Gunning for Perfect 5?!

04/20/2017 01:09:14 AM

It was a roller-coaster ride during the 24-hour stretch of that Monday (17 April 2017) and Tuesday (18 April 2017) as Filipino wrestling fans were shocked in a variety of ways in regards of where we will be seeing the programs of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

In case you missed Monday's biggest headline, well I can't blame you because of how toxic our current events had been rolling as of late. But hey, this statement by Fox Networks Group Asia have sent shock waves to the majority of the Filipino wrestling fandom.

Unless if you have seen this coming like I do. This news apparently came as a inside speculation at first when I got this from an insider source. And it was only during one episode of the Smark Gilas-Pilipinas when Stan Sy formally announced them all.

Then this came, much to the mixed emotions of marks, average fans, and plain spectators.

Photo credit: Fox Philippines Twitter

Well, the end certainly means that FOX will focus on their already-loaded sporting programs and on what the entertainment channel has been really hyping for the past few months to the extent if losing their balance in terms of promoting other programs and keeping followers up-to-date via their respective social media accounts. Heck, there were even few times which the FOX Philippines page was bombard by wall posts from other users stating their dismay for being late in airing their programs such as WWE Raw, WWE SmackDown, and their pay-per-view (PPV)

However, I think it's fine to d this move. After all, five years (with three solely owning them all) was a very long good run. Give them the credit  they deserved for at least they still salvaged us from having a super-bitin RAW episode (imagine watching them for only an hour long to the now-defunct Studio 23 and Balls), and the fact that SmackDown was seen on IBC 13, a channel that has had their potential down to wasteland thanks to their weak reception.

At least they followed suit from the famed Jack TV in the 2000s.

When FOX has finally and formally announced their severity with WWE, I could only think of either ABS-CBN Sports or Sports5 as the potential successors for the wrestling programming in Philippine television. However, with the more-loaded programming of ABS-CBN Sports and Action plus the fact that they are more focus on doing what they do best, that easily gave TV5 a huge advantage to lure them all.

And frankly, when the Pangilinan-owned network announced it through their profiles, everything went nuts. And just when people thought they will be Tagalized just like any of their foreign series and movies, they already said a word about it.

Photo credit: TV5 Facebook page

This appears to be a huge investment risk. They just gambled to probably one of the longest-airing weekly programs on worldwide television. The challenge is how to get sponsors to keep this thing going, especially when it comes to the PPVs which usually comes now once in three weeks. And hey, with the flexible schedule they have, this should poise no problem to do so.

Or probably they could do their same programming style with UFC on their cable counterparts. That could lure them new subscribers in Cignal. And with UFC and WWE on one network umbrella? It seems to me this will be a big chance for TV5 to get back in the audience ratings game; knowing they can win every sports aficionado with basketball (PBA), and mixed martial arts already at their helm.

Well, I think this proved one thing: wrestling fandom never died at all. It just got more alive than it used to be before. And with those turn of events in over the 24-hour stretch? Say, that's now the wrestling side of TV programming.  Talk about unpredictability!

Author: slickmaster | © 2017 september twenty-eight productions