WWE Says Goodbye To Arena, Exclusive Brock Lesnar Shirt, Article On RAW - SmackDown Going Online
- Above, WWE says goodbye to the Joe Louis Arena (Detroit, Michigan), which is scheduled to be demolished later this year. The video showed some of WWE's bigger moments in the arena, including The Undertaker defeating Hulk Hogan at Survivor Series in 1991. WWE will hold their final Joe Louis Arena live event tomorrow.
- Brock Lesnar is scheduled to work this final show and WWE will be selling an exclusive shirt that fans can purchase. Paul Heyman posted pictures of it on his Twitter:
NEW @BROCKLESNAR MERCHANDISE — LAST THROW AT THE JOE! Collectors Edition – 1 Night Only – @WWE — Avail this Saturday at @JoeLouisArena! pic.twitter.com/FqkIprF6tX
? Paul Heyman (@HeymanHustle) July 27, 2017
- On CBS Chicago, Chuck Carroll wrote about the possibility of Raw and SmackDown eventually transitioning to online only shows, thanks in part to "cord cutting," social media, and the WWE Network. Here's an excerpt:
"By and large, television viewership is down across the board. That holds true for sports, network and cable programming. The number of households 'cutting the cord' and turning exclusively to streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu is accelerating. Traditional broadcast networks such as CBS, which owns this website, have launched their own over-the-top networks in an effort to keep up with the rapidly evolving way media is consumed. That's why it's arguable that more people than ever are watching WWE programming, despite the drop in traditional viewership. There is no panic at the company headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. This is a trend that executives saw coming years ago and have been working feverishly to keep pace with. The videos posted on WWE's digital platforms, including Facebook and YouTube, were viewed more than 9.1 billion times during the first six months of the year ? an increase of nearly 20 percent from the same time last year. Likewise, WWE's social media channels continue to explode and now have 800 million followers."