Latest On Smackdown, JR on Lashley

WWE is in negotiations to find a new television home for the brand.

Smackdown, which premiered on UPN in 1999, moved to CW in 2006 when UPN merged with the WB network. The show was consistently one of the highest-rated programs on CW.

It has been speculated that the show might end up on the USA network, home of WWE's flagship Raw show, or the Sci Fi Channel, which airs WWE's weekly ECW show. MyNetworkTV affiliates may be another potential home for the brand.

One problem with WWE's SmackDown show ending up on MyNetworkTV is that they do not broadcast in HD. The chances of SmackDown ending up on NBC seem very slim right now as NBC didn't even offer WWE a Saturday Night's Main Event slow during the Hollywood writer's strike.

Other slim chances right now for SmackDown's future home are USA Network on Friday nights and Bravo.

WWE announcer Jim Ross noted on his blog that Lashley never really embraced the business.

"Lashley is a genuine physical specimen who is supremely gifted athletically, but much like Brock Lesnar, Bobby apparently did not like the travel demands of being a pro wrestler in today's marketplace, nor do I think that Bobby ever fully understood the business of sports entertainment, which added to Lashley's consternation at times. Financially, Bobby had a superb, hell fantastic, 2007, one of the best I can ever recall for any one at his stage of the game. In my personal opinion, if a pundit speculates that Bobby did not do well or wasn't treated fairly financially, I would dispute that uninformed statement wholeheartedly."