What could this mean?
In terms of growth in subscribers, WWE Network has plateaued and that’s largely due to the decrease in original content offerings as parent company WWE, Inc has been shaving costs over the last year or two so as to look pretty for potentially jumping to a new network in 2020 after their contract with NBC Universal ends. Today, the television product is stale in comparison to anything else that’s on TV and is even more so when compared to the brilliance that is USA’s Mr. Robot which is the only series on the USA Network that has anywhere near close the thunder that WWE had in the late 90s in terms of compelling storylines and rich characters.
That said, that doesn’t mean original content from WWE is all that terrible. For example, when given the chance to be risky, WWE looks great animated, and that is showcased in such WWE Network shows as Camp WWE and Storytime WWE Season one, and most recently in ESPN’s 30 for 30: Nature Boy where producers Six Point Harness animated retellings of silly Ric Flair stories that were excellent.
That said, for every one good thing WWE seems to do in this space, they screw up. Examples include diluting Storytime WWE for the show’s second season for a more “family-friendly” audience, Slam City, and not renewing Camp WWE despite repeated requests from WWE Fandom on social media.
WWE Studios, according to Deadline, intends to expand on its original content offerings for other digital platforms as well as for television and that does include animation. Today, we don’t know what that means as the network hasn’t announced anything, but promises to focus on its existing roster for different opportunities.
In the meantime, I’m going to go back to not watching WWE Raw or Smackdown Live for the foreseeable future.