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Originally Posted by Vastardikai
Not only that. You can have an Ultimate Seth Rollins special featuring his matches as Tyler Black. Or a thing on "Tag Team Specialists," and discuss Cesaro teaming with Hero. If and when Danielson comes back, you have some of his best matches from ROH, including that banger with Kamala  . If they stick around, you can do the "Fight Forever" special with Owens and Zayn. There are reasons for WWE to have the tape library that means more than just not letting Khan have it. |
Oh, no doubt. I figured it would be way more valuable to them when they had more emphasis on guys like Bryan, Joe and even a guy like Punk if they were going to bring him back into the fold. A guy like Cesaro it serves a function with, but he’s not a big enough star in their sphere that it justifies it on its own, per se, as opposed to just being a convenient consequence.
I honestly forgot about Seth, haha. He’s a big enough star that it would make sense, but then again his WWE run has been so “WWE built” that I don’t know they’d even stress to really bring it up. Sad as that may be.
There is documentary potential there too (as in a ROH history thing), but how do you do that to full potential without Punk and Danielson?
I think the main value could actually be in the syndication spot. The WWE has a conversion issue right now where they have whittled the ticket-buying audience down to hardcores. That works when they’re the only game in town and don’t mind their top faces being booed because they’re receiving professional wrestling pushes. But it makes them a colder ticket than an AEW in certain markets because AEW has that atmosphere that feels more congruent with that fan’s preferences.
SmackDown being on FOX hypothetically helps. But syndication would put them in front of a couple of hundred thousand people who watch and make casual judgments that could push them towards ticket-buying, further television or streaming services.
I think the WWE could use a more grassroots approach in that sense. So much of their marketing seems to be about a global presence. Using a Jinder Mahal makes sense when it comes to getting exposure in India. Even if it doesn’t translate to bigger domestic gates or ratings. As the world moves towards streaming, this makes more sense too — either in securing big deals with already established entities (a Netflix, for example), or helping establish them (a Peacock).
When it comes to the streaming front, I think Vince has kind of conceded that he might not necessarily be the only game in town. He’s thinking with his immediate wallet, and that means jumping into bed with NBC Universal. They seem to have projects on the go with Netflix (only tangentially related to wrestling) that might secure them multi-platform deals that seem to lock out other content providers. But there’s always going to be that Amazon Prime, or that Paramount+, or that ESPN+ that wants wrestling content. And they might pay out the ass for them and leave Vince in an inevitable situation where his stuff is just going to be watched by less people. You can see this in his TV deals in the UK and other parts of Europe.
I think it would benefit the WWE to have the largest non-exclusive library they can have, as well as also producing syndicated content and first-run streaming content, the latter of which could be aimed at the hardcore fan. On an OTT service it won’t need to have its ratings compared with AEW and the like either. This was always a big reason NXT did not go hard against AEW at the start (in my opinion). A streaming alternative could circumvent that appearance issue. But having a ROH would allow them that boutique product that can drown out an AEW without having its dick measured.