Is EVOLUTION Really a Mystery?

It was almost two weeks ago that the WWE, represented by Stephanie McMahon, Triple H, and Vince McMahon himself kicked off RAW with their own personal victory lap in announcing the first ever all-female WWE pay-per-view titled “Evolution.” Keeping in step with its apparent women’s movement a marquee event featuring a card comprised entirely of women’s matches will take place in October. In watching the announcement take place, two things caught me by surprise.

Number one was the fact that the WWE seems to have forgotten, or perhaps not even be aware, that TNA had already done this exact thing five years ago. While an all-female event may be groundbreaking for the WWE, it isn’t new territory for the wrestling industry itself.

Number two was the fact that Steph, Hunter, and/or Vince didn’t fall flat on their face during the announcement from all the proverbial back patting they were doing to themselves!

The reality is that “Evolution” is simply the latest step in the public relations bonanza known as the “Women’s Revolution.” It is not a reflection of a change of attitude about women’s wrestling in the mind of Vince McMahon. What it is, is a low-risk endeavor that will pay the WWE back in positive press and good vibes for what it might lack in monetary success. Thanks to the advent of the WWE Network, the WWE has made the importance of the old pay-per-view system obsolete. The company no longer needs to rely on monthly buy rates and PPV revenue because it instead produces all of its own content for mass consumption for a monthly subscription fee instead. A year-long subscription to the Network is equal to a person buying 3-4 pay-per-views a year in the “old days.” And after it pockets your $9.99 at the beginning of each month, the new content available each month (besides the On-Demand library) is entirely up to what the WWE decides to offer.

And there lies the rub for the WWE.

If we were still in the age of the old pay-per-view system, this event would never see the light of day. There is no way you can convince me that the WWE would potentially replace its normal October PPV offering with “Evolution” if there was major money riding on it. The last pay-per-view event before the launch of the Network was Elimination Chamber 2014. That event did 183,000 buys. I don’t believe that “Evolution” would even approach that number if it were offered in a normal pay-per-view environment sans the Network. In my opinion, it would more likely be closer to the 65,000 buys that Vengeance 2011 pulled in, which is one of if not the worst-selling PPV in WWE history. But thanks to the safety net of the Network, those buy rate numbers no longer matter and the inherent risk of selling a marquee event is no longer a factor.

It really doesn’t matter what the WWE puts on the Network, because the number of views for a particular show or program has no impact on that month’s revenue. It more has an impact on retaining current subscribers and giving them content they are willing to pay for. But one show on one night, is ultimately inconsequential to the bottom line. So producing an all-female event is not really the sticking out of the neck that the WWE would want you to believe it is. I doubt that anyone in the WWE really is worried about the reception or views the show gets. What matters more is the social media applauding it will surely get for its supposed cultural implications on the WWE and the wrestling business. Most outlets will no doubt eat up the story of a male dominated business being taken over by a crew of all females for a night, meanwhile ignoring the fact that it has already been done before, the event will more than likely be headlined by a woman that gained her fame not from wrestling but MMA, and the basic disingenuous notion that the WWE are somehow putting on this type of event because they truly feel it is a money making endeavor. Vince and Co. can applaud themselves all they want, but they have no real skin in the game when it comes to producing this show. When the women take their final bow that night, the only thought on McMahon’s mind will be “Next!”

“Evolution” didn’t occur over time or out of necessity. It simply found itself in the right place, at the right time, in the right circumstances. I take nothing away from the female athletes that will participate in this event, and I would venture to guess that there are some that are torn on this issue for similar reasons as I’ve discussed here. This has more to do with positive P.R. and a favorable effect on stock prices than the women themselves. To think otherwise is naïve.