Forbes’ Alfred Konuwa Discusses Whether or Not Sheamus as WWE Champ is Best For Business, ‘Taker at Survivor Series, WWE Network Growth, more

Alfred KunowaYesterday Forbes & Bleacher Report wrestling columnist Alfred Konuwa was on WrestleZone Daily. Alfred was back with the latest installment of his weekly segment for the Daily called What’s Best For Business? which airs every Tuesday on WrestleZone Daily. 

Alfred discussed with Nick why he think Sheamus as WWE World Heavyweight Champion is best for business, how the Undertaker and The Wyatt Family were presented at Survivor Series, the WWE Network becoming one of the top five subscriber based video services, more

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You can listen to Alfred’s appearance starting at the 55 mark in the embedded audio player below. Some of his quotes have been transcribed below it:

On why he thinks Sheamus as the WWE World Heavyweight Champion is best for business:

AK: I think what was best for business is prolonging Roman Reigns’ quest to become WWE Champion. By stacking the deck with a heel in Sheamus. I think he’s a perfect heel to win the world title. I think this recreates, to some degree, the WrestleMania 30 storyline with Daniel Bryan. As great as Daniel Bryan was for that run he wouldn’t have been as intriguing if there wasn’t that black hole of a champion. That perceived champion who is just being gifted opportunities like Randy Orton. It worked with Batista as well. That did very good business. Top five WrestleMania houses of all time, at the time, with over 75,000 people. I do think they can recreate that to some degree. People aren’t going to get confused with Reigns and Bryan. It’s going to work in terms of playing with the heart strings of fans. 

On if the way the Undertaker was presented at Survivor Series was best for business:

AK: I don’t think so. I look at things long term. You position Bray Wyatt as this next Undertaker. Then you have this PPV that’s all about the Undertaker. THEN the Undertaker beats The Wyatt Family in a fashion that it was like an exhibition. They spent the entire match talking about how great the Undertaker was. Anytime The Wyatt Family got offense they said, “Oh man! Can you imagine if THESE GUYS beat the Undertaker?” I thought it was horrible for business to be honest. Bray Wyatt is one of your next young stars. A lot of these guys are constantly in positions to really take over and be the next generation but they lose to the old generation. I don’t think it’s going to help them long term. 

On the WWE Network becoming a Top 5 video streaming services based on subscriptions:

AK: I believe (Netflix) does release their subscription numbers. The last time they did it was like sixty-nine million or something like that. They don’t have anything to worry about in terms of WWE catching them at the moment. WWE has 1.2 million but the thing about WWE is it’s in that “sports” category. It’s really got a huge edge over the sports streaming services because it doesn’t have an off-season. That’s what was brought up in the report. WWE, the fact that it just keeps going, there’s no lull in subscribers. It just keeps gaining subscribers throughout the season. Whereas NFL and MLB… other sports… when they have the off-season people either drop the subscriber service or they are not going to be as quick to subscribe. 

Alfred was also the featured co-host on this week’s edition of RAW Reaction. You can listen to Alfred’s appearance on RAW Reaction as well as the full archives for WrestleZone Daily in the embedded players below:

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