I don't know why ESPN asked me to host the ESPYs. I think that they realize we, over at WWE, can engage a live audience. We certainly have an enormous following.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The strategy is obviously a business decision to have limited advertising on the WWE Network. We want subscribers to know that there won't be commercial breaks during scheduled programming, so your shows won't be interrupted.
The ESPYS are about appreciating moments in sports and not looking down on it because it's maybe not your favorite athlete or your favorite team.
Being able to control a live crowd at the ESPYs, that's fun.
Being a professional wrestler surely prepares you for any acting role in that we have to act on live television, so there's a lot of pressure put there.
ESPN has this problem with sports, it's impossible to fill 24 hours with sports programming so they have to resort to things like poker and arm wrestling tournaments.
ESPN is a very anchor-driven network, which I love.
It's the beauty of WWE. We use all our platforms to cross-promote each other and vice versa.
If I play my cards right, I could bring network wrestling back to TV. Unfortunately, to most people, wrestling is a laughingstock. But fortunately, I'm reaching people who otherwise wouldn't watch it.
I've worked my entire career to try to broaden the perception of the WWE. A lot of folks think because we're so entertaining and oftentimes have such wild and well-defined characters that it's all we are. It has kind of been my life's work to tell the public that's not true.
As far as the live shows go, we're not leapfrogging all the smaller venues. We would have bypassed these kind of shows and gone straight to the Arena shows, but we didn't want to.
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