Should the WWE start setting up regional promotions around the world?

[shooter_mcgavin]

I dunno if this is being discussed but as we all know WWE is a publicly traded company, as such there's always a need for a company to keep growing.

Seeing as the WWE strategy seems to be using the WWE Network to keep getting subscribers world wide, I was thinking what is their next step as a company?

Sure the WWE has tried other things in history leading to either failure (XFL), moderate success (WWE Films), and some that does well (Total Bellas).

But I was thinking what if WWE goes back doing a territorial system of their own and create smaller promotions around the world under their banner? I mean we all know pro-wrestling has existed around Europe, Mexico, Japan, and Australia. But in my own neck of the woods, Asia, I've noticed some small local promotions in different countries.

I was thinking what if WWE creates smaller promotions in these countries like a WWE Hong Kong, WWE South East Asia, WWE Western Europe, etc.? Much like WWE setting up a UK Promotion of sorts and similar to NXT and these different promotions can be seen on the Network. I mean if you think about it it expands the WWE brand, provides WWE fans a program to watch live, and possibly increases the subscribers in the WWE Network.

It might be pretty cool I mean if let's say people from the main roster are on tour some might appear in these regional promotions. I mean imagine in WWE South East Asia in Malaysia in two or three events someone from the Main Roster will be booked. Like even if it's just Breezeango that would be great for the fans and actually be great for Breezeango as well since they become the main attraction of the show.

Bottom line is WWE needs to grow as it seems they have exhausted most of what they can do in US and Canada, so perhaps, they could set up these regional WWE promotions.

 

[therockiswwf]

It would be very hard. WWE is based in America. They are a domestic product that is sold globally. WWE does not tailor its product to each specific country. It creates one that appeals to their biggest base (US) and then dubs/subs it for other countries. The reason why I mention this is they would be going in cold to other countries. They would need to hire experts who know and understand whatever culture they want to expand into (this is expensive, important and a headache). They would need to spend a lot of resources finding enough talent to fill another promotion. They would need a training center and trainers. Writers. Most people probably wouldn't join the small promotions if WWE did not allow them to continue to work on the indy scene.

XFL, Total Bellas and WWE Films are different from this. XFL was partially paid for by NBC. Ads would help make some of that back. Total Bellas makes money back through ads. WWE Films mostly break even and are produced cheaply. Those have a system, in theory, that should allow them to make money. WWE setting up a promotion with no TV would mean they have to seek out small sponsors which they would need to hire someone to do. This would make it hard to recoup costs for a while.

Feasibly, they could possibly afford to do one at a time if they go slow. However, this would probably need to be in an English speaking country as this would allow the biggest base to watch and make it easier to attract advertisers.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I've thought the same thing in the past but I don't think it's feasible at the moment because in order to do it all the right way, or at least the way Vince would think is the right way, WWE would have to pump in loads of cash into these promotions in order to give them the sort of production value, bring in the sort of talent and generally secure the marketing that they'd want to and that's a risky venture.

In order for it to work, aside from the money that'd be pumped into them, these regional promotions would really need to adopt a lot of aspects from the country that they're being headquartered. For instance, if WWE opened a promotion in Japan, then a lot of elements of Japanese wrestling would probably be needed and that includes working a much, much stiffer style and I'm not sure it'd be worth the risk. For instance, knowing just how deep WWE's pockets are, if some wrestler working in WWE's Japanese promotion, say something named WWE: Rising Sun for instance, and said worker was injured then I don't think it'd be very long before WWE was sued by said wrestler or his family.

Vince would also need to put people in charge of those companies that he has total and 100% trust in and I don't know if such a person truly exists or not because Vince couldn't oversee all these territories as it's simply too much for any one man.

 

[EastCoastFan]

I've been saying the same thing for the last few years. WWE really needs more than one developmental territory, and given how successful NXT has been, why not?

My thought was to have 4-6 territories in North America for now, and maybe one in Europe. Japan has enough established companies that a WWE-owned company wouldn't be able to dominate the market there, so I'd say stay away from there except for the occasional main roster tour.

 

[FromGlasgow]

They are doing something similar in the UK at the moment but I don't think its a good idea, Its bad enough that we don't have any mainstream competition for the WWE, If they were to take over all the local indie companies like they did with everything else, We would end up with absolutely no alternative to the WWE, Pro wrestling would just be WWE style and nothing else, I think they should just stick to improving their own product.

 

[Navi]

Doesn't the WWE have NXT and the performance centre prepared for what the OP is talking about? Why bother to set up promotion's in other countries when you can bring those wrestlers to one central location and train them there. Also isn't that why we have tournaments like the UK Championship and the Cruiserweights, so the WWE can see what's out there.

I'm sure the WWE have road agents, similar to NHL hockey scouts that go from city to city, country to country scouting local talent, that they might be interested in. Seems to me like they've already spent a lot of money on building the performance centre just for that purpose, as we are seeing a lot of wrestlers from overseas coming into the WWE. At least a lot more than ever before.

 

[Tripleb2k1]

For WWE to set up regional territories, they'd need to set up management teams they trust to run each one

 

[Wildcat66]

Isn't that what independent promotions are for? For regional wrestlers?

I dunno, I don't really watch a lot of indy wrestling. Or at least, not enough.