Why The WWE Network FAILED

Vince McMahon has sold the WWE Network to Peacock - but it didn't make fans feel like showing off.

by Michael Sidgwick
WWE NETWORK
WWE

Even the most disillusioned hardcore fan - that description, you might have guessed, covers your writer - couldn't have pissed and moaned about the WWE Network.

From price point to content, it was wonderful. Yes, the search function was goosed for the longest time. Your writer once typed in ROCK AUSTIN with a view to just watching that seminal WrestleMania X-Seven clash, but the service yielded an NXT match between the ROCK star Shinsuke Nakamura and AUSTIN Aries.

But if anything, that was a funny quirk that brought into focus just how good we all had it. So you had to fast-forward for a few minutes just to watch one of the greatest wrestling matches ever for the lowest ever price for which it had been offered. So you couldn't easily skip around the best Four Horsemen moments. You could instead watch all of it: every piss-funny Ric Flair conniption fit, every measured Arn Anderson threat, every incandescent Tully Blanchard tirade.

For £9.99 a month. In addition to every new and historic WWE pay-per-view. In addition to the entirety of the Monday Night Wars. In addition to every historic WCW and ECW pay-per-view. For £9.99 a month, and it was cheaper for the yanks, you could relive the golden age of territory wrestling without WWE's revisionist lens clouding the story with masturbatory vaseline. For the budding historian and modern consumer alike, the WWE Network provided the ultimate fan experience.

But it failed. How?

CONT'D...(1 of 6)

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and surefire Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!