WWE Could Be Making A Huge Change To Future WrestleManias

WWE was forced into making a number of drastic changes to its flagship pay-per-view WrestleMania this year, and even more big changes could be on the way as WWE looks to revamp its biggest event of the year.

The first major change will come at WrestleMania 36, when 2020 women’s Royal Rumble winner Charlotte Flair will take on Rhea Ripley for the NXT Women’s Championship, marking the first time that any NXT match will take place at WWE’s biggest pay-per-view of the year. That decision was one of the first substantial changes made to WrestleMania as WWE looks to portray NXT to be on par with WWE’s main roster shows, Raw and SmackDown, and it could be one of many significant adjustments that WWE makes to Mania over the course of the next couple of years.

Another potential permanent change would see WrestleMania expand from a one-day event to a two-day affair as there had been “water cooler talk” within WWE about making that switch in order to accommodate WWE’s rapidly growing roster. In fact, the circumstances brought upon by the impact of COVID-19 essentially forced WWE to switch to a two-hour format for this year’s event, and that could become the new norm going forward due to WWE’s overabundance of superstars. In recent years, a number of WWE’s top stars—ranging from Braun Strowman to Kevin Owens to John Cena to The Undertaker—have been left without a significant WrestleMania match, or even off the show altogether, despite the main card lasting more than five hours to go along with a two-hour pre-show. A permanent transition to a two-day format could certainly remedy that, though.

As is the case with any significant adjustment, there are numerous pros and cons to making WrestleMania a two-day event, but with WWE continuing to stockpile talent in NXT and utilize several part-timers on a semi-regular basis, it wouldn’t be a shocker to see WrestleMania permanently add a second day within the next few years—with this year’s show serving as somewhat of a test run to see how a two-day show fares on the WWE Network and whether fan reception to that format is positive. That change might also coincide with another major one in the form of a new home for WrestleMania, which would be one of the biggest changes ever made to WrestleMania.

According to the Wrestling Observer’s Bryan Alvarez (h/t What Culture), WrestleMania could potentially soon begin airing on FOX, especially in the event that WWE moves its pay-per-views to a different streaming service:

“This is according to Bryan Alvarez, who, on a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Live, claimed that a source within the promotion said that WWE could potentially sell ‘Mania to FOX rather than having it air on the Network (or whatever OTT service other pay-per-views end up on).”

Steve Muehlhausen of Sporting News reported on Twitter earlier this year that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is interested in purchasing the rights to stream WWE’s biggest pay-per-views while WWE has also discussed potentially moving its PPVs to ESPN+:

In recent weeks, buzz about WWE potentially moving its pay-per-views—or at least its “Big Four” shows—off the WWE Network and/or to another over-the-top service provider has really picked up due to WWE’s 2019 Results and 2020 Business Outlook report revealing major WWE network subscriber losses in 2019, including a drop of a staggering 166,000 paid subscribers from the fourth quarter of 2018. The way that WWE books its product with such a focus on the WWE brand rather than on building up individual superstars has minimized the effect that WWE’s booking has on attracting fans to its product. Even when marquee stars, like Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey, are highlighted or even when WWE books major bouts like Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez, WWE’s key metrics support the notion that fans aren’t being drawn to the WWE Network.

WWE isn’t even halfway to its lofty goal of three to four million WWE Network subscribers it once expected to reach by 2020, and Vince McMahon himself has revealed that WWE could sell its pay-per-view rights to a “major” streaming service, perhaps at some point in the first quarter of 2020. Amazon is emerging as an early frontrunner to land those rights, but the possibility remains that WWE chooses to keep most of its pay-per-views on the WWE Network if it cannot find the ideal over-the-top provider. After all, if WWE does move all of its PPVs to a new service, that—in addition to NXT’s recent move to USA Network—would, for all intents and purposes, be the final dagger in the heart of the WWE Network.

It would be extremely unreasonable for WWE to expect fans to pay $10 per month for a WWE Network subscription if the Network doesn’t feature NXT or pay-per-views. In that scenario, the likely resulting loss of WWE Network subscribers would be more than offset by the revenue generated by the deal WWE inks with an OTT streaming service and/or FOX to air its pay-per-views, WrestleMania included. WWE could feasibly secure another blockbuster deal with FOX for the Mania rights while FOX would likely generate substantial revenue for commercials if it was to air WWE’s flagship pay-per-view as a two-day event or a singular Super Bowl-type of one-day affair.

Regardless of how everything plays out in regards to the futures of the WWE Network and WrestleMania, the widespread expectation is that monumental changes will be coming to WWE, the WWE Network and to WrestleMania over the next few years following WrestleMania 36, which may be the most unique pay-per-view in company history and could serve as the new template for future Manias.