10 Clues That WWE Network Has Been A MAJOR Error
With subscriber numbers dropping after six fascinating years, do WWE need to go back to basics?
Vince McMahon holds the fate of the WWE Network in his hands in a fashion not too dissimilar to the manner he did WCW back in 2001.
There, he was full of rhetoric and rhetorics regarding the Atlanta outfit and its potential value. Nearly two decades later, he could quite easily bin off a product he transformed his business model for just to watch the aftermath. He did it with human beings after all.
In letting George Barrios and Michelle Wilson go for what he perceived to be differences to irreconcilable to work through, McMahon said farewell to two colleagues deemed the most responsible for selling his risible product for more money than it had ever made before.
Fox and USA will pay over a billion total for both SmackDown and Raw and Barrios and Wilson's strategic vision helped make it so. And yet, aside from them appearing at Joey Janela's Spring Break 4 in the Clusterf*ck Battle Royal, it's probably not something wrestling fans will think too much more about.
At least not until McMahon has no choice to completely rethink the Network in their absence...
10. They've Stopped Releasing Subscriber Figures
Regardless of exactly how they acquired them, WWE used to be more than happy to report rising numbers of $9.99s landing in the coffers as the Network appeared to go from strength to strength in its early days. This was volunteered rather than an obligation, and the news was generally noteworthy.
How quickly could they break a million punters on the service? Two million? Netflix as of writing has 158.3m subscribers and if this is wrestling's Netflix it won't be long until WWE is pocketing (grabs calculator)..one billion five hundred seventy-eight million four hundred twenty thousand dollars a month, right?!
The figure matters too - WWE absorbed huge startup costs to get the Network off the ground and cannibalised what remained of a sagging pay-per-view market in the process. Stockholder reports (rather than prideful gestures) have highlighted a downturn in numbers, with that 2017 peak (hovering around 2,100,000) now dipping to around 1,500,000 in accordance with television ratings and house show attendances falling.
WrestleMania 36 may temporarily (and artificially) spike the graphs, but we'll not hear about it unless the company are forced to out of law or necessity. This, for worse, has changed from whatever the "glory" days were.