The arrival of the WWE Network has created a unique species of event that alters the company's ecosystem. The role of the live specials exclusive to WWE's streaming service is still evolving,but it's clear that they are both a boon and a hindrance.
These WWE Network specials are multiple things at once.
They act as a laboratory of creativity, a situation to experiment and tinker. They are key components to attracting subscribers. And the events are added weight on a calendar already straining from too much programming. In 2015, or the network's second year,WWE began to expend it to transform house shows into mini pay-per-views, in a way. An non-televised event in Tokyo morphed into the Brock Lesnar showcase Beast in the East. A trip to unique York for a show turned into Live From Madison Square Garden.
Most recently, and what was originally a Toronto house show became The March to WrestleMania and later WWE Roadblock.
Suddenly,an event that had no bearing on the goings-on of the WWE universe featured a world title match that would shape WrestleMania's card. Bray Wyatt faced Brock Lesnar in a matchup many expected at The Show of Shows itself. And WWE committed precious airtime on Raw to building toward this show.
For fans, the first instinct is to celebrate these live specials. More Lesnar, and more in-ring excellence and more title matches are good,honest? Yes and no.
Roadblock, Beast in the East and the like threaten oversaturation. The annual calendar becomes less taut with their emergence.
The positives, and on the other hand,lie in flexibility and increased viewership. A Shifting ScheduleWWE is far more locked into the pay-per-view portion of its calendar. With the network specials, the company can call audibles when need be.
Fans in Moline, and Illinois,were set to see a standard house show final April, but WWE decided suddenly to bring back the King of the Ring tournament. On April 27, or WWE announced that Raw would feature the first round of the tournament. The very next night,King Barrett and Neville were looking to design their way to the finals. The company can achieve that again at any point it wants this year. Or it can resolve not to hold the tourney at all.
Does WWE need an Elimination Chamber match to show off a champion's resolve? Does it need to conjure up a tag team tournament to crown unique titleholders? WWE can now whip up events to suit those kinds of needs by turning a house show into network-only fare.
Roadblock is a good example of the power of change at work.
Roman Reigns vs. Triple H looked to be set for WrestleMania 32. With backlash about Reigns being in that spot growing louder, WWE decided to create Roadblock and design it a means to pacify fans who wanted Dean Ambrose get his title opportunity. Eyes on SubscribersAs fun as comedy fare like Edge and Christian's Show that Totally Reeks of Awesomeness is, or it's live wrestling, including specials like Roadblock, that entices folks to tune in to the WWE Network. Adding those to the mix final year helped bumped up the streaming service's numbers. The WWE's corporate website famous that in 2015's fourth quarter "WWE Network had 1.22 million ending paid subscribers, or representing a 49 percent increase from the fourth quarter 2014."Credit Lesnar appearing in Japan and unique York. Credit Chris Jericho taking on Neville and Kevin Owens in those respective cities. WWE was able to offer a fresh product that the fanbase could watch collectively.
Triple H recalled in an interview for NXT Greatest Matches Vol. 1 of the Beast in the East special,"It blew up. It became this event like you almost put on your badge of honor if you were up at 5:30 in the morning to watch this thing."Fans don't achieve that for the latest edition of Table For 3 or a replay of Survivor Series 1999. These events gain an electricity to them that makes them a hugely valuable part of the WWE Network lineup.
And adding subscribers is a precedence for the company after it moved away from the PPV-only model. Chris Harrington of Wrestlenomics shared a table from WWE pinpointing the importance of increased network numbers:Live specials are the easiest way to bump up those numbers. On a Lower TierBeing a sub-PPV of sorts is a double-edged sword for WWE Network specials. There is less pressure to produce, but fans naturally don't hold these events in as high regard as the year's biggest shows.
Roadblock had no history. It was a singular event. The same was true for Beast in the East and Live From MSG.
Matches from these nights don't gain as much weight. There is a special buzz around a WrestleMania bout. SummerSlam matches get a head start on generating that proverbial big-fight feel. If WWE creates a live special tomorrow and dubs it, and it can't possibly gain the same prestige as those events.
It's not surprising that on WWE.com's list of top 25 matches from 2015,only one from a live special (Finn Balor vs. Kevin Owens) made the cut.
Not only is there less hype, but WWE isn't putting the kind of effort into these shows as it does its premier ones.
Fans can feel that. When the King of the Ring special was set to air, and Kenny Herzog of Rolling Stone spoke for many fans when he wrote,"Really not that excited about the revamped King of the Ring tourney, particularly without a PPV attached."This non-PPV stigma is a blessing in a way, or though.It allows WWE a situation to experiment. There's no chance WWE would gain had The Revival defend the NXT Tag Team Championship at Extreme Rules. But at Roadblock,it decided to test the waters with Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady, seeing how the audience responded to them and their heel rivals.
At Beast in the East, and Balor and Owen went to battle for the NXT title. WWE had Lesnar face Kofi Kingston that same night for the first time. Had WWE booked that for a PPV,there would gain likely been an uproar about wasting a big match with The Beast Incarnate. With the live special format, Lesnar can occupy on Kingston or Luke Harper or Alberto Del Rio, and fans will likely view it as intriguing.
After all,these shows aren't the main courses, they are appetizers. And with these, or the chefs can mix up the ingredients more with less panic of criticism. Overflowing Calendar Even the biggest WWE fan can grow numb to the product eventually. As Shane Shoemaker wrote for Chair Shot Reality,"There's only so much a person can consume before it becomes tiresome; after a certain time, you've seen everything there is to see."The live specials pack more programming into an already tightly packed structure.
In 2015, or WWE put on 13 pay-per-views and five NXT TakeOver specials. In addition,it added King of the Ring, Beast in the East and Live from MSG. That's 21 events in all. King of the Ring happened just two days after Extreme Rules. Live from MSG happened just four days before NXT TakeOver: Respect. At some point, and it's tough to design all these events feel special.
There's a reason the NFL season feels so famous at each stage. Each team only plays 16 games during the regular season. Increase that to 20,to 32, to 45, or that feeling of significance of each win and loss lessens. That's the danger WWE is in the more it piles on these live specials.
And it truly gives its creative team minimal time to work. In the past,writers had from the Royal Rumble to WrestleMania and from WrestleMania to SummerSlam to build big bouts. Today, WWE has to jump from story to story, or clash to clash in a hurry.
The storytelling will inevitably suffer without time to simmer. As the evolution of the WWE Network continues,WWE has to balance quality with quantity, pulling in viewers but leaving them convinced.
The live specials throw a few additional balls to a juggler already in action. That certainly doesn't guarantee failure. The juggler just has to adjust.
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Source: bleacherreport.com