[quote name='neocisco']The XFL had the advantage of being football and thus a massively larger potential audience and yet it still failed (spectacularly so). WWE Network's potential viewership tops out, essentially, at the equivalent of the average of Raw's viewers. Doesn't exactly scream guaranteed hit, hm?[/QUOTE]
Nah, I see that - but since there are niche channels for sports that don't draw as much as big time wrestling (Tennis Channel), I think there is a market that could be fulfilled with WWE Network.
If they try to have "original programming" that is non-wrestling focused, it will fare worse than Oprah's channel.
WWE, as a business, likes to forge ahead as if they are not viewed by the non-wrestling fanbase as lowbrow, bottom barrel hillbilly white trash programming - as "fake" sport for a demographic of dropouts, miscreants and other sorts of dunderheads. So they pretend to "make movies" or "tell stories" or whatever corporate push line they want - they will never break through into mainstream, legitimate culture by wishing it were so.
WWE wants to be MTV - purveyor of all things pop culture. Edgy, innovative (I know many of you want to respond that they aren't, but to the mall-shopping, TMZ-reading people of the world, this is indeed true) - trend-setting. People lament that MTV no longer even shows music videos anymore, and that may (still) be true. But they grew in that direction, slowly, over time. They did not start in that direction, not by any stretch of the imagination. Once record companies realized that MTV was a vehicle for record sales, and that meant MTV became a vehicle for pop culture - then you saw stuff like "House of Style" (jeez, I remember that show?) show up on the air.
If WWE wants to launch their network with shit like "Are You Smarter Than Mason Ryan?", "Hangin' With Michael McGillicuty," or "In the Kitchen With Brodus Clay" (it's a lot like Sandra Dee's semi-homemade, but more...ahem...'funky'), they'll die in under two years. Probably one year, but I never would underestimate McMahon's persistence in clinging to terrible ideas.
If they want to grow the product naturally, focusing on wrestling first and foremost, then they might succeed.
They also need to emphasize one thing they have not when revisiting wrestling history: the serial nature of the product. Showing big matches is great, but not the context (i.e., the weeks/months of TV buildup) won't help attract fans to the product. Providing serial programming that gives the whole feud (or close to it) will be the only thing that will make fans want the channel and not go to YouTube as an alternative.