February 24th 2014, the wrestling world changed forever: the WWE Network launched. This was the biggest paradigm shift in wrestling distribution since the change from Closed Circuit to Pay Per View several decades earlier. Now with $9.99 a month, you had access to almost every major wrestling event of all time. That would have been a decent deal by itself. But WWE went so far as to include their monthly pay per views and a slew of original, though mostly mediocre, original content. The best original network show since it’s inception has been without a doubt NXT.
NXT had the honor of running the first live event on the Network, NXT Arrival, just three days after the network launched. The show opened with Triple H asking the crowd (and WWE Universe), “Are you ready?” and telling us, NXT had arrived. The card kicked off with the relatively unknown Sami Zayn vs WWE main roster superstar Cesaro. The two former Indy standouts tore the house down and suddenly, the winds of the mainstream wrestling world began to blow in a new direction. Over two years later, the transformation continues and the industry is better because of it. It makes us wonder…
What if there was no WWE Network?
How It Happened: Rumors of the WWE Network began in 2011. It was initially envisioned as channel you’d tune to on your cable box like NBC, CBS and USA. Some reports said it might be a pay channel like HBO or Showtime. The WWE set their sights on April 1st 2012 as their intended launch. The goal was to reach 40 million homes through various cable providers nationwide. The company created a website, iwantwwenetwork.com, where fans could write Dish, DirecTV, Comcast and what not asking that the Network be made available to them just in time for Wrestlemania 28. There was even a countdown clock on the website. April 1st 2012 came and went. No Network.
The WWE had spent an estimated $4 million dollars in Quarter 4 of 2011 and $2.1 million in Quarter 1 of 2012 on Network related expenses. That’s a lot of money to spend on nothing. The failure to launch stemmed from WWE’s inability to entice cable providers into paying them for the network. Many cable providers saw it as conflict of interest as they’d be losing big money on the Pay Per View buy rates. The dream was over for the time being…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4sxXc_Yhtw]
Until the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show, when the WWE made a relatively surprising announcement: The WWE Network would launch in less than two months as an over-the-top service, similar to Netflix or Hulu. This time, they were prepared. They had Vince, Stephanie, Triple H, HBK, Austin and Cena all on stage promoting the Network. They had Frequently Asked Questions pages available minutes later on their website. This spelled the end of traditional pay per view and physical media of past events. The WWE Network was real and the rest was history.
How it could have happened: The WWE, more specifically Vince McMahon, has never been afraid of taking risks. Sometimes the risk is called Wrestlemania. Sometimes it’s called the XFL. If it works, they run with it. If it fails, they cut bait. Whether it was great foresight or sheer stubbornness, continuing the push for the Network after the 2012 failure bucked every trend of a publicly traded company. Had they given up (as they should have), wrestling and the WWE would be much different.
Without the WWE network delivering premium content to 1.5 million homes worldwide, the fan base would be significantly smaller. In 2013, buyrates (excluding the Big 4) were teetering around 215,000 per event. That’s 14% of the current PPV/Network reach. By delivering so much family friendly content into homes around the world and increasing the accessibility with affordability, they garnered new fans from unexpected avenues.
Mom & Dad are now watching Backlash on a Sunday night seeing new champions crowned. College kids are paying $9.99 for the HD feed as opposed to pirating PPVs from European sites. Fans of the Attitude Era and beyond are subscribing to check out old content and finding some new favorites. The monthly specials are usually where wrestling is at it’s finest. No commercials, no silliness, major title changes and memories. The Network delivers that to millions of people and it’s showing as they’re slowly being re-assimilated into mainstream pop culture.
The content on WWE Network is improving the WWE as well. Without a televised version of NXT, there would be no anticipation for arriving superstars (Like Finn and Bayley). There would be no showcase of their talents (Like Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn). Most importantly, there would be no talent pushing and evolving the style and substance of the main brands. Sami and Cesaro changed WWE forever with their match on the first NXT Arrival. That match happened a month before Daniel Bryan won the championship match. Without that, Bryan’s win would have been a one-off of an indy-darling who did good for himself.
But Sami and Cesaro showed that there are dozens of Daniel Bryan-types waiting in the wings. After seeing something on the WWE Network that they weren’t seeing on their TVs on Mondays, fans wanted to see quirky, unique, talented guys, like Daniel Bryan and the wrestlers in NXT, get their opportunity on the main stage. We now live a world where Kevin Owens is the Universal Champion. And how about the women? A month before the Network was announced, they were playing musical chairs on Raw. After the Network launched, the #GiveDivasAChance movement began. It stemmed from the embarrassing Paige/Emma vs The Bellas match which was given about 30 seconds on TV by WWE. But it was the impressiveness of NXT stars like Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Charlotte and Bayley that first inspired fans to Give Divas A Chance. The evolution of the Divas revolution continued as the Women of NXT debuted on the main roster and kicked the word Diva to the curb.
The WWE Network is the best thing to happen in the wrestling industry in quite some time. It continues to change the game as shows like Talking Smack become must watch and Network exclusives like the Cruiserweight Classic give us matches we’ll never forget. By all indications, the Network should have been dead in the water 4 years ago. It never should have happened. But it did and it changed everything.
