5 months ago
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WWE presented SmackDown at Madison Square Garden this week, but fans at home noticed a lot of black screens. This is WWE’s new method of censoring dirty fan chants, and it was certainly noticed within the company.
Fans at MSG had a potty mouth during many chants on SmackDown. Instead of muting the feed, the network blacked out the screen as if a wardrobe malfunction occurred. This was a decision made by the network, not WWE.
Sean Ross Sapp noted on Fightful Select that there was frustration within WWE over these edits. The frequent blackouts made WWE look bad because it seemed like their feed from MSG kept dropping out, rather than indicating that the live chants caused the brief outages.
“There was frustration by several WWE sources we spoke to over the heavy censorship and editing on Smackdown. One longtime WWE talent who wasn’t on Smackdown saw our tweet regarding being excited for Smackdown to move back to USA and said ‘it’s a chore to watch sometimes. I understand censoring ‘fuck the Pacers,’ but it feels like every segment is edited and it makes us look like it’s our production.'”
WWE fans also chanted Dijak’s name prior to the SmackDown show going live. So, they started out the night with inventive chants that the company probably doesn’t want on television.
We will have to see if WWE fixes this issue in the months to come. Netflix will provide WWE RAW with an uncensored platform, so those fans can go totally wild with the chants starting in January 2025. SmackDown is moving to the USA Network, and that cable channel will likely give them more leeway as well.
What’s your take on FOX blacking out the entire screen during the show? Is there a better way to censor fan chants? Should they be censoring the fans? Let us know what you think in the comments section!
