WWE gives us, for free, five hours of primetime TV a week (well, not counting cable fees of course). Approximately four million Americans watch Raw every week, which is a pretty impressive number. WWE was counting on roughly 25% of them saying Only five hours a week? I need more! and then paying $10.65 a month (Im not saying $9.99) to get access to their Network. Initially, WWE made that number seem plausible after they released some ridiculous research figures that said their broadband fan universe was composed of 52 million people. While that may be true on some level (perhaps they were counting fans who watch 2 seconds worth of one of their shows a year while flipping through channels?) that doesnt mean those people are anywhere passionate enough to subscribe. Wall Street got excited, the stock soared, then when numbers started to come in, those numbers tanked. McMahon reportedly lost hundreds of millions of dollars. Ouch. A couple lawsuits have now been filed against the company. While nothing may ever come of it, its never good for a companys stockholders to lose faith in what theyre buying. That unnecessary overestimation on their part could cost them a ton of money in the long run.
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com
