A new survey was sent out via email by World Wrestling Entertainment asking their WWE Network subscribers and fans if they would be interested in a number of different things. Some of the things include various wrestling libraries and adding new content to WWE Network. Here’s how the email started out:
“As part of a potential premium priced tier, WWE is considering adding new programming, features and special perks to WWE Network. We are interested in your feedback about these ideas. Please let us know what you think by completing the survey below.”
The survey was broken down into three major sections. It begins by asking your interest level (from Extremely Interested to Not Interested At All) in the following categories:
Ring of Honor
TNA/Impact/GFW – Mentioned “historic and new” programming for ROH and TNA.
Original Scripted Dramas – “Wrestling-themed series inspired by wrestling’s colorful and rich history such as WWE’s version of Game of Thrones”
Tournaments – A WWE vs. NXT tournament, tag team tournament, Lucha tournament or King/Queen of the Ring
Other Promotions – They mention ICW, Progress, New Japan and regional indies.
That one seems weird because they could add ICW and Progress easily, but New Japan would be much more difficult since they are a much larger company that likely wouldn’t make their content available since they have their own stream service on New Japan World.
Original Scrpited Comedies – Ideas are WWE Superstar Roasts, Southpaw Regional Wrestling (currently on WWE Youtube) and WWE’s version of “The Office.”
A WWE version of The Office could be really good if they had writers from The Office, but that seems unlikely. It’s an interesting idea in theory.
Special Live Events – They used to televise house shows on WWE Network and haven’t done it since March 2016, so clearly they have soured on the idea.
House Shows – A “live, ringside view” is mentioned as a possibility.
TV-14 In-Ring Show – A “new” weekly version of Extreme Championship Wrestling or other “edgy” content rated TV-14.
The TV-14 idea is something that would cater to the fans that hate the WWE TV-PG product that they feel is too soft. I’m not sure if another wrestling show is a great idea considering how much WWE already produces.
WWE “Director’s Cut” – A show where WWE Legends provide commentary on classic matches and events. Great idea that would be easy to produce too.
New Reality Shows – Suggested ideas include showing superstars working out, a “Cribs” show featuring superstar houses, an “Apprentice” type show where the winner gets a job in WWE and Legends House Season 2 featuring Attitude Era stars.
Audio Channel – That would be more like a podcast and also provides audio play by play of pay-per-views.
There were also “Special Features” that WWE mentioned as possibilities on WWE Network as part of a premium priced tier.
Social Sharing – The ability to share things on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and so on.
Personalization – Custom playlists.
Social Viewing – Watching shows virtually with friends.
Alternate Viewing Options – Watching WWE shows with alternate camera choices.
Ratings/Comment System – Rating matches with star ratings and adding comments.
Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality – It says this: “The ability to watch current or historic WWE content in a way that makes it seem as if you are actually sitting ringside and experiencing an event.”
Download To Go – Being able to download content and watch it offline.
Alternate Audio – They mention choosing a PPV commentary team specifically mentioning Steve Austin and Jerry Lawler calling a PPV. Stone Cold calling a PPV? Oh hell yeah.
Those are all good options too, but the one that interests me most is “Download To Go” because then it makes the content more accessible.
The third part of the survey mentions special benefits and perks that would be offered in the WWE Network premium priced tier.
Early Access to New Merchandise
Monthly “Inside WWE Headquarters” Conference Calls – They mention Triple H and Stephanie McMahon taking part in them.
Free Shipping – For WWEShop.com items.
Get Breaking News First
Preferred Pricing
Fan Voting – This is for choosing match participants, Hall of Fame inductees, Slammy Award winners.
Slammy Award winners? They dropped the Slammy Awards in 2016 because they bombed in the ratings most years and they were poorly booked. I guess they could bring them back.
Early Access to Live Event Tickets
Sweepstakes Entries
Loyalty Program
I think the best one in that group is early access to Live Event Tickets because sometimes you may want to get tickets for something and they sell out right away. It would be a nice incentive for fans to get the tickets they want before everybody else.
WWE Superstar Matt Hardy chimed in on the possibility of the TNA Library being involved with this tweet.
Looks like #TheFinalDeletion, #DELETEorDECAY & #TotalNonstopDELETION will be on the @WWENetwork before ya know it.
WONDERFUL! https://t.co/BPPw4mWPL0
— MATT HARDY (@MATTHARDYBRAND) September 20, 2017
It’s a nice thought, but consider this survey just a research tool released by WWE at this point and there’s nothing in the works as far as we know in terms of new content coming.
It’s worth noting that WWE releases these surveys once in a while to gauge fan interest. Here’s some info on the survey they sent out last October that we reported on and in the last year they didn’t acquire any libraries from any wrestling companies. It’s fine to be excited about the possibilities of these things, but let’s not forget that WWE is currently doing budget cuts to try to save money.
The realist might say none of this is going to happen, but the optimist might look at it and be excited. Give WWE some credit because at least they’re trying to figure out what the audience wants. Whether this actually leads to anything…well…time will tell on that one.
