Women’s World Cup Causes WWE Programming Conflict Regarding SmackDown

Due to the Women’s World Cup, WWE fans will have to watch SmackDown on a different channel to see what happens next between Roman Reigns and Jey Uso.

The ongoing family drama involving The Bloodline’s Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa feuding with Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso has captivated audiences all around the world. Ratings are up, attendance is up and we have even seen non-wrestling segments involving those four men taking up 40 minutes on Smackdown because of how much fans care about it.

On last week’s Smackdown on July 14th, Roman Reigns wasn’t on the show as Jey Uso sought revenge against his brother Solo Sikoa for splashing Jimmy Uso through the commentary table one week earlier. Jey did beat up Solo with a steel chair while also superkicking the “Wise Man” Paul Heyman as well.

Also during last week’s Smackdown (as well as Monday’s Raw), WWE heavily pushed that tonight’s Smackdown on July 21st from Orlando will air on FS1 (Fox Sports 1) on cable in the United States rather than on regular FOX on network television. While WWE didn’t tell us why Smackdown was getting moved, it’s because of the Women’s World Cup.

The US Women’s team has their first match in the Women’s World Cup as they face Vietnam on Friday night in a matchup that will air on FOX.

As noted by Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Smackdown will likely take a hit in terms of its television audience. They usually get about 2.3 to 2.5 million viewers on FOX, but it should be less this week even with Roman Reigns being on the show.

“The 7/21 Smackdown show will air on FS 1 because of a women’s World Cup game that night on FOX. It was pushed pretty hard on the 7/14 show. It will be very interesting to see with Smackdown being so hot right now what kind of a rating they get on cable not that it matters because in the past it’s been in the half of usual range and bounces right back the next week.”

For tonight’s SmackDown, WWE is promoting Roman Reigns and Jey Uso in a “Rules of Engagement” segment. That should set up their Undisputed WWE Universal Title match at SummerSlam official with Reigns defending his title(s) against his cousin Jey.

There is also a Fatal 4-Way United States Championship Invitational match between Rey Mysterio, Sheamus, Cameron Grimes and LA Knight. The winner of that match faces last week’s 4-way winner Santos Escobar on the July 28th show. The winner of that match would then get a US Title match against Austin Theory, but it’s not confirmed to be a SummerSlam match at this point.