Last week, I said I was not going to write about the WWE Network, apparently its 9.99 by the way, but like Vince McMahon in an exploding car, if I don’t mention the fantastic Duckman article from last week, or the fact I said I was not going to write about the network, you should forget all about both those things.
I will not pretend to be a successful businessman, so instead I will concentrate on what I know. I am a customer all the time, I buy stuff online, in shops, and looking at my bank balance,probably while I am asleep.
So when I, or I am guessing, you buy anything, there are certain processes we go through.
- Do I need the product?
- Do I want the product?
- Is the product good enough?
- Is the product at a price I am willing to pay?
- Is this going to be easy?
Now need and want can put into one category really, sometimes need means even if you don’t want something, you will buy it, and vice versa. Quality and price also go hand in hand, the better the quality, the more it should cost.
So here is where we get to talk WWE. When the Network was announced, my first reaction was that they are asking me to pay ten dollars a month to watch stuff I have already seen. My next reaction was when I saw that new TV shows, and that is not Legends House or Total Divas, but Raw and Smackdown wont be on the network.
So for my money, I get to watch every old PPV ever made, and some crap I do not want to see, and all future PPV’s that I can already watch. And, if I sign up for the Network, I pay for every PPV, whether I want to see it or not. And as I mentioned, I can watch elsewhere, so they have no unique products.
Do I want that? No. Do I need that? No. I can save time here by saying it will be a no for all five questions.
So now we are at a point where I am absolutely never going to pay for the network, and WWE are going to have a hard job changing my mind.
So how do they go about it? Given that satisfaction rates, as I mentioned are at just over 50%, that’s 300,000 of the 600,000 people like what they get for their money. It also obviously means 300,000 don’t really like it. And this early, we have to assume that this is hardcore WWE fans who were asked the question. and half of them are satisfied?
So half the people who have it are a bit ‘meh’, Jerry Lawler cant get it to work any time they get him to demonstrate it, and Hunter was on Raw no selling it. Duckman tells me hardly any new content is being added, and the commentary team last week quite helpfully pointed out that the biggest draw of the network, the PPV’s, are also available on other platforms.
And now, because the Network is not hitting its sale targets for break even figures, WWE have a couple of choices. Make the product better value for money, either by improving content or lowering the price, OR, they can cut costs. The first method means I have to reassess my decision not to buy, the other tells me the product is likely to get worse, and re-affirms my decision.
So, what did WWE decide? Cuts, cuts and more cuts. Now given that no Raw or Smackdown is available on the network for 90 days, the quality on the network for these shows should not diminish for three months, but the PPV’s may very well be affected immediately.
Once you start making staff cuts, the quality has to suffer. 3MB may not have been on many of late, but they were still an option. If you are paying off writers, you have less choice in what storylines you go with. Less choice generally means less quality. Even if they released every wrestler and writer I thought was rubbish, cut every angle I didn’t like and wrote a show just for me I would be thinking the quality has probably dropped for a lot of other people.
Drew McIntyre is a good example, jobber in WWE, who loses to midgets. Hardly a loss if he is gone right? But he is Scots, and as a fellow Scot, I would do what we do, support the Scot. 99% of the audience probably did not care he was gone, the Scots 1 percent did, right up until he tore it up at ICW, and now they are glad.
But at the ICW show, he demonstrated what he could do given the chance. So it is safe to assume he could have done that for WWE, and the Network, and that would have improved the quality. The same could probably be said for the funky dinosaur and everyone else that has been released… Even Del Rio.
The next point on quality is the PPV, any future PPV. If everyone signs for the Network, and WWE have already sold the show, then why would they bother putting any effort in? Wrestlemania 31, we have already got 5 million people on the network, so lets just stick Hornswoggle in the main event, who cares? they have already paid anyway. And if you do not buy the Network, they will release more talent anyway, and the quality drops.
And now the Network is going worldwide. Really? Estimates have non US residents who have the Network some place between 100, and 150 thousand. Now I am guessing anyone who went to the bother of pretending to be in the USA just to get the network are the hardcore fans who do not live in the States. So if the hardcore fans have already signed up, who is left?
And if targets are still not met, who is next for the chop?
So looking back at the list of five things, WWE need to address at least some of those issues. The easiest one should be the ‘want’.
Make people want something badly enough, and the rest can be negated. As an example, I give you the MFX mug. It is a plain white mug, with an MFX logo. I have mugs, so I don’t need one. Is it easy to get? well it comes from America, but can be ordered online, a bit like the network. Is the price reasonable? It is, but it was in dollars, so I didn’t really know how much it was going to cost. did I buy one? Damn Tootin I did!
And while I was there, I bought a couple of Tee shirts, I didn’t really need them either, but I wanted them, and there is the difference. The mug offers nothing I cant get elsewhere, does nothing none of my other mugs don’t do, likewise the shirts. Unlike the Network however, the MFX merch was desirable.
And this is where WWE have a real problem. 20 years ago, I probably would have bought the network, 10 years ago, I would have considered it. But now, I look back at the last ten years of WWE, and think how much I didn’t really enjoy most of it that much. Don’t get me wrong, some of it was great, but that was mostly Mania,Summerslam and the odd episode of RAW. I don’t think I would go back and watch the last ten years if WWE were paying ME 9.99 a month.
So here is my prediction, the network is goosed. Figures may rise a bit when the worldwide audience who were either unaware of how to get it, or too law abiding to pretend they were from the US actually get the chance to sign up.But at the same time, the original sign ups are due to renew soon, and with no Mania to keep them interested for another 6 months, and no new content to see, how many will renew?
Even if you just look at the ‘extremely satisfied’ 51%, you have to think the other 49% are at least considering the idea of cancelling.Especially with nothing new to watch.
WWE have to fix this, they need to give the customer what they want, they should have found out what the customer wanted before launch.But they didn’t. And they probably wont, because, well Vince knows best.
So choices… Buy the network, get nothing for your money that you cant get elsewhere, and shut up as the quality of the PPV continues to drop, or don’t buy, and watch as the quality drops as talent is cut.
Unless the Network changes, I will never ever pay for it, and I would figure the same is true for a lot of people. Will the Network change? I doubt it. So, like I said earlier, it may well be a dead duck. It already is for me.
This was a bit rambling, I know, and a bit more serious than normal. But like the XFL, the network does look to me like that one thing Vince does every ten years or so that is so stupid, it is hard to comprehend. I totally understand why some people bought the network, but I could also see why some people would choose to watch XFL.
So now to the fun stuff. MFX celebrated its 100th episode last week, with a show plus two bonus tracks. I would highly recommend all three shows, and would like to congratulate the guys at MFX for reaching such a fantastic milestone. If you only listen to one wrestling podcast, I would suggest making this the one.
SLTD Radio is equally recommended, and along with all the articles on the site, SLTDwrestling.com is most certainly the place to be for wrestling news, whether you like that in a serious, or lighthearted manner. Also I would recommend taking part in the SLTD predictions league if you do not already. Come back later in the week for details on how to take part for Summerslam.
And follow me on Twitter @GrantCookDFC especially if you want to see how little I tweet is worth reading.
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