WWE can do better. I know I’ve said it before, and I know I am far from the only one. The big international shows are cute, but WWE has more to offer. What do I mean? We are not that far removed from what was a glorified house show (The Greatest Royal Rumble). WWE just announced a big show for Australia in the fall. We recently concluded another UK Tournament. These international shows are good…but not enough. Allow me to expound on this, if I may.
While these shows are all well and good, we saw what we actually got from the Jeddah show. It was, for lack of a better way of putting it, a house show that just happened to be televised. We have no assurances that the Australian effort won’t be the same thing. And while I am a fan of the UK efforts, I kind of lump that into a different category, more on the B level with NXT (though if you know me, you know how I feel about NXT). In short, I think WWE has mailed it in with the Saudi Arabia show, and I fear they will do it Down Under as well. And it’s time for a change.
What kind of change? Simply put, make a real, honest to goodness, established PPV the next play. Don’t re-use an existing PPV brand and pawn it off to a foreign customer and then show it off on the WWE Network and act like it’s new and exciting. No, instead, someone needs to take a look and realize that the last time we had an international PPV that was in a different time zone was when Wembley Stadium hosted SummerSlam in 1988.As in, yes, 30 years ago. Yes, WWE has held international PPVs since, but (no offense Canada) I don’t really count Toronto (or Canada) in the same way as like, London.
So, to make the point: it’s time for WWE to put a major show-whether it’s WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble or anything else on the calendar-into an international venue. My personal favorite? Take a page out of the early WrestleMania playbook (or, RAW 25) and host a major event out of multiple time zones. Look, I get it. One major concern is going to be spoilers-you have a show in Europe, and people in the US may not watch it live, but could get spoilers. But with people streaming sports from around the globe all the time now, I don’t see time zones as a deterrent like it once was. So, play things sort of “safe”. You have a split card, with as many matches as you’d like, but spread across two sites and time zones. I mean, the PPVs are now running longer than ever thanks to the brand consolidation efforts. This gives you an excuse to run them even longer. Say we pick on SummerSlam here. You can start the show at like, 3PM eastern in the states, which could end up being 8pm local (assuming London is the site). You run the European leg for 3 hours, and after that venue has it’s main event, we transition to the domestic venue for the final 3+ hours.
Now, it does not have to be from London. And we could eventually see the entire PPV from a venue overseas. But for now, WNZ readers, this would feel like progress, would it not? WNZ readers, what do you think? Is it time WWE puts a main PPV on from overseas again?
