No, this isn't about John Cena pushing Kurt Angle to the limit in 2002. Rather it's about WWE ruthlessly surging into online and digital marketing, branding and media, and perpetually being a big business standard-bearer in a wild, new realm. Since the early 1990s, WWE has been a pioneering brand in online marketing. From having space on America Online to opening WWE.com to expanding that to WWE Shopzone to becoming heavily interactive in social media to the development of the second-screen WWE app experience followed soon thereafter with the WWE Network, WWE has always been a ground-breaker. However, in comparison to every other move WWE has ever made, the Network may be the one that keeps Vince McMahon a billionaire for the rest of his years on Earth. The Network is ultimately a one-stop shop for the entire historical and present-day library of WWE-owned content. Of course, given that WWE has all of the footage from World Championship Wrestling, as well as most territories, this means that the entire catalog of footage of the broadcasted history of mainstreamed professional wrestling will ideally be located in one centralized space. As well, the Network moving forward decentralizes WWE's need for significant push of its pay-per-view and home video/DVD services as the content can be hosted and stored online. The idea that WWE took the disruptive and progressive practices of online content providers like Hulu and Netflix to the next level in a significant manner long before major television networks and film studios did so is impressive. With WWE's broadcast deal with NBC/Universal expired, and broadcast networks staring deeper into a future where first-run broadcasting will be taking place on net-based portals, WWE could be leading the wave of television's future in abandoning traditional network structures for the more easy to access online realm.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
