"You're never going to be bored" - Stephanie McMahon on why WWE is better than traditional sports
Stephanie McMahon doesn't believe that traditional sports have anything on WWE.
Over the last two decades, WWE's television rights have gone up substantially compared to where they used to be. Even with more people cutting cable, WWE continues to rake in record profits by providing live content for both FOX and the USA Network with SmackDown and RAW.
The WWE Chief Branding Officer recently spoke with Dade Hayes of Deadline about a wide variety of subjects. During the discussion, McMahon stated that she believes WWE's mix of sports and entertainment gives them a distinct heads up over other traditional sports broadcasts:
"It really is both," Stephanie McMahon said. "It’s like athletic theater. It’s the story, that’s why you care. (...) You’re swept up in the storylines. We can script the buzzer-beater moments, we can script the Hail Marys. We have a leg up on sports. (...) You may object to what we do, but you’re never going to be bored."
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Stephanie McMahon believes that WWE continues to be ahead of the curve in entertainment
WWE launched its own network in February of 2014 but licensed the rights to stream their programming to Peacock in 2021.
McMahon believes that launching the WWE Network when they did as well as cutting a deal with NBC proves that the company is ahead of a curve when it comes to distributing content to the masses:
"We were ahead of the curve when we launched WWE Network, and we were slightly ahead of the curve when we decided to license our content," Stephanie McMahon said. "As we’re seeing with Netflix and Disney, it’s not an easy business (…) Content is really king."
In a recent interview with @Deadline, WWE CBO @StephMcMahon revisited the #ArmyofTheDead tie-in with @Netflix, calling it a "pretty great" cross-promotion.
(Source: deadline.com/2022/05/wwwe-n…) https://t.co/Lc6RsBN8qk
What do you make of McMahon's comments? Do you think WWE has this many advantages over traditional sports programming? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.