Is the WWE Selfish? | WrestleZone Forums

Is the WWE Selfish?

gwarren

Occasional Pre-Show
I live in the UK. About 5 hours behind USA eastern time. Which means Raw is on at 1am-4am every week. Same time for PPVs. We get 1 or 2 televised events every year, which usually sell out and give a red hot crowd.

With that being said, do you think the WWE should start embracing the "World" part of their name a bit more? Tell me the last time a PPV was held outside of the US. Exactly.

But it's not just the UK, there's mainland Europe, Australia and even recently, Asia, who have all shown that they have substantial fan bases.

So, should the WWE be more generous to it's international fans? It just seems the Americans get all the fun.
 
While I can't really say much, as WWE tours Canada more often than any country outside the united states, I can surely understand why they do the way they do. When WWE tours countries they usually do a lot of shows in the shortest amount of time. More often than not these are all house shows but sometimes they do broadcast a certain Raw or Smackdown! from abroad. It only makes sense though. It costs WWE a much larger amount of money to broadcast television from there. Almost always when they hold a Raw or Smackdown! abroad, it's pre-taped specifically because of the difficulty of airing things live from somewhere with a time zone that would directly interfere with the normal time zones within the United States. Not only that, but it would cost them a lot more becuase of the excess equipment they'd be forced to ship along with their superstars. WWE is an American based company, and although popular elsewhere, it's most popular in the states. To continually tour countries abroad would mean WWE would be forced to spend more and the stars would have even less time than they currently do at home with their families. Americans seem to get all the fun because they just happen to be fortunate enough to be where the company is from.
 
While I can't really say much, as WWE tours Canada more often than any country outside the united states, I can surely understand why they do the way they do. When WWE tours countries they usually do a lot of shows in the shortest amount of time. More often than not these are all house shows but sometimes they do broadcast a certain Raw or Smackdown! from abroad. It only makes sense though. It costs WWE a much larger amount of money to broadcast television from there. Almost always when they hold a Raw or Smackdown! abroad, it's pre-taped specifically because of the difficulty of airing things live from somewhere with a time zone that would directly interfere with the normal time zones within the United States. Not only that, but it would cost them a lot more becuase of the excess equipment they'd be forced to ship along with their superstars. WWE is an American based company, and although popular elsewhere, it's most popular in the states. To continually tour countries abroad would mean WWE would be forced to spend more and the stars would have even less time than they currently do at home with their families. Americans seem to get all the fun because they just happen to be fortunate enough to be where the company is from.

I have to totally agree. Even where I am (Southern California) we get the shows out here twice to three times a year max. I'm not too far from Los Angeles so I can attend SummerSlam again but I really do wonder about the fans abroad.

WWE is based here and does a lot of global tours. I'd love to see during these tours a Raw or Smackdown taping. We'd be on tape delay and the internet would spoil but I'd still watch just to see the crowd and the show I wanted to watch anyways. The equipment to produce the show isn't easy to move around but they could do a really cool international set that is unique to each country they're in (like the UK has the flag and typically a taxi on the stage or a phone booth). As a fan I'd like to see it.

Extensive touring would be hard but if they did indeed to a tour somewhere they could also tape, they could make the tour slightly longer just to get a couple more gates to cover the costs.. Just a thought.
 
The vast majority of live television events in the United States are based on Eastern Standard time. This has always been the case and I can't see WWE alienating probably their strongest markets to move live events like Raw or PPV's overseas. Asking them to alter when their shows are held would be like asking the EPL (if it became very popular in the US) to start having games at midnight in the UK so they could be shown live in primetime on the east coast.
 
lol you have gotta be kidding me. They are an american based company, who operate...out of America!!!! LOL They're not being selfish. Just running a business.
 
I live in Holland and here is never any show, not even a house show.

that is due to the legalization of marijuana. No seriously, I wouldn't mind them going overseas more, but like you guys said, the cost would be so much more than the U.S.
 
I'm from Puerto Rico and they only come to house shows, except new years revolution 05 wich was here, but i would love to see a live raw or smackdown here. I've been a wwe fan since 99 and they've never had a televised raw or smackdown here, i would love to go to live raw and smackdown shows and even ppvs but im happy with house shows and i go to all of them cause they only come once a year.
 
It has to do with cost and travel time. They're dealing with a lot of down sides to traveling overseas (Amount to fly the superstars overseas, Hotel rental, Car rental, Jet lag, etc). It has nothing to do with being selfish, it's about time and cost.
 
The logistics of trying to broadcast a PPV from a foreign country and have it fit inside the normal timeslots for us US viewers would be a nightmare. The only way it would work is if WWE wanted a PPV to be seen by US audiences around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, which would totally cut down the buyrates.

There is a reason Wembley Stadium always gets screwed over for a Wrestlemania...that is why.
 
I'm from Puerto Rico and they only come to house shows, except new years revolution 05 wich was here, but i would love to see a live raw or smackdown here. I've been a wwe fan since 99 and they've never had a televised raw or smackdown here, i would love to go to live raw and smackdown shows and even ppvs but im happy with house shows and i go to all of them cause they only come once a year.

See, this is the issue I can`t quite figure out in my own head. I`ve been to many a Raw, Smackdown and PPV, so I`m very biased. But I couldn`t imagine loving wrestling and not being able to enjoy it live. A lot of people live for it, and to only have it come around MAYBE once a year, possibly less, sucks. Like, for me, they just came around my area awhile back and now they`re coming back again for the Road to Wrestlemania tour. And then usually every year around July-Augustish we get a Raw and Smackdown taping here in Toronto, and we seem to get a PPV every alternating year. It would definitely be nice if there WAS a way to make it so all the fans could see their heroes more often, but alas, sadly the only way to do so would be to cut out their biggest market more.
 
yea, I'm pretty sure that if WWE made a ppv in england, their would be massivve spoilers almost instantly. WWE hates spoilers like a lot, kinda like the whole Christian/Matt Hardy incident.
 
Nothing to do with being selfish, it's about quickest and sure fire money
, WWE do global tours and those stars aren't available for Raw or Smackdown of that week (see the issue?)

PPV's are unlikely to ever go outside of the America's, it costs way too much money to move the equipment, staff and talent alone then add ontop of that renting a venue that would need to get record numbers (70,000+) and arranging it so they air live during American prime time. They've only done it twice WrestleMania 6 and SummerSlam 1992, both seemed to be successfull but they were big gambles. Correct me if i'm wrong that they only went to Canada once for a PPV, my old mind is forgetfull :) and i don't count Sth America as seperate

Yes the world does exist outside of America, but WWE has and always will be an American based wrestling company, like gaming, like pretty much everything the rest of the world has to adjust to there timezone not the other way around. as for it being on at 1am, that's ludicrus, why don't they do a delayed transmission? they do here in Ausralia, we get it at 2:30pm EST Wednesdays for Raw and 2:30pm Fridays for Smackdown repeated 2hrs after, PPV's are generally live for the first showing but that's around 9-11am on the monday here and they are repeated every 4hrs not to mention this wonderfull inventions called VHS/DVR that allows you to record TV.

The only time they've ever stepped outside the America's for a PPV is SummerSlam 1992 at Wembley Stadium, and i dunno what the revenue was but according the the WWE Legends Table show 25% of that audience was free tickets to fill the seats and like WrestleMania 6 the numbers were fudged to make it sound more impressive.

From an Aussie point of view i know there'd be No Chance In Hell of them ever doing a PPV here WWE or TNA it's just way too costly not to mention the biggest venue we have here can only seat 40,000 but that doesn't bother me, watching live is great from an atmostphere point of view but you see less, you can't here commentry, all you generally here is the sound of thuds on the mat, watch it on TV is more convenient, cheaper can fast forward the boring bits
 
I wish they could bring back those UK exclusive PPVs they used to run over here in England, I'd love the chance to be able to go to one. WrestleMania at Wembley would be amazing, but I don't see it happening for a while, at least not in this decade. The biggest issue is obviously the time difference, which is a pain in the ass with the west coast being eight hours behind us. No doubt tho, it would be amazing to see if it ever actually happened.

To answer the OP tho, it makes sense to keep it mostly in America, even tho it sucks they aren't able to become a true international brand. Their most important shows are aired live, and whilst they're willing to lose some Raw viewers to spoilers when they tape it overseas, they aren't willing to lose dem PPV buys. Like I said before, a UK exclusive PPV could work, but I dunno why they stopped them. At this rate, TNA will have a bigger presence over here pretty soon.
 
I live in the UK. About 5 hours behind USA eastern time. Which means Raw is on at 1am-4am every week. Same time for PPVs. We get 1 or 2 televised events every year, which usually sell out and give a red hot crowd.

With that being said, do you think the WWE should start embracing the "World" part of their name a bit more? Tell me the last time a PPV was held outside of the US. Exactly.

But it's not just the UK, there's mainland Europe, Australia and even recently, Asia, who have all shown that they have substantial fan bases.

So, should the WWE be more generous to it's international fans? It just seems the Americans get all the fun.


This is easy. They go where the money is. They make most of their money in the United States where they are most popular. They tour the US and Canada regularly and hit up the other countries when they can. They don't do ppv's overseas because Americans aren't going to watch a taped ppv or tune in at 2:00 am for a live one. It's just not reasonable. It's not being selfish, it's just how things are. It's the same reason why New Japan doesn't regularly tour the United States.
 
The biggest and only mistake WWE made during Attitude era was how little they promoted their product worldwide, this was back when they had the superstars and it was technical more than possible to spread their wings, yet they didnt. They could have made even more money but alas.

Europe should be their second market, since that is the place where most TV shows and movies from the US find a huge market, sometimes even bigger than the initial US market.

To give americans an idea, RAW starts in Europe CET at 03:00 at night...on a working day... and ends around 05:00 in the morning. To put it bluntly the show could not start at a worse point, like litterally, you cant make it worse. If the show started at 05:00 in the morning for them at least then some would watch it before work or school.

At the end of the day it is a mathematical question, how much money would they initially lose if they started Raw early by losing audience earlier vs the amount of revenue they would make in Europe (using Europe purely as a example)?

But WWE has always been a company looking at short term, thats just how wrestling has always been. Our minds are blown that WCW didnt have Sting and Hogan wrestle for a whole year, in the wrestling bussiness a whole year is a lifetime. Whereas other places you make investments that will first pay off 3-4 years down the line, in wrestling it simply does not work that way. Its all about frontloading the next PPV.

Im pretty sure nothing is set in stone for anything but WM28 and the next PPV after, i am damn certain that they have no clue what to do come Summerslam 2012 or what to actually produce for that TV channel.

When you take that into considiration then trying to spread their company more around the world seems like simply too difficult of a task for them and it requires too much dedication.
 
uhh no. WWE is catering to the majority of their audience and that is North America. Face it, even though WWE is an international company, they need to keep their primary viewership intact. I can see why you would be upset with them only visiting the UK once or twice a year but its just not smart business to take the minority over the majority.

WWE is doing a great job keeping the product international because people like you are still tuning in at 1 AM. They are definetely expanding the product more than they did in the 90's so just be happy with what you have.
 
As a uk fan i rather watch raw n smackdown on youtube due to many adverts anyway and also a reasonable time the next day.
Also with PPV events there held in america due to live shows.
Would PPV not live work i doubt it, as you can't have it live in uk as who wants to be sitting in a arena at 1am in the morning until 4 or 5am when wrestlemania comes round, as majority of viewers are americans.
Beside you can always go holidays to the usa and even sample a wrestlezone party now that's what i call a holiday. Wrestling Beer partys can it get better
 
I had a feeling this would be a ridiculous thread when I saw the subject, and boy was I right. Three things:

1.WWE is an American company based in the United States, whose fanbase is mostly Americans. They may have more fans in the North America than the rest of the entire world combined.

2.Going around the world is a HUGE inconvenience for the WWE as a company and every employee individually. It costs a lot money, there's a lot more logistics involved, it forces their employees to be away from their families for longer than usual, and it hurts business based in the United States due to pretaping shows and such.

3.They go to the UK twice a year. How often do Europe, Asia, Australia, etc see them? I know it's at least once a year. You need to realize that's no different than most American cities. The bigger cities see them twice a year, many cities see them once a year, and smaller cities only get house shows. The reason they're in the US more is because they have a lot more fans, spread out across a much larger area, and are able to fill the seats on a weekly basis. The reason they draw so well overseas is because they so go infrequently. When they go to London, people come from all over the UK, Ireland, France, etc. to see the shows because they know they won't have another chance for awhile. If they were "more generous" the attendance would go down.

To answer the question, no, WWE isn't "selfish." They're smart. They know where their bread is buttered.
 
Fuck the UK, they barely have any PPVs or TV s in Canada any more.

The question that should be asked isn't whether the corporation is selfish (stupid question), but if WWE should start a UK-based developmental organization, like FCW down in Florida.
 
See, this is the issue I can`t quite figure out in my own head. I`ve been to many a Raw, Smackdown and PPV, so I`m very biased. But I couldn`t imagine loving wrestling and not being able to enjoy it live. A lot of people live for it, and to only have it come around MAYBE once a year, possibly less, sucks. Like, for me, they just came around my area awhile back and now they`re coming back again for the Road to Wrestlemania tour. And then usually every year around July-Augustish we get a Raw and Smackdown taping here in Toronto, and we seem to get a PPV every alternating year. It would definitely be nice if there WAS a way to make it so all the fans could see their heroes more often, but alas, sadly the only way to do so would be to cut out their biggest market more.

Yep man, but we try to enjoy whatever show comes, but it sucks to never have seen the rock, stone cold and many others because they didnt come here at those times, ny revolutions 05 was the first time EVER that wwe came to puerto rico, but what the heck is better something than nothing
 
I agree they should have more PPVs outside the US but really WWE is an American based company, they have the right to operate from where they are based at.
 
Its all about money...its more profitable to run shows weather they be Live or House Shows in the US So the US will always get the most. As so many have said they are an American based company, Im sure they appreciate the fans over seas, almost all sellouts but the fact is they make more money with a half full US show than an sold out international show. They do as much international as they can and much more in recent years than ever
 
WWE did the UK only PPV's from 1997-2003 and only showed them WWF time square complex they had. The reason they don't do PPV's is simple costs to much money and the majority would get the results via the internet which is the reason why they don't do them, unless they did what the UFC do and have the PPV's on the American time scale apart from the UK ones which were shown on free tv on tape delay but the UFC are in Japan this weekend the PPV starts around 10am in Japan, that's the PPV, so take into account the undercard you could be talking 7am fight time, WWE wouldn't do that so they could cater to the US audience.

Over all the INTERNET is the reason WWE doesn't do PPV's for that very reason, its a shame as Summer Slam, Royal Rumble and others would be awesome abroad, even WM in London, England @ Wembly Stadium would be huge, either way won't happen unless WWE decide to at least for one show have it start late-afternoon in the States, the reason RAW's happen as their pretty much meaningless if you miss one you're not missing much in the grand scheme of things, missing a ppv is all about £££
 
I honestly feel as an Australian, I'm getting consantly gimped by the WWE. As far as i know they have only ever held one PPV here, the Global Warning one, back in 02 i think. And it was shit. Not even a proper PPV. As far as i know there has never been a live taping of RAW here either. The videos on WWE.com and their new YouTube Channel dont work in Australia. PPVs air live here at 11am on a Monday!! I live in Adelaide, South Australia, so even when they do House show tours, they rarely come here.

Its a brutal world being a wrestling fan from Australia. Brutal.
 
I would not consider the WWE to be selfish. It is an American company and a majority of its revenue comes from the US. So, it is natural that the company will concentrate more than the American consumers that the other international consumers.
 

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