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WWE is the largest wrestling promotion in the world—a company so dominant in its field that there are plenty of folks in the mainstream public who consider it synonymous with wrestling itself, the way they automatically call tissues Kleenex or cola Coke.
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The company isn’t showing any meaningful signs of financial woes. While a number of critics are unhappy with the creative direction—particularly for WWE RAW, the fact remains that between the Network, TV deals, international contracts, merchandise, live events and more, WWE is a huge business enterprise with no shortage of resources.
Sometimes, people may ask the question of when will WWE end? So what if WWE were to go bankrupt?
It won’t happen overnight, but just as WCW once looked the like the dominant force in wrestling only to crumble, a series of unfortunate and unforeseen events can change an entire industry quite quickly.
This column by no means expresses any hope for WWE to go under, and the views expressed in it do not reflect those of Sportskeeda on the whole. Nonetheless, I’m here to speculate what would happen if WWE went bankrupt.
#5 John Cena retires
There are those wrestlers like Hulk Hogan who are best known for their work in WWE, but worked in the AWA and in Japan before his biggest WWE run, and who was contracted to not only WCW but Impact Wrestling for years to follow.
Talents like this may see WWE as their home base, but are nonetheless not afraid to explore opportunities elsewhere.
In terms of performing on any sort of national level, John Cena has only wrestled for WWE. He was the loyal, steadfast face of the company for a decade, and remains a part time legend WWE can reliably call on.
As he shifts his focus more fully to an acting career, and stands out as the most recognizable wrestling celebrity of his generation, we can reasonably infer that if WWE were to go under, Cena would retire from the ring.
Perhaps if another truly national promotion operating on anything like WWE’s scale were to come calling down the line for an induction into its own Hall of Fame, or a one off angle that capitalizes on his legend, he might entertain it.
However, all indications are that Cena doesn’t really need wrestling anymore, and removed from the company he is loyal to, the odds are he’d be done.
#4 New Japan makes moves
While promotions like Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor, and Lucha Underground are arguably the closest thing WWE has had to competition since they bought WCW, there is another promotion looming for world domination.
New Japan has a deep roster, a reputation for great matches, and longevity dating back over forty years.
Moreover, in promoting stars like Chris Jericho who is familiar to mainstream US fans, and Kenny Omega who has built steam as arguably the best in ring performer in the world, NJPW appeals to North American fans like never before.
The New Japan World streaming service only enhances that dynamic in making their product more accessible to fans everywhere, including the US, than ever before.
In the absence of WWE, New Japan could quite arguably go toe to toe with any of the other top US based wrestling brands.
A touch of rebranding lessen the focus on its Japanese base, and a TV deal or tours of the US could tip the scales to make them the most popular wrestling company in the States.
#3 A bidding war for the tape library
One of the biggest revelations of WWE buying out WCW that only became fully apparent in the years to follow was the value of a good tape library.
No, WWE didn’t necessarily make the most of WCW talent or branding right out of the chute.
But in using that tape library to support a burgeoning DVD business, and now as part of the foundation of the WWE Network library, WWE has cashed in on appealing to long time fans and students of the game by sheer virtue of how comprehensive their historical record is.
WWE now owns the libraries of not only its own promotion, WCW, and ECW, but a wide variety of smaller promotions of significance from across time and space.
If WWE went bankrupt, gobbling up its tape library should be a top priority for not only any wrestling promotion trying to take its place, but also companies like Netflix or Hulu that could make some nice bank off of luring in fromer WWE Network subscribers.
#2 All Elite Wrestling strikes
With Cody Rhodes and company filing for intellectual property rights for All Elite Wrestling and related enterprises, rumors abound that they’re about to make a go of it with a new wrestling promotion.
Details are sketchy for now, and in Rhodes commenting that the project will be bigger than anyone expects, there is some intrigue about what exactly this business might look like.
Whatever Rhodes and his partners have planned, if WWE were to go under, we can bet that they’d make some major adjustments.
Rhodes and The Young Bucks proved with All In that they could sell out a major arena and promote a successful PPV and streaming event on their own.
Without WWE as an obstacle, and with millions of orphaned fans for the taking, The Elite may well capitalize with the most aggressive expansion they can muster in as short of a period of time as possible.
#1 More smaller promotions split up the pie
While New Japan and All Elite Wrestling may take advantage of a WWE void to grow their businesses, promotions like Ring of Honor, Impact Wrestling, Lucha Underground, Evolve, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, Chikara, House of Hardcore, and Combat Zone Wrestling would all be positioned to vie for a spot as the top wrestling promotion among US fan.
And that’s not to mention other upper tier international companies that might make moves.
In the end, though, one of the most interesting parts about imagining a world without WWE is considering how the pie might be redistributed.
For at least the years to immediately follow such a huge development, we would probably see something akin to the old territory days with a lot of smaller promotions based in their own regions doing the best they can, and walking the line between competition and collaboration before new, clearer front runners emerge.
