WWE Touts Nearly 90M U.S. Fans as CEO Says “It’s Time to Monetize” With New TV Deals

Georg Szalai
·6 min read
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Sports entertainment powerhouse WWE, which is planning to merge with Endeavor’s UFC, has been touting positive TV ratings trends and strong ticket sales for its live events. Now, a new data point shows that the number of Americans aged 8 and over who are identifying as WWE fans has also continued to grow.

In 2022, that figure hit 89.9 million, according to the SSRS/Luker on Trends Sports Poll, a new record for WWE and an increase of 4.8 million over its previous high of 85.1 million, reached in 2021. The research firm’s core poll results are representative of the U.S. population aged 12 and older, and more than 500,000 Americans have been interviewed for it over 25 years. In addition, its Sports Poll Kids study is conducted with 1,200 kids ages 8-11.

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“More people identify themselves as WWE fans now than at any time in the history of the research, which dates back to 1994,” WWE claimed. A breakout for the number of avid and casual WWE fans wasn’t available, meaning there is no gauge for the change in the size of the firm’s hardcore fan base. But WWE will take the 2022 figures as another positive indicator for consumer sentiment toward its shows, stars and brand, as well as its broader market opportunity.

As it negotiates new media rights deals, the company has highlighted data points showcasing its broad family appeal. And WWE has been touting higher live attendance as of late, with a series of WWE events breaking live gate and attendance records. After all, the firm has over the last six months set all-time highs for gate and/or attendance in 57 cities around the world and broken the gate record for each of its premium live events, formerly known as pay-per-views, over that time period.

For example, this year’s Royal Rumble in January set a gate record of more than $7.7 million, surpassing the previous high for that event in 2017 by more than 50 percent. With 161,892 in attendance over two nights at the start of April, WrestleMania 39 at SoFi Stadium in L.A. recorded a gate of more than $21.6 million, exceeding the previous record by 27 percent. And Backlash in early May, which featured music star Bad Bunny wrestling in a San Juan Street Fight, reached the largest gate ever for a WWE event held in Puerto Rico and the largest gate in the history of Backlash.

With new U.S. TV rights deals in the negotiation stage, CEO Nick Khan at an investor conference on May 23 touted WWE’s streaming success on Comcast-owned NBCUniversal’s streamer Peacock. “If you look at WWE Network in the United States, which was our own [direct-to-consumer service], which we shuttered to go into the Peacock deal about two years or so ago, [there are] all of the subscribers we had migrated to Peacock, plus millions more who NBCU would tell you are directly attributable to WWE in terms of paid subscribers,” he told the J.P. Morgan 51st Annual Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference in Boston in a webcast session.

Khan added, “We are talking about the 22 million paid Peacock subscribers, millions of them – and I can’t say exactly how many million; I know it but we have given NBCU our word that we wouldn’t broadcast that information – are because of WWE. We are basically a churn-proof popper property since we go at least once a month with our premium live events, formerly known as pay-per-view. … So we think we have over-delivered with Peacock, we think we have over-delivered with our other partners, and now it’s time to monetize it properly.”

Asked May 23 about the state of U.S. media rights talks and an exclusive negotiating window, Khan said: “We are just out of the exclusive window with Fox; we are still in the window with NBCU. Conversations with both have gone phenomenally well. What we are trying to balance here is getting the maximum value for what we consider these media rights to be.”

But Khan signaled there was an opportunity to get more than two media partners involved in WWE. “We are always in touch with all of the buyers in the marketplace about what they are looking for,” he highlighted. “If you look at the NBA situation, my belief is the NBA is going to split the rights which are now split two-ways between Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney. They could split them four to five ways. And we think that is good for everybody. We followed the NBA’s playbook five years ago in wanting to not have one exclusive partner for Raw and SmackDown and to split them two ways. Now we are looking at the marketplace in its totality and thinking there might be more options than even that.”

WWE’s developmental brand NXT, for example, could well be of interest to various players, Khan hinted. “Initially, NXT was on WWE Network. And then when the pandemic hit, USA/NBCU needed content, we did not miss a week of production. … So we went with Tuesday nights NXT on USA from 8 to 10 p.m. Eastern time. NXT ratings are also trending up … so that is going in the right direction.” Concluded the WWE CEO: “We think NXT has the viability to be its own standalone brand instead of just being a developmental system – a third brand, if you will, where you can see cross-over from our superstars on Raw and SmackDown to NXT while our young talent develops there. Once we get all of that situated, then we will look at other nights of the week to develop new content as well.”

Khan has been serving as WWE’s CEO, with Paul “Triple H” Levesque overseeing the firm’s creative direction as chief content officer. Founder and majority shareholder Vince McMahon returned to the boardroom early this year as executive chairman after in June of 2022 having ”voluntarily stepped back” from the firm amid a misconduct investigation by its board. It focused on allegations that McMahon had sexual relationships with employees at the company and subsequently paid the women millions of dollars in severance packages with nondisclosure agreements.

All three are set to remain in key roles following the mega-deal with UFC. Endeavor will hold a 51 percent controlling interest in the merged UFC-WWE, with existing WWE shareholders owning a 49 percent interest. The new company will be led by Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel as CEO, with McMahon serving as executive chairman and Mark Shapiro as president and chief operating officer. Dana White will continue in his role as president of UFC, with Khan holding the same president title as White but at WWE.

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