WWE could start selling pay per views for $60 once the company is sold, journalist Dave Meltzer has theorised. The company has been fraught with controversy over the past year, with Vince McMahon‘s abuse allegations, followed by his retirement and eventual hostile takeover return to the company in early 2023.
It is claimed that his return is due to his role in the company being sold – unthinkable just a few years ago, but now a very real possibility. With Saudi Arabia touted as buyers, as well as the likes of Disney and Comcast, whoever spends the rumoured $8.5 billion on the company will want to claw back as much money as they possibly can.
With this news, Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio has claimed that “it’s possible” for the WWE to go back to the pay per view model they employed until the birth of the WWE Network in 2013. Since then, each show has been included with the $9.99 monthly fee for the monthly pay per views. With the change, every show could cost fans $720 in total to watch, a huge upgrade from the $120 a year it cost fans for the Network.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said;
“Is it possible? Yes, it’s possible. If it’s Endeavor, because of UFC, I believe that they would absolutely look into the possibility of it. Because look at what they do with UFC and they’re similar businesses. I don’t believe it will be done. Now what could be done, the idea of pulling WrestleMania, or maybe WrestleMania, Royal Rumble (and) SummerSlam, and making them pay-per-views but keeping the other ones on the Network. I could see that.
I think that’s probably even the best way to do it, or maybe you even go with WrestleMania alone and that’s the only one. Because you’ve got two days of WrestleMania, maybe charge $40 a day, people will pay it because it’s WrestleMania. The flip side, the thing is though, is you can’t do it until this contract is over. So I think that the thing is, when this Peacock contract is over, and you’re evaluating all this, you have to look at what is Peacock paying you.
Because the amount that Peacock pays, it’s not like they’re paying a certain amount every month. It’s weighed, so they get paid way more for WrestleMania month than any other month. So are they getting paid more than they would make on the pay-per-view? I don’t know the answer to that. But I would say that in Endeavor is to buy, I would say that absolutely Endeavor would look at the economics and consider it, and they will go with whatever is the best economic idea.
You’ve got to remember this is not WWE Network, this is a figure way, way, way above WWE Network. If it was just WWE Network, I would go ahead and say WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, you put on pay-per-view, and the other ones you don’t, because you’re in charge of that. This is something that’s been sold to Peacock on the idea that they’re getting WrestleMania on their streaming service. So you can’t go away from it.
And also they’re getting so much money from Peacock, way more than they would make on pay-per-view or on WWE Network that the economics may very well be that it’s not worth it to them to take Wrestlemania back to pay-per-view.”
Currently, no buyer has been found for the WWE and there has been no confirmed changes for the WWE Pay per view model.
