Mike Johnson mentioned on PW Insider Elite audio that he thinks WWE wants to be ‘in a very good position when holding their big shows’.
He said that they want everyone ‘coming to them in order to house the bigger events rather than hunting down the bigger venues to house their more important PPV events’. Ringsidenews.com carried the transcript.
In case you missed it . . .
WWE has traditionally made WrestleMania an all-weekend spectacle. They have the WrestleMania card itself, the Hall of Fame Ceremony and events during WrestleMania Fan Axxess.
This was the first time they did the same thing for the Royal Rumble PPV. There are usually NXT Takeover events on the night prior to the bigger PPVs but this year saw an Axxess event added that included the Worlds Collide Tournament.
The heart of the matter
Mike Johnson laid out the reasoning behind WWE’s plans for WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam and Survivor Series on PW Insider Elite audio.
Since the WWE is sports entertainment, Vince McMahon wants his huge events to be on par with events like the Super Bowl and all the hoopla that event brings to a host city.
WWE had NXT Takeover: Phoenix, the Worlds Collide Tournament and the Royal Rumble all during the Royal Rumble weekend.
They also featured a 6-man tag match with the top superstars in NXT (Johnny Gargano, Tomasso Ciampa, Adam Cole, Aleister Black, Ricochet, Velveteen Dream) as Halftime Heat during the Super Bowl. They are ramping up the live product to improve their negotiating power in the future.
What’s next?
While WWE has had the Axxess event at the last several WrestleMania shows, it hasn’t been an event that has been featured on the WWE Network like Worlds Collide was. You always want to be in the best position when negotiating, and making things so valuable that the bidders come to you is a smart move on WWE’s behalf.
Whether or not they can make the weekends as star-studded and can’t miss is as they want is another whole question unto itself.
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