It has been a whirlwind week at the WWE corporate offices to say the least.
WWE announced the firings of Executive Vice Presidents Michele Wilson and George Barrios and WWE stock took a massive hit unlike ever before all the while the WWE 4th qtr financial earnings were released and the XFL was set to re-launch. To top it all off The Levi & Korsinsky law firm in New York City issued a press release this week to notify investors that they have started an investigation into WWE “concerning possible violations of federal securities laws.” The press release was very vague, but the bottom line is sources have told us that the investigation could have something to do with “Insider Trading” and may have been the proponent reason behind the firings of Michele Wilson and George Barrios. We will touch on this at a later time when more information becomes available.
WWE has had many issues with live event and pay-per-view ticket sales, merchandise revenue and WWE network subscribers.
While all this may sound like gloom and doom for World Wrestling Entertainment the truth is that the company financially is stronger than ever due to the big television contracts with USA and FOX.
The biggest news coming out this week concerns the future of WWE pay-per-views and where and how will they be streamed.
WWE is taking a loss by not using the traditional pay-per-view purchasing format and by essentially giving away WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam and Survivor Series the company is losing out on big paydays.
WWE is looking at OTT streaming sites to possibly host the “Big 4” pay-per-views while the remaining pay-per-views look to remain on the WWE Network.
With NXT on USA and the Big 4 PPV’s possibly being moved to sites such as Hulu, Amazon, Netflix or another streaming service such as ESPN plus (bundled with Disney Plus) the WWE Network will have a huge empty slot.
The plan if all of this is made official is for the WWE Network to stream more events from other promotions such as EVOLVE, Progress, and WWE Network exclusive events.
Not much will change for the fans because they will essentially get the Big 4 PPV’s for the same price as the WWE Network, as a subscription cost $9.99 and most fans have other streaming services to begin with especially the more popular services.
The future of WWE is always evolving and we are entering a ironic phase in the business where WWE is attempting to go back to traditional ways of presenting their pay-per-views.
Stay tuned to Slice Wrestling for the latest updates.
