Posted in: NBC, Opinion, Peacock, Sports, TV, USA Network, WWE | Tagged: nbcuniversal, NXT, peacock, Raw, Smackdown, USA Network, Vince McMahon, wrestling, wwe

WWE Sale: So Which Media Company Could & Should Buy The Empire?

Let's take a look at some big potential buyers that we think not only could but should buy the WWE and how it would elevate the WWE brand.

With the nuclear bomb dropped on the wrestling world this past week in the form of disgraced WWE Chairman Vince McMahon pulling off a hostile re-takeover of the company allegedly in the interest of selling it all, fans and pundits have been debating aloud the potential buyers and what could be in store for the wrestling empire.  Names thrown out have ranged from major media players like Disney and Comcast to those flush with unending wealth, such as the Saudi Government.  But if it were all up to me (and god knows it isn't), there's a best-possible scenario where the WWE could be purchased by a larger entity and be the better for it going forward.

First, let's look at a critical asset that WWE currently has that I think could help sort of guide this sale in the right direction: the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.  Whatever your opinion is of NXT and its merits as a TV show, there has always been near-unanimous praise for Triple H's other creation in the Performance Center.  Not only serving as a state-of-the-art training facility for the WWE stars of tomorrow, but the Performance Center also exists for current superstars to train, recover from injuries, and fine-tune their skills in order to be the best possible version of themselves in the ring.  This is partially why so many top WWE stars own homes in the Orlando area and raise their families there.  If Stamford, Connecticut, is the home of WWE corporate, Orlando is the home of WWE talent.

With so much invested in the facility and with so many of the company's stars calling the area home, there's very little chance it will be moved as a result of a WWE sale.  So it would make all the sense in the world to capitalize on the Orlando location, and when you think of Orlando, two major names come to mind: Disney and Universal.

Now, even though they could surprise us all, let's just use some common sense to remove Disney right off the bat.  Yes, WWE is a valuable intellectual property, and yes, Disney's greatest powerplay over the past decade-plus has been buying up other big properties.  But let me ask you, is there any way you see WWE and all of its history and baggage fitting in with Disney?

Any IP is only as valuable as its characters (Marvel, LucasFilm, etc., that Disney has been successful with), and while WWE obviously has plenty of characters, they're not just drawings on a comic page or movie characters.  Wrestlers are inseparable from the men who portray them, warts and all, and you cannot recast them with someone of better moral standing.  Yes, Hulk Hogan is a do-gooder superhero in the ring, but outside of it, he's a pretty divisive and controversial person.  Can you see a parade down Main Street in the Magic Kingdom with a kickline of "Stone Cold" Steve Austins giving kids the middle finger and chugging beers as part of a dance routine?  How about an Undertaker look-alike walking around scaring the hell out of old ladies and children?  Would Kane be a central figure in the nightly fireworks show?

These are things to consider because Disney is all about synergy through every aspect of their output, including and especially their theme parks.  Marvel and Star Wars fit nicely into that synergy.  WWE does not.  That leads us to look down the road a bit to what I think is a much-better fit and maybe even an ideal one: Universal.

Universal Studios has always been the somewhat "edgier" counter to Disney World.  Of course, it's still family entertainment, but Universal's always featured attractions based on horror films, violent action films, and even R-rated stuff like the Terminator franchise.  There's a huge portion devoted to The Simpsons, and their great annual Halloween Horror Nights never pull any punches.  At the very least, Universal is definitely for the older kids, and that is WWE's wheelhouse.

Along with the content fitting better, there's also a history there and a current setting.  Universal Studios is a part of NBCUniversal, which owns Peacock.  I don't need to tell you, but Peacock is the streaming home of WWE and already features their digital library and premium live events.  If they were to buy WWE outright, there wouldn't need to be any transition of streaming or anything like that.  They obviously know the company well and what it offers and have an infrastructure in place to not only sustain it but never have to worry about shopping media rights deals ever again.

NBCUniversal also owns the USA Network, the longtime home of WWE Raw and NXT, so there would be no worry about switching networks for their flagship show.  But what about WWE SmackDown?  Well, if FOX wants it bad enough, they could simply license the show from them or if FOX isn't willing to pay to play, SmackDown could go to NBC or any of NBCUniversal's numerous other high-profile channels.  Plus, who wouldn't be nostalgically excited to see the return of Saturday Night's Main Event on NBC?

But let's head back to Orlando for a moment and see how selling WWE to NBCUniversal could not only positively impact the company but also the wrestlers' lives.  It's no secret that WWE currently makes virtually all of its money from its media deals and merchandise sales and not much from live attendance.  The traveling show circus lifestyle is not working and has always largely contributed to the performers' personal falls and vices just to keep going.  So what if those days ended?

If NBCUniversal owned WWE entirely, they could really invest in making Orlando THE destination for the product.  It's well-known that Universal Studios has big aspirations in the near future to greatly expand its theme parks and attractions in the area to dwarf even that of Disney.  So what if they built a 10,000-seat arena on property that would be the official weekly home of Raw and SmackDown, so the talent and crew no longer have to travel 300 days a year?  That would eliminate touring costs while also improving their lives and probably significantly cutting down injuries.  While performing in the ring will always result in some wear and tear, I think a lot of fans underestimate just how much of a toll daily travel (especially on airplanes) takes on the body.

But what about the premium live events?  Well, those they could still hold in major venues around the world and would probably drive interest and sales for them because it would be even more of a big event for fans to see it live and in person.  Your home venue is nice & all, but the Super Bowl being at a major outside venue makes it feel above it all, and that's what they could do here.

With two major live-televised shows weekly on-premises (that, of course, they would sell tickets to every week) and the venue being used daily for live wrestling featuring up-and-coming talent (to give them more experience performing for a live crowd) that park-goers could sit in on (think similar to the scheduled stunt shows at any major theme park), the venue would more than pay for itself in little time.  But there's one more big attraction they could add to Universal Studios: a physical WWE Hall of Fame.

Think of it: WWE merchandise all over the parks, a nice venue featuring daily wrestling where you can see Raw and SmackDown every week, and the Hall of Fame to tour?  Universal wouldn't just be buying the WWE for some IP value; they would become the absolute source for WWE, both digitally and physically.  A true destination for WWE fans both at home and in person.  WWE has always wanted to be the center of the wrestling universe, and if all these things were to come together with such a partner, they could finally achieve it in ways fans could only imagine.

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