WWE Network is failing big time

[Red Rain]

Well, they deserve it. I'll let you know that Cena as champion isn't a good hook to get butthurt smarks like me who would pirate your product anyway to buy your Network, WWE. You can get your boring irrelevant midcard and stale main event scene and go screw yourselves with Wyatt doing jobs _|_

So you're saying you won't watch Cena v Lesnar @ Summerslam?

 

[Leo C]

So you're saying you won't watch Cena v Lesnar @ Summerslam?

I'm thinkin about it. Since Cena's probably going to job this time around I guess I'd give it a go, because honestly, Cena matches are fine and vs Lesnar it'll likely be a battle.

 

[Senhor Perfect]

Well, they deserve it. I'll let you know that Cena as champion isn't a good hook to get butthurt smarks like me who would pirate your product anyway to buy your Network, WWE. You can get your boring irrelevant midcard and stale main event scene and go screw yourselves with Wyatt doing jobs _|_

Negative Leo C? :shock:

That Neymar injury must really have affected you. :happy:

 

[Leo C]

Negative Leo C? :shock:

That Neymar injury must really have affected you. :happy:

I'm not sure what you're talking about, but I hope that worthless piece of *** dies so I never have to see his face ever again. :dawg:

 

[Snowman1]

As crazy as it sounds, it's probably good for their business to not have much of the AE stuff on there. You think you're gonna watch Wrestlemania X-7 then go back to watch 2014 Raw? Hell no! 1:

I'm all for them offering different pricing options. For those of us who don't want to deal with this six-month commitment nonsense, why can't we order a one-month subscription for $15? I'd be down with that. And then as you mentioned, a year for a hundred bucks. Maybe even a "lump sum" payment option of the $60 up front. (Preferably the $15 a month, so they HAVE to produce better shows than they have been doing...)

I got the free trial and have really been enjoying it today. But most of my broke ass IRL friends who, even when they have money, have this really poor mindset and knowing they have the option of not paying anything for the PPV's like they were doing already don't see a reason to start now.... but WWE is seriously doing the best they can with all the classic content, on-demand, great video quality, anywhere access... Really don't know what they can do to reach these folks.

Thing is, they can't go back to the old PPV model after this. Are you subscribers going to go back to willingly paying $50 a month for all these mediocre ass PPV's? No, you aren't.

 

[Red Rain]

Is WWE not in a period of transition? Everything WWE is doing right now is preparing for the future.
All the older talent is working to put over the younger talent.
The Universe is just getting used to the new blood. Once these guys become bigger brands (or if) the buys may grow

 

[Wacokid27]

Is WWE not in a period of transition? Everything WWE is doing right now is preparing for the future.
All the older talent is working to put over the younger talent.
The Universe is just getting used to the new blood. Once these guys become bigger brands (or if) the buys may grow

I clicked "Optimistic" on this, but I also think it's right.

The current product:

-- HHH and Stephanie coming into their own (McMahon-Helmsley Regime 2.0, eef yoo weel) is a huge transition because HHH and Vince, who are the "evil boss" characters are completely different. When Vince walked into the ring, you knew there had to be a screwy finish for him to win. When HHH steps into the ring, there's enough credibility there that, despite his age, he could kick the other guy's ass. It's a good thing because it is a push into the future, but I think it's creating some friction backstage, which is why we see a higher quality of writing around HHH's storylines and the one where he's intimately involved (the storylines surrounding the Shield, for example).

-- You've got a whole new generation of "Superstars" (and I'm really cracking up at the hate some of these guys are getting just because they're getting air time over some of the personal favorites around here). In addition to the next generation of main event stars (Bryan, Reigns, Rollins, Ambrose, Wyatt), you've got a tremendous group of midcard/upper-midcard guys who are coming in and really showing their stuff on the main roster (Usos, Rowan, Harper, Dallas, Rusev, Big E, Cesaro, Rose), as well as some guys who could be real breakout stars from NXT (Zayn, Kalisto, Ascension, Neville). What this also means, however, is that "your favorite stars" are getting less and less time. It's the nature of the beast and some of us have to realize that "our favorites" are the Rowdy Roddy Pipers and Jake Roberts of this era, guys who could have/should have/would have been great, but they just weren't (for whatever reason).

These two pieces define "transition". When these wrestlers get over big, the generation that's following them as they come up are the "wired" generation. Their fans will watch on the 'Net, which means the WWEN (and illegal sites.....but most people, believe it or not, actually prefer to obey the law.......it's a psychological fact; you can look it up).

As to the subscription drop-off, I highly doubt there will be a big one. If I'm recalling correctly, my WWEN subscription was automatic billing for the first six months and automatic renewal every month thereafter until I ordered it stopped. The whole reason that most companies that do online billing of any sort use automatic renewal is that most people, even if they stop partaking of a service, don't think to stop the automatic renewals, so an initial commitment to such a company means that 75 - 90% will never stop using the service.

The basic thing to realize is that WWEN was a truly revolutionary idea in the media industry. They oversold it to investors (they're not the first company to have done that), but that doesn't mean it isn't built for long-term success. Everyone laughs about 667,000 subscribers, but that's a pretty good initial number (it's the prediction of 2 million that hurts them with investors). Once it goes international, the subscription rates will go up. They'll probably have 1 million subscribers (or at least 900k) by January 1, which will be a huge success by any actual business metric.

wk

 

[Red Rain]

Yeah, there's a truck load of mid-carders born in the late 70's and early 80's that will be left in the dust.
It's difficult to comprehend a guy born in 1979 is too old, isn't it?
Nothing that is truly innovative is going to catch like fire immediately.
The closest thing would be music, but even there the seeds of a huge phenomenon begins quite a bit before it actually hits.
So fans are butt-hurt because Ziggs, Morrison, Ryback, Kofi will never see the light of day.... that could effect enthusiasm for the product
A guy like Cody Rhodes (who has all the talent in the world), may never be a featured performer to HHH's liking

What we have his Orton, Cena and Kane. Fans have eaten that for years and are hungry for something different.
Instead of pushing their current mid-card talent (like Barrett), they are effectively boosting NXT talent from low card to main event
HHH is taking handpicked talent and getting them ready for the main event and by passing guys fans have been clamoring over.

 

[Leo C]

It would also help the enjoyment if they wouldn't book the same match every show for two months. They tend to do that often.

 

[Wacokid27]

Exactly right.

I can understand why some fans aren't happy about it. I'm a fan of Barrett (who does seem to be getting a push), Rhodes (whose new character is at least different and getting over quickly), and Ziggler (........I got nothin'), among others who aren't getting the pushes they "deserve" because guys like Reigns, Ambrose, Rollins, Cesaro, etc., are getting them.

But......this happens in competitive sports, too. If you've every been a long-time fan of a sports team, you can probably name a few fan favorites who never really "got their shot" to be the man (Bill Spiers of my Houston Astros comes to mind for me.....he was a hugely talented player who just happened to not quite be talented enough but had flashes of brilliance that made you think he could be great, but he never got the opportunity to be the 3-hitter and starting first baseman for Houston over the long-term, because Jeff Bagwell and Lance Berkman were better).

As to the piece on new innovations not being things that caught on right away, absolutely. All you have to do is look at history, particularly business history, to see it. I mean, the Internet was invented in the mid-1970's, but it didn't start to become important until the mid-to-late-1990's. Now, it's revolutionized communication.

wk

 

[Red Rain]

LOL You hit the nail on the head with that #3 hitter take. I grew up in NoCal where Barry Bonds was the star but Jeff Kent was the more solid all around performer. It may not sound like a big deal, but it actually does matter.
Yes, the #3 hitter matters. It f***ing matters. Management will wait 8 freaking months for their star to recover from injury (and they never do, by the way), while they trade away good enough talent directly under their nose.
No, let's not be happy with 3-4 above average talent, let's wait on the overpaid tool who bats #3 in the batting order to bring us back to glory. It never happens!

Rant complete. I just hope HHH is unbiased. He allowed his buddies (Orton/Batista/Sheamus) to remain underdeveloped for the sake of being right. If either of those hand-picked cats didn't succeed HHH would be wrong. What happened? WWE gave those guys cleverly written angles to compliment how under-developed (speaking of Orton and Batista) they were.

I'm holding out to see what happens.

 

[Green Jesus]

They could just try to make smackdown more relevant. I mean, smackdown is full of filler material and predicable results, and it's usually treated as just a fallout of raw. If they could book some importan matches on SD, i'm sure more people would tune in, just make triple H or another authority figure announce on raw a big match coming up on smackdown. Let's say, some important #1 contender matches that could go either way. More mid-card title matches(with a few changes to keep things fresh).

 

[leojay]

I really see no reason why the Network shouldn't be a success. You can't ask for a better deal than being offered every PPV in history (past and present) along with a bunch of other extra content for only $120 a year.

But how many people actually want to spend $120 a year on the WWE? What is their core audience? I doubt it's over a million to be honest, especially considering their flag ship show only averages four million. They'd need a quarter of their audience watching a free TV Show to pay $120 a year for the network. You could argue that their international numbers could help, but other than Canada their international ratings aren't too great.

The deal's great, but who wants the deal? Do they really have that many people willing to pay $120 a year for premium WWE content? How many casual fans are there as opposed to die-hard ones? Do casual fans want to pay $120 a year for premium WWE content?

 

[leojay]

They could just try to make smackdown more relevant. I mean, smackdown is full of filler material and predicable results, and it's usually treated as just a fallout of raw. If they could book some importan matches on SD, i'm sure more people would tune in, just make triple H or another authority figure announce on raw a big match coming up on smackdown. Let's say, some important #1 contender matches that could go either way. More mid-card title matches(with a few changes to keep things fresh).

The way to get more subscribers on the WWE Network is to make a Television show not available on the network more relevant?

 

[The GOAT]

But how many people actually want to spend $120 a year on the WWE? What is their core audience? I doubt it's over a million to be honest, especially considering their flag ship show only averages four million. They'd need a quarter of their audience watching a free TV Show to pay $120 a year for the network. You could argue that their international numbers could help, but other than Canada their international ratings aren't too great.

The deal's great, but who wants the deal? Do they really have that many people willing to pay $120 a year for premium WWE content? How many casual fans are there as opposed to die-hard ones? Do casual fans want to pay $120 a year for premium WWE content?

Well, assuming you're not broke or anything (otherwise you likely wouldn't own a television set or a computer with internet access anyway), $120 isn't a whole lot to take out of your yearly income. If you were being asked to put down $60 a month for the Network instead of every six months, I could see being skeptical about whether it was worth the money, but you're not. I just figure if so many millions of people can bother watching Raw and Smackdown every week that they would easily make the choice to purchase the Network as well at that low price.