WWE's treatment of UK Fans

[ASKane]

I just wanted to bring up a criticism of the Network and WWE I had. In America they say the network is $9.99 but in the UK it is £9.99 for those of you who aren't experts on exchange rates that means in the UK we pay about $15.50 for a service that Americans pay $9.99 for. I find it a bit annoying that WWE continues to treat its UK fans poorly, we only get about 2 weeks of live events each year, no PPV's and we have to stay up from 1 am to 4 am to watch Raw live and then sit through 2 hours of crap and about 1 good hour and then they make us pay more than the Americans. I think if we are going to have to pay more than the Americas we should get some Beast in the East style events at least but I still think with the UK being one of the best WWE crowds we have earned a PPV, in fact we've earned a Mania but I know that not happening.

What are your thoughts on the higher network price? lack of PPV's? and Potential for PPV's or Special Events?

 

[Navi]

Oh I totally agree. The WWE treats most of their international fans like shit. Here in Toronto, which is a grade A city according to them, we haven't had a PPV in forever. I think the last one was Unforgiven in 2006. We also don't get RAW or SD, and we're only an hour north of the US border. We get a live show about 3-4 months, but nothing to write home about.

We did have two Wrestlemania's but the last one was Mania 18, they're on what 32 now. Bullshit. We also pay more for the network than the US, and we don't have access to all the On Demand stuff, because we get it through our cable provider. The only plus to that is, no lag, and we don't have to watch it on our computers.

Sometimes the WWE forgets about the first "W". I don't know what they think it stands for, but for all of us the means "Worldwide". They certainly don't act it though and the show doesn't go on the road nearly as much as it should. Some cities like St. Louis get RAW all the time, and this year they had two PPV's. Ridiculous.

 

[Navdeep]

I don't live in UK so I may be wrong but network cost is because of sky deal as WWE sold their rights to sky and launching network violated the deal so the cost in UK is more.

 

[Dave]

It's nothing to do with the Sky deal. It's because the WWE wanted a catchy price that they could rhyme off every opportunity that they are given. It's easy to say 9.99 and just leave it at that. But if you have to qualify another price, especially a price that seems smaller to your American fan base, then you're in for problems. It would be around £6.66 for British fans, roughly. I can already imagine Americans going crazy because it seems as though they are getting robbed... Even though they are the same.

 

[Teddy Irving]

In Ireland you pay €13.99 for it so it's not the 9.99 catchphrase they wanted to keep. it is the sky deal that has increased the price of it pure and simple. Pure and simple the reason Mania is in the USA is that it makes a huge amount of money for the company and the less they have to pay out the higher the profit for them. Just try to think of the extra cost of shipping everything they need over to England

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

Oh I totally agree. The WWE treats most of their international fans like shit. Here in Toronto, which is a grade A city according to them, we haven't had a PPV in forever. I think the last one was Unforgiven in 2006. We also don't get RAW or SD, and we're only an hour north of the US border. We get a live show about 3-4 months, but nothing to write home about.

We did have two Wrestlemania's but the last one was Mania 18, they're on what 32 now. Bullshit. We also pay more for the network than the US, and we don't have access to all the On Demand stuff, because we get it through our cable provider. The only plus to that is, no lag, and we don't have to watch it on our computers.

Sometimes the WWE forgets about the first "W". I don't know what they think it stands for, but for all of us the means "Worldwide". They certainly don't act it though and the show doesn't go on the road nearly as much as it should. Some cities like St. Louis get RAW all the time, and this year they had two PPV's. Ridiculous.

And I don't understand it either, the WWE fans in Toronto are loud and the place has energy when the WWE goes there. They really should go back to Canada, fans are the best there.

 

[vampirek]

It has nothing to do with Sky, all of the shows on the Network do not appear on Sky anyways with the exception of Superstars. Everything else is either exclusively made for the network or a repeat which Sky has no rights over.

Plain and simple, it comes down to business. Everything in the UK is more expensive. Just look at when a new console comes out, taking into account the exchange rate it costs more for someone in the UK. There are other matters too such as taxes (which nobody pays anyways) and so forth.

As for the two weeks of live events, this was the comprised for the UK not having its own PPVs anymore which sold badly in America and were predictable. At least now UK fans actually get more wrestling, four tv events rather than two badly made PPVs.

If you want to criticise WWE about UK fans its the overuse of the black taxis and red phone boxes (which have long since vanished). I mean they dont use props for when they are different states in America, why do it in the UK?

 

[Perfected123]

If you want to criticise WWE about UK fans its the overuse of the black taxis and red phone boxes (which have long since vanished). I mean they dont use props for when they are different states in America, why do it in the UK?

It's typical American stereotyping, which WWE are the worst for. Every time I hear 'Jolly Old England' I die a little inside.

 

[Messiah]

Get over it. It's the same in Canada and almost every other country.. WWE is an American company. Of course America is going to get treated better than every other country.

 

[ianrapleyuk]

I just wanted to bring up a criticism of the Network and WWE I had. In America they say the network is $9.99 but in the UK it is £9.99 for those of you who aren't experts on exchange rates that means in the UK we pay about $15.50 for a service that Americans pay $9.99 for. I find it a bit annoying that WWE continues to treat its UK fans poorly, we only get about 2 weeks of live events each year, no PPV's and we have to stay up from 1 am to 4 am to watch Raw live and then sit through 2 hours of crap and about 1 good hour and then they make us pay more than the Americans. I think if we are going to have to pay more than the Americas we should get some Beast in the East style events at least but I still think with the UK being one of the best WWE crowds we have earned a PPV, in fact we've earned a Mania but I know that not happening.

What are your thoughts on the higher network price? lack of PPV's? and Potential for PPV's or Special Events?

i am from the uk and have had wwe network since it launched in usa all i pay a month for the wwe network now because of the exchange rate is £6.44 all i did was sign up using a fake usa zip (you can find on google) and pay with paypal and it charges the $9.99 as i said it equals out in our uk money at £6.44 a month. and i also got 1 of them free firefox add-on's that let you bypass the country thing so i get all the monthly ppv's and everything else that they get in the usa

my advice would be to do that like i did and you will not have to worry about anything

 

[FromGlasgow]

I completely agree, Just look at the Summerslam 92 attendance to see how well big events can do over here in the UK, Which was the first and last big event we have ever had here,
I cancelled the network for reason of cost still don't know how they can justify charging nearly double of what the USA pays for the same network content, No wonder TNA is the highest watched wrestling show in the UK over the past few years, Maybe if WWE didn't always take their international fans for granted, Just one Wrestlemania to show WWE is an international company and not just a USA based company.

 

[Burritocover]

I think they do the taxi and phone booth to make it look unique cause they consider it a special show. If they did some kind of props every week it would be special anymore. Also most cities don't even have anything really iconic to put up there. A taco truck for San Jose would be cool though.

Lots of places only get WWE twice a year. San Jose is an A city and the Bay Area usually gets two shows a year between there and Oakland and a pay per view about every 5 years. I do think the UK should get a PPV and I'm wondering if the network will make that more likely because the time difference I think is less important when you don't have to worry about spoilers. If it's on at noon west coast time even if I can't watch it til later it's not like I will read the spoilers instead of buying it cause I already have the network anyway. I think a big part of the reason for no international PPVs is exchange rate and taxes. If the exchange rate ends up more in favor of the U.S. I wouldn't be surprised to see Toronto get another wrestlemania and UK to get a PPV. I don't think shipping everything over seas is a concern. I imagine most of the lighting and sound and everything is rented and they probably have rings over there already in storage somewhere. I definitely think London deserves a wrestlemania but in a way I don't want it to go there. Not any time soon anyway because I go every year and a flight from the west coast is like 3 times the cost of a flight anywhere in the U.S. And I just went to London less than a year ago. That's just me being selfish though. Maybe wrestlemania 35 would be cool to go there. I'd love to see Wembly.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

It is 100% Sky's fault.

The mistake WWE made was signing the new deal with Sky... They had gone for a "big deal", Premiership Footbal level and didn't get it cos Sky played hardball. It was part of Vince's grandstanding at the time and it backfired.

The change they allowed was for ALL PPV events to be, well PPV... previously we got 4 a year "free" (bear in mind Sky is subscription to begin with) without additional cost. Those were removed.

So when the Network came along, Sky once again played hardball, there was one night where RAW was "going to be pulled" for example hence all the delays in releasing the network.

The concession was that they didn't "compete on price" with Sky, who had been charging £15 to watch a PPV. I would imagine they agreed the £9.99 price point as one that Sky could also charge and not be "losing too much". Bear in mind as well, the UK gets screwed on ALL products, Itunes, consoles, literally everything is dearer here, cos companies can get away with it.

In terms of WWE itself, they don't "screw" the UK intentionally, indeed the Network farrago saw Vince at his most concilliatory, when has he ever come out to personally apologise to ANY fans other than over Benoit's tribute?

The reality is time difference - Beast in The East worked as it was a novelty and 4th of July/saturday anyway. American fans AND European could watch pretty much the same time give or take 2 hours. London's timezone doesn't work that way, a PPV would have to be so late to air "live" in the US that it wouldn't be allowed for zoning reasons. All stadia here have strict rules on curfews cos there are always neighbourhoods nearby. Getting 100k people out of Wembley at 1am, when they have work/school etc in the morning along with the natives is a logistical nightmare... so it has to go earlier in the day, which means a delay and spoilers. Plus the Americans would hate it... genuinely, if Mania ever came here. Could you imagine the butthurt from "bidding cities" and the like? It'd be like The World Cup/FIFA debacle with Qatar.

Wembley also has a maximum quota of events for a year, with many being taken up with NFL until the new Spurs stadium is ready in 3-4 years time. Other grounds could hold it but they're not as "sexy" as Wembley... If WWE was serious about Mania, Summerslam or my choice, The Rumble in the UK, it HAS to be at Wembley.

I think realistically the earliest you see it is, if possible, Summerslam 2017 - 25 years after the first held there, it's a realistic goal for WWE.

The opportunity WWE DOES have however is to truly make Wrestlemania a weekend event. a 2 day PPV - London on the Saturday, MSG on the Sunday with somebody main eventing both nights... hell you could even run them the same day with a short break... Imagine the first 4 hour show going out from London, a title match opening and the winner getting on the jet and wrestling the main event at MSG 7-8 hours later... If WWE wanted to make Mania a truly global event THAT might work.

The other "problem" is that the UK wrestling scene itself is quite small still, despite the high numbers of talents from UK and Ireland getting into their system, there is no feeder feds as such, the closest to a televised promotion has been ICW which got a BBC documentary.