Stephanie McMahon Doesn't Believe WWE Has Any Competition
There's no denying that WWE is the top dog when it comes to wrestling promotions, but are the likes of New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor really not competition? Stephanie McMahon sure doesn't think so!
WWE is a billion dollar company with huge corporate partners, a massive fanbase, and instantly recognisable stars. However, do they truly have no real competition? Well, while independent wrestling may be taking off in a significant way in both the UK and America, there's not another promotion out there with similar viewership or a reach that's anywhere near as big.
That was a sentiment echoed by Stephanie McMahon in a recent interview as she explained why WWE doesn't really view any "rival" promotion as competition. In fact, it sounds like they don't really care about them at all (which is hard to believe after seeing WWE's response to ITV's attempts to launch a weekly wrestling show on free TV over in the UK).
"Well I think imitation is the truest form of flattery, but I don’t think the viewership with some of those other organizations at this point is competition for us. If anything I think it just drives more interest in the genre itself. When you look at reality shows like Total Divas or Total Bellas, and when you look at films like our partnership with MGM for [theatrical film] Fighting With My Family, the story of [WWE wrestler] Paige’s life, I think we’re really just scratching the surface of the deeper stories that these individuals, as well as their characters, have to tell."
While it would be easy enough to find fault with Stephanie's comments, she makes a fair point and no matter how much the ratings for shows like RAW and SmackDown Live are falling, they're still bigger than any other wrestling promotion out there in terms of merchandise, ticket sales, and everything else you can think of! As a result, we can probably forget about another Monday Night Wars!