WWE Going Global?

[Y 2 Jake]

I'm surprised nobody else has posted this.

This is some paragraph's from Fighting Spirit magazine.

Vince has comissioned a plan outlining a complete restructuring of WWE from an American company into a trans-national corporation made up of seperate international divisions.

The goal is to operate individual WWE regions completley independant of one another and specific to a particular market, such as WWE Asia, WWE Europe etc.

This is essentially a crystallisation of the brand extension, wherby each brand will have it's own talent roser, T.V. show, PPV's and creative team.

For example you can expect WWE Europe to be headlined by the like's of Finlay, Birchill and Regal.

What's everyones thought's?

 

[InstantClassic]

I guess it has both it's good and bad features. I think it could be just what they need to spice the product up.

I would love to see something downunder, such as a south-east Asia or Asia-Pacific division. They would get the fan base out of Australia and New Zealand.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

The positives that I see are that wrestlers that would'nt normall get huge pushes might do because of this. Birchill would never be a main WWE player on Raw or Smackdown. But he will probably carry the whole European division. Katie Lea hasnt got the whole blonde hair, fake tit's thing that WWE like's in there women. But she will surley lead the European womens division if they choose to have one.

The problem I think will be that WWE wont actually send the big stars to Europe, Asia or wearether. So it will take a long time to establish each brand. Nobody would want to see a WWE show headlined by Finlay vs. William Regal as good a match as it would be.

 

[tmangamer]

I would love to see this, especially if it means shows throughout all of Europe (so that I could see it live ). I would like to see the likes of Finlay, Regal, Burchill getting good pushes, and possibly even Harry Smith or others. The thing with European performers is that there aren't many within the WWE's reach (that means that they would hire, and that have talent). So I would hope they would bring in people from Canada in that case, but I would suppose that if this was to be really good there would be a separate section for Canada and Mexico.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I think they would bring people in. Wrestlers would have to relocate so a lot of performers might not be willing to move to Europe or Asia. There's plenty of European & Asian wrestler's that they could use.

 

[Jonny B]

The only thing I actually read about this, was the intention to do a WWE Mexico brand to begin with. Isn't this just what the NWA did? I mean don't get me wrong in theory its a good idea, but does the WWE have the roster to actually pull something like this off? Obviously they are going to have to hire extra people, but is there a big enough talent pool in somewhere like Europe? I mean Star Power wise we don't really have much over here, as far as Asia? Japan is already flooded with decent promotions so they would probably struggle to make any dent there unless they actually bought out a Japanese Promotion.

It just seems to me like the WWE should get their own house in order before branching out, the current state of the WWE in my opinion is not good enough for them to be stretching their talent roster even further, they struggle to do decent shows with what they have now, take out the non-American's and farm them out elsewhere and they are left with very little in the way of star power.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Despite WWE programing being average at best. There doing very well. I dont think Vince is concerned with the quality of the product so long as it's making money.

As for talent. There's very little talent in ECW and yet that het's an hour a week. I imagine WWE will just completley raid all the English leagues. They will also go to ROH. There's no shortage of wrestler's who's dream it is to compete in WWE. A lot of people would be willing to relocate. And lower card wrestlers like Eugene & Gregory Helms might be willing to move if it means they get a better push.

 

[Kasey]

This is very intriguing. In my opinon, it has the possibility to be either very good, or completely sucky. Looking at how I'd execute this? Pretty simple. McMahon's financial backlog from the American companies (Raw, Smackdown, not ECW) could help him to garner talent specific to a region. He'd have to have knowledgeable people in each sector in which he established a division that could run the book, sign the talent, scout the talent, and promote the events. What would probably end up happening is just using the alternate countries leagues as a farm system and not giving their athletes anywhere near the credibility the American company would have. What should happen is that each country's product would be geared toward that specific market. European, Puroresu, Lucha and so forth would be geared toward the key demographic there in some way, but would still retain the high production values that WWE is known for. Financially, this is either a big victory or a monumental defeat. I'd personally only look to England, Mexico, and Japan as places to start a promotion. Either that or McMahon could just establish a single promotion called "WWE International" or something along those lines, that would specialize in tours of those markets. Whatever the case, I think it could be beyond cool for Vince to garner talent and promote talent that may not make it in a specific demographic right off the bat. Take the average wrestler currently in WWE like Haas. They haven't been able to get him over since 2003, but in Japan he'd be over in a heartbeat because he's fundamentally sound and can wrestle well. In the end, I think it'd be cool to see Wrestlemania as a three or four hour extravaganza that culminates in all the best matches of different styles. Sort of a melting pot if you will. This probably wouldn't happen, though. It'd probably just end up like WWECW...but with more expensive airfare.

 

[Shocky]

I posted my opinion on this in another thread, but this is it in a nutshell.

The North American market is already over saturated with 3 brands. My solution, use the name value of ECW and send that over seas to the Asian markets. I would use the Smackdown name, bring back the European championship, and ship that too Europe. For the WWE Mexico, I would make that more of a Central and South American promotion. Send big names that would do well in those markets.

For the other two brands, as much as I don't want to Bring back WCW, I would, and keep that highly territorial in the southern United States. This would be the new American Smackdown. And obviously Raw would be the flagship, but tha would be a west coast and east coast promotion. I would do my best to keep these brands away from each other as much as possible. The reason the brand extension worked at first is because of them being isolated from one another. It created an interest in matchups we hadn't seen in a while. The last few years the "Creative" Team have been to impatient to creat stories.

So in a nutshell, this is what I would do.
Northern and West Coast United States
WWE-Raw. Championship, WWE Championship, intercontinental, WWE Tag

Southern United States
WCW. Championship-World Heavyweight, US Championship, World Tag titles

Latin America
New Brand or WWE Latin America. Championship= New Brand Belt, Cruiserweight championship, New Brand Tag team titles.

Asian Market
ECW. Championship- ECW Title, ECW TV Title, ECW Tag team title (Guys like RVD and Sabu could thrive in this environment)

European Market
New Brand or WWE Europe- European Championship, new 2nd Tier title, WWE European Tag team championship

*on a side note, this is were Vince needs to drop WWE 24/7 and just make a basic cable station. By doing this he can air the WWE Latin America and WWE Europe on his WWE channel. This way he can do what the NFL network has done, force USA and Sci Fi to get into a bidding war with the WWE's channel to get more money for television. USA and Sci Fi aren't going to give up their #1 shows, so I don't see how this is a bad move on the WWE's part. WWE 24/7 is good in theory, but honestly its better suited for online use. Drop 24/7 and just make a Wrestling Channel. With his library he'll get cable companies biting. Oh yeah, I'd move the new Smackdown (WCW) to thursday nights on his own channel.

 

[mork83]

I was never a fan of the Raw/Smackdown brand extension, it actually made me stop watching up until last summer. This seems worse.

There are so many blah performers on all three brands, they don't need more. The only way I could see this working is if they basically bought an existing brand in the region and renamed it and added a couple of wrestlers.

Plus, this idea kind of hurts the meaning of "World" Wrestling Entertainment.

 

[Big Ace]

WWE would need to have a lot more talent. Currently, I don't see this happening, but if it des, then I don't think they will succeed. They're already known all around the World, so what's the point in getting THAT many brands? I think it's just too much and even with all the talent in the World, It wouldn't work.

Think of how many production people you will need. It's hard enough to produce 3 shows and not that many people will want to produce shows. People in the Wrestling biz are under-appreciated so I don't think there's enough talent unless they buy them from other Promotions. I do believe that WWE has the money to do this though. They've been loaded with cash ever since 2001.

Bottomline, This shouldn't happen. They're spread out enough with 3 brands and unless you move ECW or SD or RAW to another country.

 

[Shocky]

Obviously if they did this, they would expand on talent. I could see them plucking the big names in those regions into their fed, much like what Vince did in the United States in the 80's. I think this has the potential of being huge if they actually keep these organizations isolated from one another.

They need to put someone in charge of each of these that has a sense of what they are doing. The over seas brands could do very well, because it will probably have less hands on interference from the people at the Titan Towers.

 

[rockyedge]

Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The latest word is that if WWE goes through with the international expansion, it is not going to be an attempt to do five equal brands and split up top stars. The latest indication is that only two of the "big nine" (Cena, Triple H, Edge, HBK, Orton, Rey Mysterio, Taker, Batista, Lashley ) would leave the U.S. for an international brand. The most likely "big nine" star moving is Rey Mysterio, as a natural for the top star on the Latin brand. Undertaker, HBK, Cena and Triple H are going nowhere. Of Batista, Lashley, Edge & Orton, it is believed that only one of them will be moving elsewhere. There is also talk that the stars who do end up moving to a foreign country will often fly back to the U.S. to keep themselves alive on U.S. television so that they could do pay-per-views. Of course, this is only preliminary talk because nothing is going to happen until at least 2008.

The belief is that most of the international promotion stars are going to be composed of current stars from Japan & Mexico, WWE mid-carders sent abroad to be main eventers and current developmental talent. If they go through with the expansion plans, you would also see a lot of former WWF & WCW stars from the 80s, 90s, and new millenium brought back to the company. They would help fill out the rosters and add some much needed name value to them as well.

So the U.S would be losing two big stars. Hopefull Batista is one of them.

 

[mork83]

Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The latest word is that if WWE goes through with the international expansion, it is not going to be an attempt to do five equal brands and split up top stars. The latest indication is that only two of the "big nine" (Cena, Triple H, Edge, HBK, Orton, Rey Mysterio, Taker, Batista, Lashley ) would leave the U.S. for an international brand. The most likely "big nine" star moving is Rey Mysterio, as a natural for the top star on the Latin brand. Undertaker, HBK, Cena and Triple H are going nowhere. Of Batista, Lashley, Edge & Orton, it is believed that only one of them will be moving elsewhere. There is also talk that the stars who do end up moving to a foreign country will often fly back to the U.S. to keep themselves alive on U.S. television so that they could do pay-per-views. Of course, this is only preliminary talk because nothing is going to happen until at least 2008.

The belief is that most of the international promotion stars are going to be composed of current stars from Japan & Mexico, WWE mid-carders sent abroad to be main eventers and current developmental talent. If they go through with the expansion plans, you would also see a lot of former WWF & WCW stars from the 80s, 90s, and new millenium brought back to the company. They would help fill out the rosters and add some much needed name value to them as well.

I don't really believe this at all.

WWF/WCW stars from the 80's? Can someone name ONE wrestler from the 1980s, who isn't currently working, who isn't dead or retired or 200 pounds overweight?

Also, they talk about the "big nine". Lashley has been around for how long? I'm sure last year Kurt Angle was in that group, now he's gone. Eddie Guerrero was in that group before he passed away. So were Brock Lesnar, RVD, Chris Benoit, Kane, etc. What about younger stars like Mr. Kennedy, CM Punk, Jeff Hardy? And who knows, injury/health wise, how long Undertaker, HBK, Batista, even HHH will be around?

Whenever any story talks about long-term plans, I assume someone is either making it up or really stretching a rumor. Anything can happen in a very short amount of time. There's a good chance one of those "big nine" won't be in the WWE by the end of the year. Even if they are, there will be another main eventer to join them.

That being said, if this is true to some extent, I think Batista would be perfect for the Asian market. I believe he's part Philippino and I remember a few months back he did a promotional tour throught Asia and was completely mobbed. Plus, it would get him out of the US.

 

[Kasey]

I posted my opinion on this in another thread, but this is it in a nutshell.

The North American market is already over saturated with 3 brands. My solution, use the name value of ECW and send that over seas to the Asian markets. I would use the Smackdown name, bring back the European championship, and ship that too Europe. For the WWE Mexico, I would make that more of a Central and South American promotion. Send big names that would do well in those markets.

For the other two brands, as much as I don't want to Bring back WCW, I would, and keep that highly territorial in the southern United States. This would be the new American Smackdown. And obviously Raw would be the flagship, but tha would be a west coast and east coast promotion. I would do my best to keep these brands away from each other as much as possible. The reason the brand extension worked at first is because of them being isolated from one another. It created an interest in matchups we hadn't seen in a while. The last few years the "Creative" Team have been to impatient to creat stories.

So in a nutshell, this is what I would do.
Northern and West Coast United States
WWE-Raw. Championship, WWE Championship, intercontinental, WWE Tag

Southern United States
WCW. Championship-World Heavyweight, US Championship, World Tag titles

Latin America
New Brand or WWE Latin America. Championship= New Brand Belt, Cruiserweight championship, New Brand Tag team titles.

Asian Market
ECW. Championship- ECW Title, ECW TV Title, ECW Tag team title (Guys like RVD and Sabu could thrive in this environment)

European Market
New Brand or WWE Europe- European Championship, new 2nd Tier title, WWE European Tag team championship

*on a side note, this is were Vince needs to drop WWE 24/7 and just make a basic cable station. By doing this he can air the WWE Latin America and WWE Europe on his WWE channel. This way he can do what the NFL network has done, force USA and Sci Fi to get into a bidding war with the WWE's channel to get more money for television. USA and Sci Fi aren't going to give up their #1 shows, so I don't see how this is a bad move on the WWE's part. WWE 24/7 is good in theory, but honestly its better suited for online use. Drop 24/7 and just make a Wrestling Channel. With his library he'll get cable companies biting. Oh yeah, I'd move the new Smackdown (WCW) to thursday nights on his own channel.

Pretty good concepts, Shock. It would be an effective way for Vince to push other guys out of business and make damn sure he's completely saturated the market with his own product, thus leaving room for no one else. I don't know if Sci-Fi and USA could be pushed into a bidding war, as I believe they're both owned by NBC (General Electric). The idea of an all wrestling channel is cool, though. It'd finally give me enough wrestling to satiate my need for spandex-clad violence! You know, it's funny to me, because Vince should've done something like this WAY back in 2001 instead of pissing his chances with WCW down the toilet. Hell, I'd have divided some of the talent base and made it fiercely competitive between shows (Raw and Nitro). I'd also have people taking shots at the other company and it's talent to make the fans highly divided like it used to be. If I was the WWE I'd also keep the WWE as more of a Northeastern company for the predominance of its tours, while ECW ran Philly and everything in the midwest, while WCW focused on the South and west coast.

 

[Shocky]

Well Sci Fi and USA wouldn't get into a bidding war with each other, but they would get into a bidding war with the WWE channel to keep their respective programming on their channel, instead of letting WWE take it.

I think it might be in the best interest of NBC/Universal to back a WWE Channel. This way the WWE could run a SNME on it's own channel, without the embarassment of being a horrible network show. NBC owns a lot of bad cable channels, the WWE channel could generate a ton of interest. Like i said, 24/7 is good in concept, but not enough cable operators are biting on this.

WWE has a very loyal fan base, and with 4.0's ballpark figures everymonday, that's strong to carry a channel. Like you said Kasey, i'm shocked Vince hasn't tried something like this already. His ego won't let him bring the WCW and ECW names back to what they were. He has to have his stamp all over it, and hes just blurring the line even more between brands.

 

[Downward Spiral]

I don't know if having bases all around the world could work. Sure there is a lot of talent in places like England and Japan, but is it really useful to have bases around those regions? I don't know if they would be used and promoted like the WWE in America would be but it would be a great way to uncover new talent that promotes the wrestlers styles (eg Lucha Libre) in areas that will actually want to see that kind of wrestling. A positive is that it gives the WWE a broader wrestling range and will open the door for all new talent to come in, but I don't think spending a lot of money on establishing these bases in places like Australia or anywhere like that is a good idea because the fanbase just wouldn't be there, nor would the wrestling talent. But I like the sound of a base in Japan or England because those are areas that have unique styles that the WWE just don't show on TV. Interesting to hear about this though, and I will be interested to see whether it's a big thing like making equal shows in different countries under the WWE name, or just buying or creating companies in those areas as a farm base to just get talent.

 

[William_Regal]

If Vince goes through with this I hope he doesnt force sports entertainment on the world. Each brand should be mainly focused on each areas style of wrestling. (Luche Libre in the latin brand, European technical in the european brand etc)

 

[Shadowmancer]

Im going to point this out because people keep doing this and say that They can't have a Japanese Brand, a European Brand and a Latin America/Mexican brand at the same time because it is said in that report that they are thinking of going for Five Brands, They are not going to move the Three they currently have to any other country, As to this concept I can't see it flying, In Japan they will struggle to do what they do in the states, The Japanese fans are different from your typical Western fan. The Latin American/Mexican brand, their hero that they would plan to send down in Rey Mysterio lost his mask in WCW, he shouldn't really be wearing his mask in the WWE, Rey has to get some sort of special dispensation in Mexico to compete with the WWE with his mask on. While having a european brand would work if they got local talent, it would leave a gaping whole in the WWEs brands in terms of Technical wrestling. WWE should concentrate on providing a better product than with supplying more of a shoddy product to more people. That is another reason why they would get killed in Japan in regards to Fans.

 

[sachintendulkar]

the way to do this would be by having wrestlemania 25 at wembley stadium. (100,000 crowd, 80,000 in seats, 20,000 on floor.) what better way to go global than by holding your biggest event at the world's most famous stadium. then have let's say wm 28, wm 29 or wm 30 in sydney australia.

 

[logan]

The WWE European tour was said to have been a rough one. WWE has mentioned recently that they are considering creating promotions/brands in various countries with some stars moving to specific countries, but a lot of the talent isn't so high on that idea following the most recent tour. Wrestlezone

 

[Moon Knight]

the way to do this would be by having wrestlemania 25 at wembley stadium. (100,000 crowd, 80,000 in seats, 20,000 on floor.) what better way to go global than by holding your biggest event at the world's most famous stadium. then have let's say wm 28, wm 29 or wm 30 in sydney australia.

I always thought MSG was the worlds most famous one? Or is there a difference in what you mean?

Either way, after how negative the response was on part of the wrestlers over this tour I doubt they will go forward, this was obviously a test run and it didn't go over well.

And WM 30 will be in New York, the WWE does every ten WM's at MSG.

 

[attila]

I love the idea. Ive always thought that the WWE needed to do this. I mean when you think about it, they claim to be a global organisation, a leader in pro wrestling (or more recently sports entertainment) and yet they are largely confined to the US market. Sure they have TV and PPV available in most of the world but so does the NBA and the NFL. Neither of which claims to be a global company like the WWE.

I look at the WBC, WBF, IBF etc. and compare them with the WWE and its plain to see that its two different worlds. The WWE should come across as a pro-wrestling equivalent of the said federations - but it doesn't. I don't even think its necessary that the WWE create new federations to compete exclusively in different markets. This would never work. WWE Mexico, WWE Europe, WWE Japan etc. would become the next OVW and DSW within 12 months.

Instead I think that the WWE should change their focus. Their TV product should take on a more global attitude and they should tour a lot more. When the WWE title is being defended in Australia and Asia and Europe, North and South America, and Africa thats when its a WORLD title. I think they should even open up their ranks to other promotions. There was a time when the NWA titles were being defended on Raw Is War ecery monday night. That was a great idea. And again it showed the audience that there is a bigger world of wrestling out there with other feds and other wrestlers ready to take the next step and challenge for the title. Why not have Bryan Danielson or Kenta Kobashi come in for a single one-off shot at the title. They don't have to win. But its just a way of making the world of wrestling that extra bit realler. It gives the WWE a little more legitimacy as a sporting body on a global level. I think this is exactly what the industry needs. I really believe this could be the next big evolutionary step in the world of pro-wrestling. We had the RocknWrestling era, we had the Hollywood era, we had the Hardcore Revolution era, we had the Attitude era. Maybe its time for the WWE to evolve into the pro-wrestling equivalent of the WBC. A body representaive of all wrestling and all wrestlers; where the greatest fighters in the world meet to prove who is the best.