March 5, 2007 Observer Newsletter: WWE’s expansion plans, Pride Second Coming recap
In the current issue of Financial Week, new WWE CFO Michael Selick talked about expanding the brand overseas. He said the company is exploring building separate WWE organizations around the company. The idea would be to create a WWE promotion that would run full-time in different parts of the world for each international market. He didn’t go into detail on the idea.
Both Roller Derby and Roller Games in the 60s tried similar approaches, in some ways like a wrestling territorial system. But WWE’s idea, which is to take a worldwide television show and brand, and break it up into splinter groups for different markets, is directly like what Roller Games did internationally in its heyday, and unlike anything ever done by territorial pro wrestling. Shows taped in the U.S. became popular on television in foreign countries, leading to successful tours of the Los Angeles Thunderbirds, the flagship team.
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Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.