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WWE NETWORK VIEWERSHIP NUMBERS, WWE CUTTING BACK ON DVD CONTENT, FIGHT NETWORK ADDING OTHER CONTENT AND MORE

By Dave Scherer on 2017-05-23 10:00:00

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The Fight Network has a large amount of Past TNA PPVs on the demand portion of their online service. What are the chances of Global Force, Ring Ka King, World of Sport Wrestling, NOAH and AAA appearing on The Fight Network schedule or the demand portion?

They own TNA and its library so that makes it easy to put the shows on.  To get access to other groups, they would have to pay for rights fees.  In the case of GFW, there isn’t even much to air.  I don’t see them getting the other promotions any time soon.

So WWE really thinks that we would all be interested in a Goldust/R-Truth feud? Really?

If it ends up with Goldust working with young talents, there are worse things.  WWE doesn’t expect you to tune into Raw just to see it so it’s not a big deal to me.

Considering the problems with work visas that the medical, technology, engineering and entertainment industries are facing, does this effect WWE's touring schedule or plans?  I can imagine it's bureacratic hell.

WWE has a department that handles that and they are very good at it.  Plus, in their case they are bringing in people with a very specific skill set so it’s not like just anyone can do their job.

I just read that the pre show matches for this years WrestleMania won't be included on the Blu Ray and DVD releases here in the US, but will be included in the UK releases.  Why not here?  To save money?  Does this mean that Ambrose, Corbin, Aries, Neville and the people in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal won't receive royalties from the releases here?  If so, that has to be frustrating not only for the fans, but for the wrestlers too.  Is anyone else outraged by this?

I am surely not outraged by it.  My guess is that the reason they are doing it is because if someone wants to see all of that, they can just buy a month of the WWE Network for $9.99 (or get a free month).  The world is changing where viewing is concerned.  Streaming is replacing the older methods of viewing content.

Did WWE ever release the viewership numbers for the Beast in the East and the NXT Takeover: London specials?  I'd be curious to know how the time change for those events effected the viewership numbers.  I'd expect that the live numbers were down, but did people still make time to watch those shows even if it was on a delay or a replay?  Speaking for myself, I didn't watch either live but I did watch Beast in the East as soon as I got up that day and I watched Takeover: London at the regular 8:00 time slot that I would have watched at had it been in the US.  The only thing I skipped was the countdown show.  I bring this up because of the UK fans so desperately wanting a WrestleMania.  I can very much understand why the WWE might not want to send WrestleMania overseas, but with the WWE Network I see no reason why the WWE can't send other PPV events over to the UK (or other European countries) on a more regular basis.  SummerSlam 92 was a great event and part of what made it great was the stadium sized UK crowd.  If WWE held a PPV event in the UK at 7:00 PM UK time, that would air at 2:00 PM on the east coast and 11:00 AM on the west coast.  I would do my best to make the time to watch live, but as long as WWE replayed the event in it's traditional time-slot I see no reason why the WWE can't start holding PPV events outside of North America.

They don’t release any WWE Network viewership numbers.  They have been asked many times on conference calls and they choose to keep that information private.  But, they know what they are.  They also know that the vast majority of their subscribers are in the US and like to see the shows live, not via delay.  That is why they have been hesitant to do a show outside of the US time zones.

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