Anthem executive: Main difference between WWE & TNA is content distribution

In a new interview, a former WWE vice president who now is an executive with TNA’s parent company spoke at length about the differences between the two wrestling brands, the early stages of their partnership, what he feels wrestling fans want, and the possibility of a collaboration during WrestleMania weekend.

Speaking to Essentially Sports, Anthem chief revenue officer Rob Kligman said the recent cross-promotion of sorts is driven by what fans want to see, that they are doing their part in bringing that to the fanbase, and that’s there’s no longer a barricade between the two companies.

He later went on to say the following:

“The brands both can speak for themselves and stand for themselves. Right now, the difference really is the distribution mechanism that WWE uses to push their content out vs. what TNA does. Right now, we’re focusing on getting that distribution even larger than it is for TNA. But that’s the big differentiation point. The production is the same quality and the content is the same quality. The difference is the distribution,” he stated, later saying that is why he came on board to Anthem.

“It’s simply distribution because when you look at the content, the production…is spot-on and the content and the characters are spot-on so once we get that distribution deal, I think you’re gonna see a little bit more of an even keel between both organizations,” he said.

Kligman worked for WWE for nearly eight years, finishing up as their vice president of global digital and integrated sponsorship sales. He was hired by Anthem nearly three weeks ago.

During the talk, he discussed how he was involved in the initial talks with Netflix years ago that brought in sponsorship money for the first time from the streaming giant and “showed Netflix what the power of WWE could be.” He also took credit for the brand synergy between Snickers and WrestleMania.

Kligman said he feels the big takeaway from what’s happening with WWE and TNA is that fans just want to watch wrestling and don’t necessarily care if it’s AEW, TNA or WWE. They want a blend of familiar names along with up and coming names and feels the opportunity for TNA to become a real force in wrestling is based on that.

“We believe in Joe Hendry, but we believe in the business. I think that’s where you are seeing the correlation. You’re bringing up great stars and great talent, it makes us start to believe even further that this is a real business that has a lot of legs and a lot of fanbase behind it. You just change a couple different things and all of a sudden, it’s a mega property,” he said. “We’re not far away and we’re close.”

Kligman was also asked about a few other items during his talk:

The early stages of the WWE/TNA relationship

When asked about overcoming any early barricades in making a deal, Kligman said, “I think it’s just making sure it works for both organizations. I think you want to make sure that when you do a partnership, that both organizations have a chance and a fair shot at everything written into the contract that allows both to grow, both to make revenue and both to prosper, and for talent to both excel on both levels.”

WrestleMania weekend

Asked if anything would be happening between the companies during WrestleMania weekend, Kligman wasn’t sure as his philosophy is to take a crawl/walk/run approach, but “that’s an ultimate goal and would be amazing.”

“I think there’s an opportunity for potentially maybe doing events in the same weekend. Finding a way to do something where we parallel the opportunity for fans to gather around and see content where they want to see it at their time and that could be an event weekend that parallels TNA and WWE at some point. You just never know,” he said.