Bruce Prichard Discusses The Challenges Of Smackdown Being On Friday Nights, USA Network Regretting WWE’s Move To Spike TV

In a recent edition of Something to Wrestle, Bruce Prichard discussed the challenges of Smackdown being on Friday nights, USA Network regretting WWE’s move to Spike TV in 2003, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Bruce Prichard on WWE Smackdown moving to Friday nights in 2005 and the challenges of a Friday night show: “I think if you had your choice, I’m not sure that Friday night would be your first or your second choice of nights of the week to put a live television show on. So yeah, it’s challenging. It’s definitely challenging when you get into the summer and nicer weather. People are staying out more and going out more, so it’s challenging to say the least. However, you’ve gotta do what the networks want you to do and you need to make moves that align with your network, and sometimes they are looking at you to be able to fill that void and hopefully bring an audience that wouldn’t necessarily normally be watching television on a Friday night to that night of the week to watch TV.”

On USA regretting WWE’s move to Spike TV: “First of all, things turned out alright. Second of all, you have to understand the overall scope of things and understand – when you look at things with tunnel vision, you only see one thing. And when you’re looking at things through a skewed view like most so-called journalists or gossip writers do, they look for what the juicier story is and they choose to overlook that this was a deal with NBC Universal, and the overall scope of being involved with Universal, and NBC, and all of its partners back home where they understood us on USA Network. USA Network regretted that we left and that we went to Spike. It was a time of coming home and it was a time of working together again, but also, it was a time of saying, ‘Hey, look, we’re not just looking at USA Network, we’re looking at NBC Universal as a whole, and the different partnerships that we have, and how we can utilize those.’ And the doors that opened up not just from one little USA Network in Monday Night RAW, but across the board with theme parks, which we did partnerships with the Universal Theme Parks and did different things. But it was a good synergy.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Something to Wrestle with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.