With the launch of the WWE Network, Vince McMahon took a somewhat revolutionary approach to delivering content by almost completely circumventing cable providers. There has been major backlash from the ostracized cable providers, with Dish and DirecTV choosing to cut WWE pay-per-views as a sign of defiance due to lost revenue.
One would assume that the WWE would be raking in the dough by cutting ties with middlemen cable providers. That has not been the case thus far, however. Instead, recent reports indicate that the company has lost between 45 and 53 million dollars this year alone.
The WWE Network is an amazing product, but can it lure enough subscribers to be a success?
The recent budget woes have resulted in the WWE instituting a number of budget cutting measures. Most importantly, a number of WWE talents have been terminated, including Josh Matthews, Brodus Clay, and Drew McIntyre. Additionally, it seems as if the WWE is trying to nickel and dime its superstars in an attempt to save money by adopting a policy that fines athletes for not appearing in professional attire or showing up to the arena a minute late.
In order to simply break even, the WWE has said they would need at least 1 million Network subscribers. The press release after WrestleMania reported that there are 667,287 subscribers, far short of the goal of 1 million. There is even speculation that the next press release could see fewer subscribers, due to the fact that the WWE cancels accounts that do not have sufficient funds at the time of withdraw.
While that seems unlikely, it does seem like the WWE has a long way to go before breaking even, let alone actually turning a profit. This leads one to wonder if the WWE Network is ahead of its time.
In an attempt to convert those who signed up for the free trial this week of the WWE Network into paid subscribers, WWE is offering a $25 gift card to WWE Shop.
Anyone who signed up for the free preview this week that ends up signing up for a six-month commitment will receive $25 in free WWE merchandise.
The promotional offer is listed as being valid from July 11th through July 19th.
– The Big Show will be returning to WWE television later this month. He’s been away taping the WWE Studios film Vendetta.
– WWE is sending several top stars to the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con event later this mont onOn Thursday, July 24th.
At 10:15 am, Hulk Hogan, Daniel Bryan, Paul Heyman and Michael Cole will be hosting a panel to promote the WWE Network and WWE’s Mattel toy line.
At 7 pm, WWE Studios will host a panel to promote See No Evil 2 and Leprechaun: Origins. Kane and directors Jen and Sylvia Soska will talk about See No Evil 2, while , Hornswoggle and director Zach Lipovsky talk Leprechaun.
The following are highlights of a recent Rodolfo Roman interview with Jerry Lawler:
On his son Brian Christopher returning to NXT with Scotty 2 Hotty: “I was really happy for him. Brian and Scotty are doing quite a few appearance across the county. There’s so much wrestling going on all over the place, independent shows around the country. Scotty, Brian and Rikishi, they are busy every single week doing something. He’s not on WWE TV but he’s available all the time. They might bring him back. Who knows? He’s staying real busy which is good.”
On bringing his Memphis Wrestling library to the WWE Network: “We’re in negotiations. They’re sending a crew down next week to Memphis to evaluate the tapes, see what they want and what is still useable. We produced a 90 minute wrestling show every Saturday morning live for 21 straight years so there’s a lot of footage, a lot of tape out there. Hopefully one of these days we will have it on the WWE Network. So many of the stars you’ve seen in WWE over the years either started or came through Memphis Wrestling at one point.”
The next time WWE will publicly release the amount of subscribers that the WWE Network currently has will be during their second quarter earnings report, which is scheduled to take place on July 31st.
Both Vince McMahon and WWE CFO George Barrios will be co-hosting a live conference call at 11am EST. on 7/31.
It will be interesting to see the figures that WWE releases to the public regarding the Network, as it will be the first time we have seen a glimpse at the subscriber count since the company announced the 667,000 subscriber figure the day after WrestleMania XXX.
– WWE did not add the Monday Night War broadcast that aired on the WWE Network last night to the On-Demand portion of the subscription service. Last night’s airing was merely a “sneak peek” as part of the WWE Network free trial week. The actual series itself is scheduled to debut on the WWE Network in August.
– The official WWE website has a new feature up looking at the one-year anniversary of the night The Wyatt Family debuted on WWE RAW and attacked Kane. You can check out the feature, which includes a photo gallery at WWE.com.
– The official WWE website has a new video interview up where Jerry Lawler speaks to Eden about his health following a heart attack in Montreal — where RAW took place from on Monday night — a few years ago. You can check out the interview at WWE.com.
– The Business Insider website has a new article up looking at WWE offering another free week trial of their WWE Network subscription service. The article notes that this is a strong indication that WWE is having a difficult time reaching the 1.4 million subscribers they need for the Network to be a profitable venture. You can check out the article at BusinessInsider.com.
– It was announced on Monday’s edition of WWE RAW in Montreal that Chris Jericho’s “Highlight Reel” will return on WWE Main Event on Tuesday night, with special guest Bret “The Hitman” Hart.
– The following is the latest edition of “WWE Canvas 2 Canvas,” which features Diesel and The Kliq.
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WWE is offering a “free preview” to fans who still have not signed up for the WWE Network. The offer is now live and runs through next Monday, July 14th. WWE says there is “no credit card required and no strings attached” as part of the promotion.
“Get your FREE preview of WWE Network now and enjoy access to every WWE, WCW, and ECW pay-per-view event ever produced in history! It’s just like Netflix and Hulu, but also features 24/7 programming. Simply create an account and start watching immediately. No credit card required.”
One of the new shows airing on the WWE Network this week is a “WrestleMania Rewind” special focused on CM Punk’s two Money in the Bank victories. The show’s description reads:
“The Straight Edge Superstar, C.M. Punk, has been raging against the system ever since his WWE debut in 2006. Now, see the ‘Voice of the Voiceless’ shatter the glass ceiling in WWE through his performances in not one, but TWO Money-in-the-Bank ladder matches. Relive both high stakes matches from WrestleMania 24 and 25 in the entirety, and witness the rise of the ‘Best in the World,’ C.M. Punk.”
Other new programming on the Network this week includes a “sneak peek” of the Monday Night War series after tonight’s RAW, this week’s episodes of Main Event and NXT and a Saturday Night’s Main Event marathon on Saturday.
Visit WWE.com to check out the free 1-week trial of the WWE Network.
The new season of WWE Tough Enough, which was scheduled to air on the WWE Network, was to begin filming this weekend at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando. According to reports, the filming has since been pushed back until October. The delay of Tough Enough production is said to be part of WWE’s recent budget cuts.
As noted recently, Vince McMahon ordered tens of millions of dollars in budget cuts across all over WWE’s departments. It has since been revealed that approximately $20 million is the figure that is expected to be sliced from the budget.
Since its launch in 1999, SmackDown has been an integral piece in the WWE television puzzle. The program originally aired on Thursday night before switching to Friday night in 2005, serving as the perfect complement to Raw during much of its time on air.
At first, the programs were advertised as equals, especially during the brand extension era where superstars competed on either Raw or SmackDown exclusively. Storylines were progressed on both Raw and SmackDown and it even seemed like the latter was becoming the company’s top program for a while. However, much like a high school science experiment that is being conducted by the head of the Phish fan club, something went terribly awry.
The program is now a shell of its former self, airing in the Friday night death slot and featuring contests that would barely interest the most diehard WWE fans, let alone casual viewers flipping through the channels.
Although the program continues to receive decent ratings, it is easily surpassed by Raw each week, with Raw featuring nearly double the viewers on most weeks. There are a number of reasons why Raw continues to thrive while SmackDown becomes more irrelevant with each passing week.
Here are fives ways to make WWE SmackDown more impactful.
5. Ditch the Rematches
One of the biggest complaints about the current state of SmackDown is that it does little to differentiate itself from Raw. The program frequently features rematches from Raw, ultimately making the program inconsequential because it offers nothing fresh.
If the WWE hopes to turn the program into must-see television anytime soon, it would be wise to book matches that are unique to SmackDown, instead of frequently featuring the same matches that aired on Raw just a few days prior.
4. Air the Program Live
Although the announcers do their best to try to disguise the fact that SmackDown is a taped program, fans that follow the product closely are well aware of the fact that SmackDown is taped on Tuesday night.
The results are quickly posted online each week, making it easy for fans to scan through a blog post in order to see what happened. This also means that no truly shocking events will occur, as the spoilers would ruin the buzz that comes with a big return or a title change. A live program would give fans something of value to watch each week, as opposed to a taped program where the results are available three days before it airs.
Many are saying it will be interesting to see how WWE’s decision to phase out their pay-per-view business in favor of the WWE Network will affect big returns, such as The Rock, for future shows.
In his last two WrestleMania appearances, the financial side of The Rock’s deal with WWE depended heavily on the percentage of revenue he would garner from the pay-per-view intake, a source of revenue that doesn’t really exist anymore with WWE bringing in less and less money from pay-per-view.
The Rock noted in recent interviews that while he would be willing to come back to WWE for another match or two, it would depend on whether or not it was with the right person, and if the money was right.
It’s looking more and more like the rumored Roman Reigns vs. Triple H showdown will be taking place at either the Night Of Champions pay-per-view, or the Hell In A Cell pay-per-view.
Originally, Reigns vs. HHH was scheduled for SummerSlam, however, as previously reported, it’s looking like Reigns vs. Randy Orton is the plan for that show.
WWE is looking to stack the deck at Night Of Champions, as that’s when the initial six-month WWE Network subscriptions expire. As a result, the Reigns-HHH match was likely pushed back in the plans, as to schedule it so that it happens when Network subscriptions are up for renewal.
Additionally, the thought process is that Night Of Champions or Hell In A Cell would be closer to WrestleMania 31, where the idea is to push Reigns into the top baby face spot.
As noted previously, the top four matches planned for this year’s WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view include Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton, Bray Wyatt vs. Chris Jericho and Stephanie McMahon vs. Brie Bella.
Another match that was originally under consideration for the show is a “Buried Alive” match between Daniel Bryan and Kane. That match is considered unlikely at this point, as it depends on Bryan’s condition, which doesn’t seem to be approving at a rate that would allow him to perform in time for SummerSlam.
It’s been noted in the past as well that WWE will be stacking the deck for Night Of Champions, the pay-per-view following SummerSlam, as that is when they will be needing something big to lure subscribers to the WWE Network, as their six-month subscriptions will be expiring at around that time.
– The WWE Money In The Bank pay-per-view at the TD Garden in Boston on June 29th drew an advanced sellout of 12,000 fans. The number that WWE announced was 15,652.
– Cesaro is expected to continue wearing an eye patch for the next couple weeks.
– WWE did extensive filming with Bruno Sammartino, reportedly up to nine hours, for future WWE Network and DVD-related programming.
There continues to be talk within WWE that Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns will headline WrestleMania 31 next year. The belief is that Lesnar will defeat John Cena to become the WWE World Heavyweight Champion at SummerSlam, building to the moment that he drops the belt to Reigns as Reigns’ crowning moment as the new top baby face in the company.
While there has been no confirmation that Lesnar is defeating Cena at SummerSlam, the word going around is that it is going to be a big show and that September’s Night Of Champions pay-per-view, which will also feature Lesnar, will be just as big to try and persuade people to renew their expiring six-month WWE Network subscriptions.
– NXT stars Adrian Neville and Sami Zayn have been added to the upcoming WWE tour of Japan.
– Ric Flair and Chris Jericho have been added to the upcoming WWE tour of Australia in August.
– There will be no RAW post-show this coming Monday night. Instead, the debut edition of “The Monday Night War” weekly series will air following RAW on the WWE Network.
At last word, shooting of the new season of Tough Enough for the WWE Network was scheduled to begin this week, however due to recent budget-cutting, it’s said to be up in the air.
Apparently people involved got the directive to reduce productions costs on the project, and at last word it was not 100 percent as to whether or not they would even start filming as scheduled.
In another cost-cutting move, WWE changed the pre-and-post shows for RAW from being filmed live in the arena to a studio setting. The SmackDown pre-and-post shows were canceled.
Additionally, WWE did not hold a post-show or press conference after Money In The Bank this past Sunday, as they went from the conclusion of the live broadcast directly into a replay of the pay-per-view.
As a result of Josh Mathews’ WWE release, Renee Young will now be hosting the RAW and PPV pre-and-post shows on the WWE Network.
Word going around is that Vince McMahon has ordered major cutbacks across the board in WWE, far beyond the cuts that have taken place so far.
The dollar figure floating around that McMahon would like to slice off of the current budget is said to be into the eight figures, meaning tens-of-millions of dollars.
The motivation for the cuts is to offset the losses involved in starting up the WWE Network, as well as offsetting the amount involved in the new television deal, as the company had promised a significantly larger number prior to finalizing their current deal.
– In a pretty surprising note, during the WWE RAW Backstage Pass post-show on the WWE Network on Monday night, WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T mentioned the infamous backstage fight between Chris Jericho and Bill Goldberg from years ago. He didn’t go into specific details on what happened during the fight, but did mention it.
– Also on the RAW post-show, Renee Young interviewed AJ Lee, who spoke about her return on Monday night. Lee noted that it feels good to be reunited with her baby, the WWE Divas Championship. She said she only came out to congratulate Paige the same way Paige did for her after WrestleMania XXX, and that she just happened to leave with what is rightfully hers.
– Infamous Reddit user “Dolphins1925” had one of his worst prediction outings in recent memory, as he missed several of his picks for Sunday’s event. Dolphins, who for the longest time went flawless with his pay-per-view predictions, missed on the main event, picking Kane, as well as Summer Rae over Layla and Luke Harper & Erick Rowan over The Usos.
– Below is the official trailer for the “EXCUSE ME! – A Cougar Countdown” special on Vickie Guerrero, which airs on the WWE Network this Tuesday night at 9pm EST.