WWE WrestleMania 31 was a critical and commercial success for WWE. What had been a lacklustre show in the build-up was ultimately a thrilling occasion, with every single match being very good quality. With 76,976 fans in attendance and a record breaking gate of $12.6 million, it is proof that the pro wrestling industry is still very healthy indeed. Crucially, the WWE Network subscriptions are also expected to be significantly up. A figure of 1.3 million subscribers has been announced, which represents a massive success for the company. Furthermore, there has been a huge explosion of media interest and publicity around the show, meaning that WWE are in a position to really achieve something in the coming months. It all looks promising, but when we delve deeper, there's a range of big talking points that must be considered. Let's get straight into it!
11. WWE Network Issues
Mania 31 had most likely a majority of Network subscribers tuned into the live stream. Any major or mass failure would have been catastrophic to WWE's new digital business model. Unfortunately, the extra demand did take its toll on the service, although not in an outright catastrophe. In the first hour, Twitter was full of reports from fans that the Network wasn't working correctly. The common complaint was streaming quality, with the consistency dipping in and out from satisfactory to grainy. There were also irregularities with the flow of the stream, with it skipping backwards at points before correcting itself. In some instances, it just paused for seconds, before resuming. Many fans complained about this and it was absolutely a Network problem. Thankfully, the issues tended to be more of an annoyance than an outright failure. The streaming improved as the night went on and it appears that the majority of viewers found the service to be acceptable.
