Two years ago today, the WWE Network went live. After years of uncertainty and a complete transformation from a traditional cable channel to a Netflix-style service, the WWE Network had arrived! I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m from the UK.. It was quite a journey to get the Network on this little island. I skipped all that though. deciding to embrace the morally grey side and use a proxy. So, I was essentially a day 1 customer.
As flawed as the service still is today, it crapped the bed gloriously at launch. Potential customers either were unable to sign up or video playback was spotty at best. Analysts were already murmuring the word “flop” and understandably so. Complaints were rife and the MLB Advanced Media infrastructure couldn’t cope. It all looked rather dire.
WWE made Main Event into a live show in response, giving the company chance to iron out the majority of the bugs. WrestleMania 30 went extremely well that March, restoring a large amount of confidence in the fledgling Network. From there, new series original series began to trickle in and the low pricepoint helped facilitate a slowly rising subscriber total. By January 2015, a milestone 1 million subscribers was reached. Though this was lower than delusional estimates, it was still an important moment. By WrestleMania 31 a lifetime high of 1.3 million was achieved. Things were looking up.
However, a real bone of contention for many was a seeming neglect of the on-demand library of classic content. For a large portion of WWE Network’s lifespan, these updates were either very sporadic or would outright cease for months on-end. This lead to widely beloved rumors that WWE had forsaken historical footage after deeming it a “poor subscription seller”. Many were unhappy again.
Finally, in September 2015, this philosophy drastically changed. From that point onward, every month brought with it large chunks of video library, with some months increasing the overall library total by 150 hours or more. That was another box ticked.
As we move closer to the current time, WWE really began to find their feet with acclaimed series like Breaking Ground and Legends with JBL. As we move into the future, Camp WWE is generating some decent buzz.
Reading all this, you may think the WWE Network is set to be a huge success. Well, not quite. The UI really needs to be retooled to feature everything that would make media consumption easier. This includes an automated playlist system ala Youtube and simplfied organisation that encourages uses to dig deeper into the vault without confusing them. After nearly two years, I’d pretty much lost hope. Then this happened…
With the main website getting completely overhauled, it only makes sense that the WWE Network UI will follow at some point this year. With bugs and content being issues that are largely in the past, the clunky UI is the last big hurdle to more widespread adoption left to overcome.
So, happy birthday, WWE Network. Just don’t rest on your laurels. Keep striving to be bigger and better, because there’s no going back now.