It's been said that WWE will be streaming footage without editing out people like Chris Benoit. Still, while most events may be streamed unaltered from the master tapes, there may still be some form of sanitizing either through content selection (which shows are brought to the network) or even through outright editing. It's believed that commentary actually may remain as it originally was, similar to the earlier royalties discussion. WWE doesn't believe streaming the content over-the-top would invoke the same expensive fees for using Jesse Ventura's voice that selling the matches on home video did. I would still expect music rights to be an issue. Will WWE hear outcry from fans disappointed that events aren't airing identical to when they were first broadcast? It remains to be seen what WWE chooses to bring online from their enormous library and whether it all remains online indefinitely. It's possible there may be a rotating basis of content (perhaps to streamline searching). Of course, whatever WWE chooses to publish is going to follow their narrative of the history of professional wrestling. It's not going to be an independently-run network. It will be interesting to see how they choose to deal with content from other companies that may not be politically-correct or comfortable in this day in age. After all, professional wrestling has a long history of using homophobic, xenophobic and violent angles as part of the product. How will today's PG-WWE deal with this non-PG content?
I'm a professional wrestling analyst, an improviser and an avid NES gamer. I live in Saint Paul, Minnesota and I'm working on my first book (#wrestlenomics). You can contact me at chris.harrington@gmail.com or on twitter (@mookieghana)
