I think understands that we are all fans and we all love this in different ways, and as the business grows and evolves, you kind of have to let go of the reigns a little bit. I still have my guide rails. I just feel like they’re a little wider on each side now, where rather than trying to stay on a particular path and walk in a certain rhythm and do things a certain way, I have a little bit more leeway to be me and develop my own style, as long as all the boxes that need to be are checked, I don’t have to do them the same way that the six guys before me have done, or that Michael Cole does, et cetera.”

Graves also gave his thoughts about Levesque being mostly quiet and hands-off on the headset for commentary work during shows.

“I’ve been on TV for I think seven years on Raw and SmackDown, and in the last few months, I think my headsets have been as quiet as they have been, ever [laughs]. I only hear from him if I’m doing something terribly wrong, which, knock on wood, doesn’t happen too frequently, or the other time I hear time from him pretty regularly is if, much like Michael Cole, if a joke lands. If I say something and it gets him, he’ll go, ‘Oh, that was really good,’ or he’ll double down and he’ll follow up on my joke in my headset.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com