WWE Rumor Mill: WWE making huge strides in adding independant wrestling promotions to the WWE Network
What's the story?
WWE's new television deal with Fox looks to be having wider repercussions for the WWE Network with many sites reporting that the wrestling company is looking outside of the box towards independent wrestling promotions for more content to add to its flagship streaming service.
In case you didn't know...
Currently, the main weekly show on the WWE Network is WWE NXT, with the developmental alternative to the main roster shows of Raw and SmackDown airing every Wednesday night.
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However, there are suggestions that NXT will be moving to Fox Sports 1 as part of the huge TV deal that will see SmackDown Live airing on Fox later this year. This would leave a rather large gap for new wrestling content on the Network.
The heart of the matter
But it already looks like WWE has a plan in place to replace NXT as they look towards the independent promotions they have a partnership with like Progress and ICW in the UK, and look to forge new relationships with other promotions.
Barn Burner reports that WWE COO Paul 'Triple H' Levesque was in Japan for the recent tour to meet with representatives of Pro Wrestling NOAH in order to flesh out a deal that will see the popular Japanese promotion air on the WWE Network. Talks of a partnership between the two have been rife since Hideo Itami was announced to be returning to NOAH where he is a huge star later this year, even reverting back to his former name of KENTA.
There are also suggestions circulating that WWE is looking to purchase another popular independent promotion, EVOLVE, outright. This is something we reported on earlier today and is looking more and more like a distinct possibility.
What's next?
With Raw and SmackDown only available on the WWE Network after a considerable delay, NXT is one of the main reasons why people subscribe (other than the pay-per-views of course). However, the loss of the yellow brand could hurt WWE's Network subscriber numbers which currently stand at 1.47 million paid subscribers as of the end of 2017, as reported by wrestlinginc.com
What do you guys think? Will adding independent promotions like Pro Wrestling NOAH and Evolve lead to more subscribers to the WWE Network?