With what seemed as the most out of place panel of the day, Syfy brought two wrestlers from Smackdown. The two wrestlers that were present were Kofi Kingston and Beth Phoenix.
It seemed slightly odd that Syfy decided to take Smackdown and air it on its network although everyone at the panel seemed to be fairly excited to talk to with the wrestlers and ask them questions. One of the interesting questions that was asked was how each of them first got involved with wrestling. Both Kofi and Beth mentioned that they first pursued a college career and job afterwards but decided that a normal job was not right for them. They began training and wrestling at smaller venues and with a lot of hard work, eventually made it on to television.
They also mentioned how demanding the professional wrestling is and the shape that they must stay in throughout the year to make sure that they stay competitive. They explained to us how many do not realize that they are not only throwing punches and kicks at each other but they are also doing acrobatic moves and throwing each other around the ring. This is much more difficult than many may realize as most of the fighters are strong which usually means that they are very large.
Kofi and Beth were very excited to be continuing the Smackdown series on a new network and hope that with the new network will come a large new audience. While I am not completely sold on Smackdown becoming a success on the Syfy channel, it would not be a complete surprise if the show gained a new audience that previously had never been interested in professional wrestling.
Smackdown aired on Syfy on Friday, October 1st from 8-10pm ET.