Opinion: WWE As We Know It Is About To Change Forever

With the recent announcement of RAW staying with NBCUniversal for triple it’s current rate and SmackdownLive moving to FOX for a one-billion plus five year deal, the landscape of WWE’s business will entirely change come October 2019. SDLive in particular is going to force the change going forward, as FOX will expect certain ratings and demos and should these not be met, will likely have an ‘out’ in their contract, which would be a devastating blow for WWE to lose a billion dollar deal. WWE will need to build a program where everything is contained and continuous within a two hour time-frame each and every Friday night. That means the biggest stars will need to be on SDLive and the show will need to air live every Friday evening.

What does this mean for PPV’s? It means a big shift from what fans have been trained to expect. Recently rumors have surfaced that WrestleMania might shift to TV instead of a Network exclusive. WWE is very interested in hearing bidding rights to air Wrestlemania, as the NFL generates over a billion dollars for the SuperBowl tv rights. While WWE wouldn’t garner anywhere near that, any additional amount could be massively lucrative for WWE. So what could happen?

My guess is WWE will likely start with pursuing WrestleMania TV rights (if they can get a great deal) and from there try for The Royal Rumble and SummerSlam. They’ve mentioned at investor calls more than once they’ve considered a ‘tiered plan’ for the WWE Network at some point. I suspect the smaller ppvs would stay as ‘Network Exclusives’ and same for NXT and NXT Takeover events. WWE long-term wants to open Performance Centers and international versions of NXT all over the world (and one on the West Coast as well) so I could see them amping up multiple versions of NXT and maybe used tiered plans for access to older ppvs.

That’s just my guesswork.

Ultimately, come October 2019 I would expect/guess to see more big matches on weekly TV and the b-shows as more ‘extra’. I think they’ll still throw in a match or two to garner the hardcore fan/Network subscriber’s interest — but with the most $$$ coming from SDLive and RAW starting fall 2019 — it will make more sense to keep the product aimed at viewing the weekly tv series than to build to ppvs…with the exception of major shows like WrestleMania, The Royal Rumble and SummerSlam in particular.

WrestleMania makes a massive amount of money for WWE as is and if a network is willing to pay them a large sum for tv rights then it only benefits WWE’s financials even more so. I do believe both the Royal Rumble and SummerSlam will still be treated as special events because WWE plans to start holding both in stadiums going forward as well. Alamodome lit the fire supposedly for WWE hosting the Rumble in 2017, and that is why Chase Field in Phoenix is hosting The Royal Rumble in 2019. Chase Field out-bid Safeco Field, home of WrestleMania XIX, to nab the show. Boston has already shown interest in hosting SummerSlam at Fenway Park previously and Tampa Bay has plans to bid on both a Royal Rumble and WrestleMania in the future. WWE’s deal to keep SummerSlam at Barclay’s Center ends after the upcoming event in August 2018.

Only time will tell what happens next — but I have a feeling WWE’s business model as we know it is about to change forever come October 2019.