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WWE Territories?
Topic Started: Mar 2 2007, 10:31 PM (96 Views)
Stinger
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The first look at what Vince McMahon has talked recently of doing with the WWE product that would be the biggest news story regarding the business as a whole since the folding of WCW is the lead story in one of this week's two Observers. This will be the news that everyone in wrestling will likely be talking about next week.


The new CFO of WWE, Michael Selick, revealed in Financial Week that the company is exploring the possibility of establishing separate WWE promotions running full-time in separate international markets. If everything went ahead, it would go so far as to include separate TV tapings and storylines for each region, turning WWE from an overseas novelty into a local promotion.

Things are still in the preliminary stages, but Vince McMahon has discussed it in detail with Stephanie, John Laurinaitis and others in the inner circle. The territories mentioned include a 'Pacific' region covering Japan, South Korea, China and Australia, a 'Hispanic' territory for Puerto Rico, Mexico and South America, and a European territory, with perhaps a Russian one at a later date. Meanwhile, in the USA, there would be two touring brands, most likely Raw and ECW, with Smackdown becoming the Hispanic brand as it is already well established in the market. Big pay increases would be given to senior agents and creative team members to move themselves and their families overseas, with potential performance bonuses depending on how well business goes. It would start off with a TV executive producer with experience of the region working closely with one agent and one writer who would be running the territory. There would also be a crew of wrestlers, who would also be expected to move their families overseas. Paul Heyman's name has actually been mentioned in connection to the Pacific region.

Shane McMahon, along with Selick, is working on a business plan for the venture, which remains in its formative stages. Potential drawbacks include the cost of producing WWE calibre shows, around $500,000 per week, and how TV stations in areas like Mexico would respond to the price. There is also the danger of international markets already beginning to get overexposed. Recent Japanese tours have not performed particularly well, there were concerns over the number of Australian tours, while advances for the next batch of Mexican dates have been well below expectations. Also, though WWE can get away with charging high prices for their shows at the moment as it is a novelty, doing so repeatedly would not help when taking on promotions like CMLL or AAA.

If it did come to pass then a lot of new wrestlers would of course be hired, as there would be a minimum of five brands. They are looking at promoting each market using both established WWE stars and top babyfaces based on ethnic backgrounds. Carlito, Mistico and Mysterio would be assigned to the Hispanic brand as top stars, they would look for a top Asian and Australian babyface, and guys like Regal, Finlay, Harry Smith and Paul Burchill could be assigned major roles in Europe. They would also likely raid the local markets in Japan and Mexico, whilst bringing back more of the '80s and '90s stars to make up the numbers. The only sure thing about the creative team members is that neither Stephanie McMahon nor Brian Gerwitz would work internationally. Gerwitz would likely become the chief writer of the USA brands, while Stephanie would hire more TV writers with Hollywood experience. Word is that the international territories would be handled by Shane, with Vince concentrating on domestic business, though many have suggested that Vince's personality means he would want to be involved everywhere anyway.

credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
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Snowman
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What......The......FUCK?! :huh:
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Chad Matthews
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Very interesting concept...

I'm intrigued to see what would hapen...

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Q-BZ

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So we went from a simulation of competiton with this brand split to now heading towards a simulation of everything Vince wiped out 20 years ago?

:blink:
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Stinger
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Q-24
Mar 3 2007, 08:43 AM
So we went from a simulation of competiton with this brand split to now heading towards a simulation of everything Vince wiped out 20 years ago?

:blink:

Yup :rolleyes:

It's an interesting idea for sure, but damn. I like Regal, Finlay, Burchill, Smith... and seeing as how I doubt we'd get to watch the Europe brand, we'd be missing out. Same with the influx of Asian guys they'd hire.

We'll be stuck with muscle-heads and shows written by failed TV writers while all the other countries get the good wrestling. At least that's what it sounds like to me.
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Chad Matthews
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I think it's interesting from a business and marketing standpoint...it has the potential to make a show like Wrestlemania even bigger than it already is. Imagine a Wrestlemania in which two of the territories champions came together into one big match...
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Stinger
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Yeah, WrestleMania will certainly have the chance to become THE "Super Bowl" or "World Series" then.

I think it would be cool if WWE made the overseas shows availabe for free on their website and sold their PPV's on DVD's here like they did with Rebellion, Insurrection and the others.

Territory champions, such as the United States Heavyweight Championship (top title in the US market) and one WWE World Heavyweight Champion (who goes from territory to territory) would be awesome as well.

I think this would end up being a major headache for WWE though. As cool and interesting as it could be, I don't think it's worth the risk.
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Chad Matthews
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I think the only way it could work is if the WWE cut back to one touring US brand...Raw.

If they want SD to be the signature brand in Latin America, that's fine...maybe they can even keep ECW going as a developmental territory (letting their younger guys build up in ECW before switching to a new territory)...

I don't think this will ultimately end up working out. Asking people to move overseas and to Mexico is a lot to ask.
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Snowman
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Sorry....this is suicide for WWE....they can't keep 3 brands running in America, let alone 6-8 all over the world.
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Stinger
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Snowman
Mar 3 2007, 11:50 AM
Sorry....this is suicide for WWE....they can't keep 3 brands running in America, let alone 6-8 all over the world.

I agree.

This is way to big of a risk, financially and with the fans and workers. I don't think WWE could pull this off.
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Snowman
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Look if WWE wants to do a latin version...fine, that's an easy expansion....but Japan? Russia? What the hell are they thinking? Japan is territory of NEW JAPAN...Russia....well they just suck.
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Q-BZ

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I also agree with you Snowman. I think this is nuts.
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Snowman
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Think of it this way. Wrestling, much like fast food is taking a hit. So this is like Burger King saying....we are losing money, are sales are down, and we are having a tough time keeping upkeep on the stores....LET'S EXPAND! Let's put a new location in Tiajuana! In Beijing! In Puerto Rico! IN ST. PETERSBERG! We will relocate our employees, thinning out our staff even more, and hire a bunch of people who don't know their thumbs from their asses to take the spots of the good workers we sent over seas!
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The Fallen Angel
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I dont want them to do it, I like it the way it is. (Obviously when they have good shows not bad ones lol)
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