Earlier today Forbes & Bleacher Report wrestling columnist Alfred Konuwa was featured as a guest on WrestleZone Daily. Alfred was back with the latest installment of his weekly segment for the Daily called What’s Best For Business? which airs every Tuesday on WrestleZone Daily.
This week Alfred discusses WWE’s 3rd Quarter Earning Report. his thoughts on the Brock Lesnar Go To Hell Tour and CM Punk’s UFC aspirations.
Read Also: Forbes Analyzes WWE’s Third Quarter Success
Subscribe to WrestleZone Radio on iTunes to get all of WrestleZone’s audio content FOR FREE!!!
You can listen to Alfred’s appearance starting at the 37:15 mark in the embedded audio player below. Some of his quotes have been transcribed below it:
On what he took away from WWE’s 2015 3rd Quarter Earnings Report:
AK: The big take away was the WWE Network. WWE spent a lot of time on this call talking about the WWE Network and the success of the Network. They increased their subscribers 79%. They’re at 1.3 million. They’re well on their way to that 2 million figure that they are going to need to not only break even but continue to be profitable. Segment revenue reached $145.8 million. WWE Network numbers are very, very good. They’re very strong. WWE reported a loss last quarter and now they’re reporting net income. Definitely the Network is catching on and the reason I believe that they’ve had so much success is they’ve moved to more original programming. Instead of just having this vault where you could just see all these old matches they’ve added 85 hours of original content in the third quarter and they’re going to add 90 more hours next quarter. The most viewed program in history of the Network was the Brock Lesnar vs Big Show Madison Square Garden match. If they do more stuff like this and keep adding original content the Network is going to keep growing.
On why he liked the Brock Lesnar Go To Hell tour:
AK: If you watch that Brock Lesnar special from Madison Square Garden, which I mentioned earlier was the highest viewed WWE Network special, he wasn’t in the main event. He was in the middle of the show. Kind of like what they used to do with Hogan. Hogan would wrestle in the middle of the show so he could go home early and beat traffic. The show was centered around Seth Rollins and John Cena inside of a cage. They’re using Brock Lesnar not as this guy who is going to hold the title hostage. Not like they did with The Rock and what not. Which, I didn’t really have a problem with. We are in a time that they need to build these new stars more than ever. If you’re going to have a Brock Lesnar part-time star, yeah, use him as an attraction. Say there is going to be a tour and he’s going to be doing this, that and the other. He’s going to be talking to Stone Cold. Use him sparingly in these mini-tours where you get more for less. I really like this model. I think there’s something like this that you can do with The Rock. You could do it with CM Punk if/when he comes back. You could do it with the Undertaker when it’s his, “Last Ride.” There’s a lot of different things you can do with these part time stars.
On the chance that CM Punk’s UFC career and the possibility of him returning to the WWE:
AK: This UFC thing isn’t really working out. He hasn’t even announced his match yet. He’s hurt. He’s obviously too old to be doing this for the first time. I think he’ll get his one fight and then when he is done with that the fences will be mended (with WWE). Think about it, a face to face live with Triple H on the WWE Network. Who is not tuning in for that?
Alfred was also the featured co-host of the RAW Reaction for this week. You can listen to his appearance as well as the full archives for WrestleZone Daily in the embedded players below:
