10 Clues That WWE Network Has Been A MAJOR Error

4. Live Attendances Are Still Diminishing

WWE Empty Seats
Reddit/BradJohnson34

The pictures-of-empty-buildings trend on Twitter from the last few years was far from a modern phenomenon, but the alarming regularity and particular potency certainly was.

SmackDown WWE Championship programmes being performed to nobody in 2018 became a Stomping Grounds in 2019 that had to be shot as a three-sided venue thanks to the almost total lack of punters on one side of the building. These were representative of new and changing times, with cash-poor customers choosing against an evening at the wrestling when it came to using what little disposable income they had.

House shows are a regular pressing concern, with all sorts of changes and tweaks ongoing to try and stop the bleeding, but there's no more naked a reflection on fleeting interest than a noticeable lack of a*ses in seats. The WWE Network - a vehicle to tease a tenner from pockets and enhance financial and emotional investment in the product - has triggered an upturn in these fortunes but presided over an unsolvable problem.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett