Top Ten Cases: WWE 2012 Year-End Awards - Will the WWE Network Launch in 2013?

WILL THE WWE NETWORK LAUNCH IN 2013?

My Pick:  No

What a difference a year makes.  In last year’s survey, 88% of the voters believed that the WWE Network would be a success, with the implication being that the launch would happen that year.  I, too, predicted the Network would succeed.  This year I decided to pose another question – not so much about whether it’ll be a success (for what it’s worth, I still think it will be), but whether we’d see it arrive at all this coming year.  Personally, I do not think the network will launch in 2013, and that’s not a bad thing.  WWE seems to be showing an admirable amount of restraint when it comes to this endeavor.  They seem to be making sure that everything is right and ready before taking the plunge.  Along with that, WWE is a promotional machine.  If they were remotely close to being able to launch their network (like, if it could happen in the next six months or so), we’d be seeing some level of promotion at this point.  Instead, the WWE Network has pretty much dropped off the radar.  Their Twitter account hasn’t been updated since October 30, and even by that point they only tweeted once every couple of months.  And there’s not much more activity than that on their Facebook page.  And if you do a search for “WWE Network” on WWE.com, a whopping 8 articles (the newest of which is from 10 months ago) come up as a result.  I don’t think they’d be this quiet about the endeavor if they were launching it within the next year.

What You Said – No

As noted above, 88% of voters believed the WWE Network would be a success last year.  This year, 87% believed it wouldn’t even launch in 2013.  Again, the two questions aren’t the same – but there’s certainly something to be said about those results.  I can’t say for sure why all of these voters don’t think the network will become a reality this year, but I’d venture to say that there seem to be conflicting stories regarding the company’s vision.  This probably leads fans to believe that the WWE doesn’t quite know how they want to present their network.  Additionally, there are the skeptics out there who didn’t believe any notable cable provider would pick them up to begin with.  At least, that’s my guess.