WWE Rumors - Vince McMahon not a fan of decision to use fired co-presidents' idea
WrestleMania 36 does not have the fan interest that the past iterations of The Show of Shows had due to it being hampered by the current pandemic in the world. WWE will offer WrestleMania 36 on the WWE Network, a decision that Vince McMahon is reportedly not a fan of.
Cageside Seats have reported that the WWE Chairman has not backed the idea of offering his company's biggest show of the year for free and that it was an idea proposed by former WWE co-presidents George Barrios and Michelle Wilson.
"Vince McMahon was apparently never a proponent of the free WrestleMania offer for WWE Network, which is why it is not being advertised. That idea came from George Barrios and Michelle Wilson, who were fired earlier this year."
WWE are reportedly not advertising that WrestleMania 36 is free for WWE Network subscribers. Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio recently revealed that next year's WrestleMania, WrestleMania 37, will not be available for free on the WWE Network and it will be pay-per-view.
"I think that it's very clear that the idea is that next year's WrestleMania is not going to be on the WWE Network and it'll be on pay-per-view. That's probably the smart thing to do, so this is like a tryout. The idea is you want to be selling at least the pay-per-view and you move your program to another platform."
Barrios and Wilson were let go by WWE in January, a decision that surprised many people. Both Barrios and Wilson were in the WWE for a decade and were an important part of the WWE management team.
This is what Vince McMahon said on a conference call in February about his decision to let go of Barrios and Wilson:
“Over 10 years, supported by a strong management team, George Barrios and Michelle made more than significant contributions to WWE. However, with the change, we won’t miss a beat. We have a deep team of talented executives committed to our company who are more than capable of executing our strategy."
Last month, WWE announced that they have opened a "vast portion of the WWE Network library and extend free access" to those that have not subscribed to the Network. WWE revealed earlier this year that they had a total of 1.459 million subscribers to their WWE Network, which was first introduced in 2014.
WrestleMania 36 will be held for the very first time in the Performance Center as well as other locations and will play host to several mouthwatering clashes. WWE have reportedly pre-taped matches, for the two-day event which will take place on April 4 and April 5.