Backstage News On WWE Cutbacks, More To Come
There are major cutbacks going on all over WWE right now, including the cancellation of WWE Network programs and no longer doing the pyro at shows.
Dave Meltzer stated on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE "promised everyone" they were going to have bigger profits in 2017 than they had in 2016 and they're not anywhere close.
"So last year's profits were about $30 million," said Meltzer on the August 1, 2017 episode of Wrestling Observer Radio. "And this year we're about halfway through and ? I don't have the exact numbers in front of me – but it's like five or six million, which means there's a lot of catching up to do."
This is believed to be the reason why there is no longer a pyro at WWE shows and a lot of shows on the WWE Network are getting canceled, in an attempt to lower production costs.
"They're not in any financial trouble but the Network subscriber number is a genuine disappointment," explained Meltzer. "The growth coming out of WrestleMania that would have been expected wasn't there."
One thing that has not helped the growth of the WWE Network is doing brand specific pay-per-views for RAW and SmackDown but it's not expected that WWE is going to go back to just one pay-per-view a month.
"The one thing that we have learned is that the two pay-per-views a month, that has not helped," said Meltzer. "The Network number is not growing the way they expected it to so that's been a bad situation. But I don't think they want to drop one of the pay-per-views because I think that would hurt ratings a little bit."
More cutbacks are expected in WWE and it's one of the reasons why the company has been slow on the United Kingdom show. Dave Meltzer noted their tournament to crown a WWE United Kingdom Champion earlier this year cost a lot of money and the show will mean spending a lot of money for more tapings every month.
Source: Wrestling Observer Radio