With a lot of money, a lot of footage, and a lot of subscribers, WWE can assemble a pro-wrestling statistician's dream: DATA. In this era of Nate Silver and micro-targeting voters, WWE has a huge opportunity to revolutionize how talent is evaluated, how shows are rated and how the product is stated. The excellence of Netflix was born out of their ability to aggregate their audience's viewing habits, and intelligently recommend other content that they will enjoy. But in recent years, they've gone well beyond that. The audience has taught the company about what sort of content they should license. Consider the case of House of Cards, where Netflix discovered that:
"...subscribers who loved the original BBC production also gobbled down movies starring Kevin Spacey or directed by David Fincher. Therefore, concluded Netflix executives, a remake of the BBC drama with Spacey and Fincher attached was a no-brainer, to the point that the company committed $100 million for two 13-episode seasons."
Imagine the WWE Network being able to recommend matches based on your viewing pattern. (Since you enjoyed ECW and OUTSIDE THE RING BRAWLING, may we suggest you watch more MICK FOLEY? Why don't you try "Nasty Boys versus Cactus Jack & Maxx Payne - Chicago Street Fight from WCW Spring Stampede 1994"?) Or think about WWE being able to aggregate years of Nielsen ratings correlated with on-screen content. They could perceive patterns such as "how long is an effective promo for a heel?" or "What's the right match length to keep people interested in a mid-card act?" Similar to Netflix, WWE should be investing in research. There's computer science algorithms that could make their business smarter. There's thousands of data points - historical PPV buys, event payroll, television records, live event gates, show attendance - all which could be used to create qualitative models to predict financial success (or failure). It's an pro-wrestling econometrician's dream, and it could reap some real benefits for the WWE. It's may help with character creation & elevation, or finding a way to have a meaningful interpretation of their social media statistics. It could even help introduce some excitement and chaos into the system by spotting talent early and finding new ways to ensure they have an opportunity to grow.
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)
