A Step in the Right Direction

That is Daniel Bryan in New Delhi sitting in what we call here an "auto rickshaw". It is almost the first time in months that anything WWE related made me break into a big smile. The WWE is putting on a live event in India for the first time in almost 13 years on January 15, 2016. To heat things up, a John Cena appearance has already been officially announced. 

If you are thinking that India might not be a very lucrative market for the E, I got two words..err...videos for you. 

Oh they might know John Cena, everybody knows John Cena but they won't care about mid carders...umm..... wait a minute here. 

Nobody told me that Ryback was over like a beaver here!!! Hey, we are a nation of marks. Absolute marks. The fans cheer the good guys and boo the bad guys.  

Cena will probably bring the house down, and so will Roman Reigns. Big Show will go over huge. And if the E wanted to cause a mini earthquake they could easily do so by giving India old favorites like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin or The Rock. If you think that he gets a big reaction in the US, oh well, you got another thing coming. Considering the number of people that are fans, and the huge population of this country (16 million people in New Delhi alone!!) (insert sad smiley here) having live shows and promoting the overall product like the Network would be very beneficial to the WWE. For some reason, however, this company likes to leave money on the table. In so many ways.  

Firstly, what about access to the Network? Unless you fancy staying off Facebook or Twitter for two days, results will always get spoiled for you here. Granted, most of the time its pretty easy to predict what is going to go down, but I can't remember the last time I watched a match without knowing the result before hand and that has spoiled things like the WrestleMania main event this year..or for that matter the Money in the Bank 2011 main event. Seriously, I could not guess the result of that match and wanted to be shocked and awed but that becomes a little difficult in this day and age. Again, the time difference makes it difficult but there are a lot of fans willing to see the event in real time, at the very least Wrestlemania and the Royal Rumble. 

Secondly, while I can't comment on the economics of it all, I think the tickets are way over priced. The event could attract a lot more interest but most people would be loth to spend the amount that they are asking for. For instance, for the amount of the ring side seat ticket I could go for a Thailand trip and splurge on food and booze for a weekend and come back in Air Asia economy class, okay? A lot of the fans are just not having the kind of money the WWE is charging. At the end of the day, the more the merrier. WWE should want to get more fans to see the show and convert them into lifers who will eventually buy some merchandise down the road and even subscribe to the network. Pissing people off with pricy tickets helps no one.      

Thirdly, what about the women?!! Does the WWE think Sasha Banks, Paige and Becky Lynch can't convince the fence sitters and the no-can-doers?? Only Cena, Dean Ambrose, Sheamus and a couple of others have been announced till now before the sale of tickets. Not cool man, not cool. I personally know that I would consider my ticket worth the price of admission if they had advertised The Boss.  

Here's to hoping that there ain't another 15 year gap after this show.