Colin Cowherd Talks Attending SmackDown And Teases WWE Moving To FOX
Colin Cowherd, who hosts The Herd with Colin Cowherd on FOX Sports Radio and FOX Sports 1, as well Speak For Yourself on FS1, discussed his visit to SmackDown Live this week.
"It was like a rock concert," Cowherd said of the show on Speak For Yourself, which you can watch in the video above.
Cowherd has been a very vocal critic of pro wrestling in the past. He once famously referred to wrestling fans as "booger eaters," and often criticized WWE for the number of wrestlers dying young due to drug-related deaths. He has seemingly since changed his stance on the business.
"If you haven't gone to WWE, it's loud, there's bikinis, there's fireworks, there's on-stage performance," Cowherd said. "There's a lot of interaction with the crowd. It was fun, I had a blast!"
Cowherd noted that while he didn't have the opportunity to meet Vince McMahon, he did interact with his daughter, Stephanie.
"It's really a professionally run organization and it was a hoot," Cowherd said. "We laughed for two hours."
In addition to Cowherd, Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated revealed that FOX Sports President Eric Shanks and FOX Sports Talent Producer Jacob Ullman were at the show. FOX has expressed interest in securing the television rights for WWE when their deal with NBCUniversal / USA Network expires on September 30th, 2019. WWE has stated that they plan to announce their U.S. distribution plans between May and September of this year. Their exclusive negotiating period with NBC expires sometime this spring.
Cowherd teased WWE possibly moving to FOX. Cowherd's co-host, Jason Whitlock, said that he used to be a wrestling fan when he was younger and looks forward to "possibly getting more involved or watching more wrestling in the future."
"You should," Cowherd said. "Very good sport! Coming to a network near you!"
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Speak For Yourself with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Eric Robinson contributed to this article.