Last night, #CancelWWENetwork was trending #1 worldwide on Twitter. Today it’s still top five trending in the United States. Time to talk about the importance of this.
#CancelWWENetwork
When the WWE launched the WWE Network there was originally a six month commitment. Eventually the WWE dropped this commitment, worried that it would hold fans back from signing up. Today, the WWE Network operates very similar to Netflix in that you can cancel anytime. The problem is that Netflix survives based on an overall library and getting new content for the library. Nobody cancels Netflix if a movie they watched sucked. The WWE operates on the ebb and flow of fan support and fan interest, and by moving their PPV revenues to a monthly $10 commitment (bundled with more than just the PPVs), they have created a situation where the survival of the WWE is no longer based on long term. It’s based on whether people are happy today.
The WWE used to be able to always just make their decisions based on what they thought was (as the cliché is now), “Best for Business”. Vince McMahon and his empire of titans knew what was best for you. Sometimes it was true. When the Attitude fans turned on John Cena, it made no sense to turn him heel because he was the only active superstar creating brand new fans who could replace the Attitude fans. But today, fans can actively cost the WWE money. CM Punk once said that he was a spoke in the wheel, the wheel would keep turning and we’d all keep watching. Except now we’re not just watching a free Raw or the occasional Pay Per View. The company now depends on the success of the WWE Network for their survival and people can now click a few buttons and cancel. It’s far more effective than any chant on a post-Raw disrupting the product. It hits the WWE bottom line and it’s hard to ignore.
People did that after the Royal Rumble to the point of the cancelation page crashing. Why?
2015 Royal Rumble
The Royal Rumble seemed like an average card at first. The triple threat match was fantastic, easily the frontrunner in late January for the best match of 2015 in the company. It’s now the standard to beat. There were a lot of tag team matches but it didn’t feel like it was in approval to push tag team wrestling. Just a way to pad the card.
The Rumble match itself was the real attraction and WWE fans were hoping for some change in 2015 compared to last year. Daniel Bryan was actually showing up this time and folks were hoping that the company made us forget about Batista winning. Wrestlemania changed because the fans willed it so. Surely the company recognizes that this year?
Instead we got another Rumble that felt like it was booked in the time it took to run the “Rumble numbers” video, which pales in comparison to the analytics we ran on the site before it. Daniel Bryan was unceremoniously eliminated early. Bray Wyatt put on a clinic that went nowhere. Big Show and Kane started double teaming and dumping people in the most awkard, sluggish way. The only bright points were the surprise returns of Diamond Dallas Page and Buh Buh Ray Dudley.
The ending made it hard to figure out who was eliminated and who wasn’t (Rusev slipped under the bottom rope at one point and Curtis Axel was taken out by Erick Rowan and never officially entered the match) as Big Show and Kane tried to go toe to toe with Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose. Eventually the team up of Big Show and Kane fell apart, allowing Reigns to eliminate them distracted. Why isn’t Reigns just proving how powerful he is and eliminating them himself?
The final surprise of the evening was The Rock showing up to save Reigns from a post-elimination beatdown by Show and Kane, which completely overshadowed his own ability. Is this really the guy we’re supposed to get behind to beat Brock Lesnar? Rusev re-entered but was quickly taken out.
Roman Reigns
Let’s be clear here: Roman Reigns is not the problem. If Reigns has to take the blame for this (they certainly won’t blame Rock or themselves) it’ll be a shame. You can ask about if Reigns is ready or not for the main event, but the real issue is if Reigns was ever booked properly post-Shield. The answer is no. Reigns should have been the next Batista: strong, silent and smart. Instead they tried to make him The Rock. It didn’t play to his strengths. Add in the fact that while Ambrose and Rollins were allowed to change their looks, music and add a new dimension in their characters, Roman Reigns is carrying the dead husk of The Shield with him every night because they haven’t really figured out who Roman Reigns is yet. Is that proof he’s not ready? Sure, but that’s proof the WWE wasn’t ready. Reigns looked in charge of who he was last Rumble. This Rumble I can’t remember any memorable eliminations and The Rock had to save his bacon. Reigns didn’t look like a strong winner. He looked over his head. He was booked in over his head.
One could think of a thousand ways the WWE could book this Royal Rumble and Roman Reigns better. No point going over it. Fact is I don’t feel like Roman Reigns is a guy that can’t headline a Wrestlemania. He just has to do it with a working machine behind him instead of the broken one currently operating. Is Reigns willing worth all of his anger? Not really. Unfair to Roman Reigns. But it isn’t unfair to the WWE.
Does it get better or worse?
It’s a positive gesture that WWE fans are able to show their disappointment in the ending of the pay per view and demand that something gets done. For anyone saying, “It’s an overreaction”, you wouldn’t have said that if the Royal Rumble was positively reacted to and gained new subscribers.
Unfortunately, it’s going to eventually be spun into a positive by the WWE. How? Many of the people who canceled will come back for Wrestlemania and WWE can claim all of the new subscribers they got for Mania. They’ll completely ignore the cancelations in a first quarter report unless brought up. That’s what public companies do.
However, if this does change the company in how they work and operate? It’ll be a positive for wrestling fans. The wrestling landscape is getting smaller by the year and a shrinking WWE opens up people to try alternatives like Lucha Underground, ROH, TNA and New Japan Pro Wrestling. One could add NXT to the list but WWE fans who run to NXT will just create an even more volatile situation. Imagine the reaction when your favourite NXT talents make the WWE roster and get misused or booked to lose. It’s going to be this all over again. One should also not forget that canceling WWE Network because of Royal Rumble means not seeing NXT on Wednesday. Doesn’t really help NXT if you support it.
But is it a positive for WWE fans? Again, yes. Daniel Bryan main eventing Wrestlemania was a positive. It was change for the fans. If this leads to change for the fans, it’ll lead to a better product. Even if the company feels that the fans demands are not best for their long-term development, they can’t look at it anymore. They have to focus on how they are going to keep subscribers happy today before they care about how to gain new subscribers tomorrow.
The facts are simple: times have changed. The attitude that people will watch anyway doesn’t really work when the WWE could miss out on hundred of thousands of dollars in February due to their booking decisions in January. They might repair it and they might not. I think this could make the WWE recognize that you have to keep the mobs happy. What’s best for business has to be fan service if your central financial model depends on the moods of fairweather subscribers.
Vince McMahon said he felt this would be the best year ever for WWE and it would start at the Royal Rumble. Maybe he was right in ways he didn’t realize.
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