|
In addition to that, it’s got such an advantage not being a publicly traded company. WWE *can’t* change gears. There is the implied promise of dividends and reaping in these Saudi deals and TV rights fees. They’re not going to get away with cutting their investors off from $300 million for that extra Raw hour, nor $100 million or whatever for those Saudi shows. They’ve set their metrics, and they’re kind of over the barrel for a show that people can watch once a week, doesn’t feel gentrified, and can fill an arena.
It’s going to be less than half the demand of watching WWE, possibly as accessible, and maybe with more media coverage given its freshness to the sports media marketplace. “Hey, a new wrestling promotion has started up with all these stars and capital,” is a more interesting headline than “WWE ran another show.”
Maybe I’m letting my optimism delude me. But say what you want about him, Kevin Sullivan said he knew he could be beating Raw with Nitro in six weeks. AEW is not going to say they want to be a Vincekiller, but I’m seriously hopeful that whatever there is of a nostalgia for a wrestling zeitgeist, or whatever is out there today, latches onto this really fast when they realize it is out there.
|