10 Ridiculously Ambitious WWE Ideas That Failed Horribly
2. WWF New York
WWF New York was a ridiculous vanity project to the tune of $25M in lost expenditure.
Times Square rental costs are astronomical and willingly incurred - up to a point - because they are offset by the glamorous perception afforded to the company. The WWF, oddly enough, approached New York with uncharacteristic understatement; there were no Val Venis Banana Splits on the food menu, breast of Mae Young, nor Pepper Steaks. If there were no signings, events, concerts or tapings, the facility operated as a restaurant bearing the WWF name only - as if they were trying to attract wrestling fans and non-fans alike. It was a curious strategy; non-wrestling fans were never going in, anyway, and the wrestling fans who did were met with a sheepish non-attraction housing little of the awesome memorabilia you might have expected. It cost the earth and barely promised it: WWF New York was a vanity project designed by a company frightened of its own reflection.
WWF New York, essentially, was a product of its time - and when the WWF transitioned into WWE, and lost its mainstream lustre, the renamed The World limped out of the fray.