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Professional wrestling has always been shaped by the advent of emerging technologies. When radio was the premium entertainment form, wrestling matches were broadcast via soundwaves as announcers relayed the action. When newsreels were the preferred way of bringing forth news from around the world, entertainment was no exception as the wild characters that populated that era of professional wrestling were perfectly translated to the silver screen.
When television burst upon the scene, wrestling as a visual medium seemed to be waiting for that moment. From UHF to local terrestrial broadcasts to cable to satellite to PPV, the genre changed and morphed, grew and evolved to greet and grow within the parameters of each of these technologies, creating new revenue streams and in many cases, when wrestling and this new distribution platforms met head on, pro wrestling saw a leap in popularity.
In the 1990s, the Internet began it's rise and by 1995, WWF (as it was then known) came to terms with America Online, the leader of the online medium to the average American at the time. The WWF area, hosting chats, trivia contests, photos and news articles began the company's love affair with what would soon to be termed New Media.
In the ensuing 20 years, AOL would fall from grace and rebrand, although it would remain a constant online. It's prime competitors Prodigy and Compuserve would disappear and go out of business. WWE's AOL area would morph into what is now known as WWE.com. Eventually, social media would become the rage, leading the way for personal websites and Myspace blogs to be replaced by Facebook accounts, Apps and Twitter timelines.
WWE, of course, launched their own App, educating fans to download it to their devices and then pulled the big switcheroo. The App would double as access to the WWE Network. Two years ago, WWE changed the entire wrestling landscape when launching that streaming network - and as always, technology was once again good to WWE.
This morning, WWE announced they were relaunching WWE.com, with lots of upgrades to different facets of their primary online home. Partnering with Code and Theory, a major digital agency that has created and re-branded digital campaigns and platforms for a slew of major news and entertainment entities, including Bloomberg, The Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post and WWE's own corporate TV partner NBC, WWE is attempting to take a major leap forward with how their website is presented, how they deliver information to their audience and how they maximize their video and social media content (as well as the income those revenue streams bring to WWE's bottom line).
Make no doubt about it. This is meant to be as audacious a leap into the future for the WWE website as possible. Just as the launch of the WWE Network changed how WWE's audience viewed their content and adjusted the price-point that fans were willing to accept when paying for any premium wrestling content, WWE hopes that today's re-branding and relaunch of their online home will change how social media is shared to others, how video content is watched and how WWE's news, information and promotional material will be delivered to their fans. The new site is a drastic change from previous designs as well.
With that in mind, here's some immediate thoughts and reactions to the new WWE.com, it's strengths and it's weaknesses.
STRENGTHS
The new look of WWE.com is sleek. WWE has promised a "variety of designs and experiences" that will change depending on the day, obviously themed for whatever TV broadcast or major event is forthcoming. We will have to see where that takes us, but the initial design that was rolled out this morning is a nice update from their previous design, which I already thought was fine.
The WWE.com menu has changed with everything now separated under sections titled Shows, Superstars and Tickets & Live Events. It is relatively easy to track down all the old subsections, which for the most part appear to be re-worked in the new streamlined sections. The website remains relatively easy to navigate and seek out what you want. I checked out the site via my iPad, Android smart phone and my laptop this morning. It was beyond easily to peruse on all those different devices. WWE obviously wanted to follow their initial marketing push for the WWE Network - where they touted that fans could consume WWE content no matter where they were - and followed with the relaunch for WWE.com
Video material was obviously pushed to the forefront with the website now suggesting video collections you can watch based on where you go. I'm assuming this is a somewhat intuitive feature based on what the website's algorithms predicts you'd also be interested in checking out. In clicking through Finn Balor's bio, I was suggested clips of WWE NXT Takeover: London (the last major NXT event).
The Balor page became one stop shopping when it came to all things Finn Balor. When heading to Balor's profile, there were links to buy his theme music and his merchandise, additional bio information that could be unlocked with additional clicks, Balor-related photo galleries, video collections, a link to the history of the WWE NXT championship and links to visit or share details of Balor's WWE-related social media accounts.
In clicking on a profile for Kofi Kingston, it was all similar material but themed for The New Day and material from Raw and Smackdown TV episodes and live events. From a fan perspective, it's a great base for information, especially with social media accounts integrated into the website.
WWE's website now includes a "Featured Social" area that comes up as fans scroll downward, showcasing Instagram, Facebook and Twitter posts from WWE personalities. WWE's promotional material today notes that fan material will also be featured on the new site as well, so it may be that WWE.com's staff will be curating social media from fans to spotlight them and their feedback on company storylines and performers.
This will hardly be news to anyone reading this, but WWE have always been the king when it comes to promotion of their brand, talent and well, let's call a spade a spade, their propaganda. The new website is no different. Unlike past versions, where you'd find additional stories, photo galleries and videos, depending on the section and feature you were accessing, this new version features a pretty extensive feed of material and content that fans can easily scroll through from just about everywhere, underneath the primary feature they are interacting with. On my smart phone and iPad especially, it was seemingly impossible to hit the bottom of the website - you just keep hitting more and more material.
Make no doubt about it - WWE is trying to maximize how much information and material they can get in front of fans as a way to get additional impressions and like Netflix or Hulu, get you to continue binge-watching videos or reading additional material in a "never-ending" manner. The material is cross-referenced by talent and events, giving fans ways to jump from one collection of material to another. Prompts to share all this material is again, at the forefront.
I mentioned the video material and it's pretty obvious that one of the goals with today's relaunch was to immerse fans into more original video content. As mentioned above, WWE has already added prompts for video material and collections of multiple videos themed to different talents and events. The website now pushes "ten videos you have to watch" from across the spectrum of their programming. A huge positive for the videos are that before, fans would be trapped on a page waiting for one video to play and end before moving on to their next destination on the website, the new WWE.com allows fans to minimize the video with one click. The video continues to play after landing in the upper left hand-side of the WWE.com page. Fans can still watch the video and proceed on to other stories, material, etc. While your mileage may vary, I've found already that the video content streams much smoother on my laptop while remaining pretty much perfect on my Android smart phone and iPad. The video evolution is a major step forward, to be sure.
In the Shows section, I especially liked that they integrated all the current and discontinued PPV events, allowing fans to jump around and check out older WWE stories related to those events, photo galleries, etc. If I wanted to look up the old WWE Bash PPV, I'd find all sorts of material related to those shows. While the major events come at us in a never-ending frenzy, guaranteed there are fans out there who were either in attendance at or fell in love with WWE because of those shows, so it's great they have a direct portal to go back and peruse that material.
The new website is also obviously designed to be globally-minded as they have launched English, Spanish and German language sites this morning with more obviously to come down the line. WWE's press release this morning refers to "WWE teams from around the world" writing material for different markets. That should be bring forth some strong material that is focused on specific regions and should also mean stronger coverage of say, international tours. It should be interesting to see if they include translation prompts so fans here in the States can translate and read articles that are specifically written for the Japanese market.
All of this should mean a better output for WWE when it comes to maximizing their content and getting more eyeballs on it while getting the audience to spent more time on WWE.com. You can see improvements in just about every aspect of the site.
WEAKNESSES
Lack of local promotion for live events. While WWE obviously features up to the date information on the company's touring, one aspect of their promotion that has been lost in many ways since the company was syndicating tapes locally to different markets is the hard push for what's taking place in those specific markets. In the old days, it was local promos and Howard Finkel doing voiceovers that were strategically used to replace the announcers as wrestling bouts were playing out on TV. For WWE, with all their focus on "short form content" and "exclusive videos" to not have talents cutting localized promos that fans can watch when they look for details on upcoming WWE live events and TV tapings seems silly to me. Even if they can't promote specific matches, having Bray Wyatt, for example, cutting a promo about returning to the cesspool that is NYC or coming home to the Bayou in Louisiana would be something special for those local fans - and additional content for other fans who seek out the material for themselves.
This would be especially helpful when it came to talents pushing local signing appearances. Why not have a short video of New Day cutting a promo about coming to Wizardworld? It's easy content to create and produce, would allow the talents to do some interviews off the top of their heads and for local fans, it makes the upcoming appearances and events a little more special for the fans. Even if WWE doesn't go that route, they should give a little more love to the touring aspect of the company beyond a listing of where the shows will be, photos of talents and links to buying tickets. Perhaps photo galleries of the previous visits to those markets?
[10:30 AM UPDATE: PWInsider.com has been told WWEShop.com is set to update within the next week.] No update for WWEShop.com? With the huge push for video material with the relaunch, I was a little surprised to see they weren't integrating video promos and commercials for different merchandise that is available to sell. Imagine a scene between Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns, shot like an old Shield video as they hold the camera, talking about raising hell and pushing their shirts, perhaps even joking with each other. While WWEShop obviously serves it's purpose in its current form, not moving it forward with this new relaunch of WWE.com seems like a missed opportunity.
Unless I missed it, material for WWE Studios seemed to be lost in the switch here. Given how much WWE has pushed that portion of their business in recent years, that seems like a slight error as well.
In the scheme of things, these are all relatively minor and might even come across as nit-picking by some, but certainly, there is always room for improvement in certain areas.
SUGGESTIONS
While it may be this is going to be rolled out as time goes on, it seems especially odd that none of the WWE-owned assets (WCW, World Class, Mid-South, etc.) are able to be easily found so that their videos, content, links to WWE Network-related contents, etc. can be accessed and searched through by users. In a world where PWInsider receives weekly emails from older fans seeking information on when additional material related to those now-defunct promotions will be added to the WWE Network, WWE would be wise to service that older audience as well to create a hub that provides information on when that material will be added, as well as historical retrospectives on talents, major events, etc. They could even outsource to some of the different wrestling historians out there - Sheldon Goldberg writing about the old Boston Garden, Bill Apter writing about being at the Parade of Champions for Kerry Von Erich's NWA World title win, Joey Styles writing about the November to Remembers, etc. and time that material with the release of WWE Network additions or major historical anniversaries. Blogs from WWE Hall of Famers about their career memories seem like a natural addition, even if they need to be ghost-written by WWE.com staff in coordination with the older talents relaying their stories.
All that said, you can't roll everything out at the same time and there will be room for additional features. That's the beauty of the online medium - like the professional wrestling genre itself, there's always ways to evolve and improve as the landscape continues to ebb and flow infinitely. Today was a big reminder of that from WWE and it will be interesting to watch and see how today's forward movement is reflected in future company earnings releases.
Mike Johnson can be reached at MikeJohnsonPWInsider@gmail.com. He still fondly remembers the days of Bill Banks and the Matrat in the old AOL WWE chat room.
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