So today we’ll be getting into big news of the WWE network being cancelled as a stand-alone
network and moving to Peacock
We’ll also be talking a look at Stephanie McMahon’s comments on Ronda Rousey’s return
and some comments from a former lead WWE writer that claims Sesame Street has better characters
then wrestling does right now
So let’s get into this big new deal for the WWE network.
It’s now official, the WWE network that has been around since 2014 has been cancelled
as a stand-alone streaming service, WWE will be moving it’s entire library of content
over to NBC’s new ‘Peacock’ streaming service
New streaming platforms are literally popping up from every direction right now and Peacock
is one of the latest new platforms
Peacock was previously using the hit show ‘The Office’ as their main show to pull
in new subscribers, but now Peacock is instantly pulling in over 1.1 million subscribers by
acquiring the WWE network
The WWE Network first launched 7 years ago with Wrestlemania 30 being the first event
on the platform and it was a dream platform for WWE fans
A streaming platform that was all about WWE and you can go back and see any event in history,
it was amazing and it’s been the home of all special WWE events and pay per views ever
since it launched
Like we mentioned before, the WWE network currently has over 1.1 million active Subscribers,
so what’s happening with them, what does this mean for all the active WWE network subscribers?
Well with WWE selling the rights to NBC Universal, all active WWE network subscribers in the
United States will be migrated over to a Peacock Premium Subscription
The big switch all starts on March 18th
It’s been confirmed that not only will they take over the entire library of content, they’ll
also be hosting all of the live WWE events from now on
As long as you’re already a WWE network / Peacock Subscriber, you will get the live
events at no additional cost at all
Variety released this statement to clear up some of the confusion:
“The NBCU streamer will have all WWE live events — for no additional charge — including
WrestleMania and SummerSlam, with Fastlane the first event to stream on Peacock on Sunday,
March 21.
(WWE fans who would prefer to order events via traditional pay-per-view will still have
that option.)”
The Ad-free version WWE network will be available on Peacock for 9.99 and the version with ADs
will be available for 4.99
So why cancel the WWE network and sell the rights away?
Well Wall Street Journal is reporting that WWE will make 1 Billion dollars over the next
five years from this deal with Peacock, so it really was a no-brainer for WWE, of course
they’re going to take a potential 1 Billion dollar deal
Stephanie McMahon commented on the big news and had this to say:
“Since launching last year, Peacock has amassed an incredible catalog of iconic movies
and TV shows, along with the best of live news and sports, to which WWE Network will
be a perfect complement.”
“WWE and NBCU have been partners for nearly 30 years, and we consider this to be a natural
extension of our long-standing relationship.
Peacock will enable WWE to showcase our most significant events, including WrestleMania,
“which was previously available on WWE Network for $9.99 per month, to Peacock’s 26 million
subscribers for $4.99 per month and for free to the millions of Comcast and Cox homes across
the country, helping to better serve and grow our global fanbase.”
This wasn’t a decision that WWE just did on the spot, reports claim that Vince McMahon
was looking to make this happen since last January and after taking a year to shop the
network around and see the best deal, it looks like selling everything to NBC was the best
deal for them
Fans are a bit mixed on the cancelling of the WWE network.
You’ll no longer have the WWE network app that just takes you straight to the WWE content,
now you’ll have to go through the Peacock app, so fans really don’t know how to feel
about the big change right now
Peacock is will host its first pay per view on March 21st with WWE’s “Fastlane”
event
Peacock will obviously host this year’s Wrestlemania and the rest of WWE’s events
for the foreseeable future
What are your thoughts on WWE cancelling the WWE network?
—————————
Vince Russo was a long time creative writer for WWE, TNA, and has really worked in numerous
other companies
He was recently interviewed by SK Wrestling’s Lee Walker and he had a lot to say about current
state of storytelling and characters in wrestling
So let’s take a look at Vince Russo’s comments and discuss, he had this to say:
“Can I tell you something?
Right now, you could take a writer of Sesame Street and they would build the characters
in wresting better than what you see now.
And that's an absolute shoot, bro.
You could take the most elementary show on television now and they could produce better
content than the wrestling business is”
As outrageous and crazy as that sounds, he definitely has a point, we’ve been talking
about this for while now, pointing out these flaws in the characters and storytelling
You look back at the 80s and 90s and every single WWE superstar, on top of being a wrestler,
was this bigger than life character
Yes, they were all plain wrestlers, but all of them had unique characters and personalities,
everyone was different and unique
Everyone, for the most part, had this quality character that had so much personality to
them
You look around at today’s current rosters and you see a lot of great wrestling talent,
but they have no character or personality to them
And in the wrestling business, it seems like you have to have both elements to be really
successful, you have to have a great character and have to be great in the ring as well
If you have only have one of the two things, you’re never going to reach your full potential
So what he’s saying is true, Sesame Street knows how to create different characters with
unique personalities, every character is different in those kid shows
But if you look at some WWE superstars and ask yourself, “okay, what is their character
about, what is their gimmick?”
It’s going to be hard to find that answer for a lot of the current WWE superstars
There are still a handful of quality WWE superstars that have great characters
Individuals like Bray Wyatt, Roman Reigns, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Bianca Belair, Seth Rollins
and a few others, but the list is quite short
There’s not too many of these high quality characters in WWE right now, so that is a
problem, they should look into creating better overall character for these talented wrestlers
The other issue is storytelling.
I always look at WWE’s storytelling to be cheap, I go into it knowing that I’m not
going to get a high quality storyline from an HBO series or something like that, I just
set my expectations to be very low
But it shouldn’t have to be like that.
If WWE put more effort into their storylines, maybe it would feel like an actual television
show storyline
But a majority of their storylines just feel like it’s not thought out and it just feels
like they’re writing segments for the stories on a week to week basis
Nothing really feels longterm and high in quality outside of Roman and Bray’s stories
So if WWE can fill up their shows with characters and storylines similar to what Roman Reigns
and Bray Wyatt are doing then you might have something special for the whole show
But I do agree with his comments that the characters and storytelling could use a bit
more effort overall
Do you agree with what Vince Russo has to say?
———————————
Stephanie McMahon was recently asked about Ronda Rousey’s WWE return by TMZ Sports
Stephanie had this to say when speaking about Ronda’s whereabouts and potential WWE return:
“Well, you know, Ronda’s been very public that she would like to start her own family
and you know, once she does that, our doors are absolutely open, our arms are open.
We are very hopeful that Ronda will come back home to WWE.”
Ronda’s content was originally set to expire this year, but there’s been some rumors
and buzz about a quiet contract extension, so we really don’t know what to expect when
it comes to Ronda’s WWE return
Will she actually return to WWE one day or is Ronda’s WWE return starting to sound
like myth?
We’ll see what ends up happening there with Ronda Rousey and WWE
But what are your thoughts on today’s news?
Do you like WWE’s move to Peacock?
Do you agree with Vince Russo’s criticism of wrestler’s characters and do you think
Ronda Rousey will ever return to WWE?
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