For months I've been making the argument that people should stop watching WWE and definitely stop paying for their over-priced PLEs (if they find the product unsatisfactory). $30/month for ESPN Unlimited remains a prickly price point for me - I just can't justify it. That said, I came very close to taking the plunge this past weekend about an hour before Survivor Series: War Games. I held steady though, and I'm glad I did because it doesn't seem like I missed anything too spectacular.
For the first time in months, though, I don't think I'll be able to abstain from The Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.
On the one hand, voting with my dollar is an entirely viable option. On the other, depriving myself of two significant events in wrestling, just to prove a point, doesn't sit well with me either. If I'm frank with myself, my heart isn't in the point being proven. My heart is in analyzing professional wrestling as an art and I think dealing with unchecked capitlism is just a part of that process in 2025.
To put things in even simpler (and more specific) terms, I want to be able to talk to my friend, Al, about The Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. And based on the response of my listeners, they want us to talk about these events too. Those two facts have me wondering what's best for myself and for my podcast.
If I do take the plunge I'd only do it for those two shows and then cancel the membership. Perhaps that proves the point just enough, that this structure doesn't work if they want sustained subscribers.
Or maybe WWE and ESPN are perfectly happy to get $60/year from a few fair weather fans.
In the shadow of Netflix's looming purchase of Warner Bros., my friend Cisco and I had a conversation over text about how planet Earth is just one big corporation. The consumer might have more choices in terms of the content they consume, but they have far less agency as these massive organizations merge. By agency, I mean a willingness (or ability) to not subscribe, a comfort with picking and choosing, being shrewd.
With all of these streaming platforms starting to cross pollinate, regardless of whether or not the consumer asked for it, there's less incentive for the consumer to take any kind of action at all (for or against the process). It's all just happening to us and we're either too disinterested to care or too lazy to unsubscribe. Subscribing to Peacock means also subscribing to Apple TV. Subscribing to Hulu means also subscribing to Disney. Subscribing to Netflix means also subscribing to HBO. And on and on it goes until one day these services are just going to become one great big pile of entertainment feed that we all mindlessly consume.
I think the answer has to be exercising one's individuality, however they can. Becoming shrewd in the face of overwhelming capitalism. Doing the annoying thing of unsubscribing to these services after you get what you actually want.
But maybe I'm just rationalizing?
Am I?
Am I just trying to find a way to justify breaking a promise, or is it okay for me to buy The Royal Rumble and WrestleMania? Am I a part of the problem?
Part of the problem of not subscribing to any of these services is that you miss out on culture. For better and worse, streamers contain modern culture, particularly as it relates to prestige TV. Good TV show after good TV show is being pumped out on a regular basis from all of these artists, or rediscovered through these streamers. Ignoring that because you don't like the business model, or you don't like what the culture has become, may make you less capable of critiquing it accurately.
If I elect to not watch The Royal Rumble, for example, I'll be out of touch with my listeners who have seen it. I won't be able to connect with them about it. I value that connection immensely. So much so that forsaking it in an attempt to "stick it to the man" feels disingenuous.
If, for example, I reviewed a past Rumble and past WrestleMania in place of the current ones, then I'm electing to take The Work Of Wrestling podcast completely out of the conversation, transforming my niche within a niche into a niche within a niche within yet another niche. I'm not sure that's good for anybody - me and listener alike.
Also, how will I know if ESPN Unlimited is or isn't worth subscribing to if I don't actually try it out first? The only way to really know is by watching The Rumble and Mania to see if both WWE and ESPN are putting actual effort into its two biggest PLEs.
I don't know the answer, but I think I'm talking myself into subscribing just for January and April of 2026. Maybe the answer is as simple as that.
All of this makes me lament the end of the WWE Network, though, something I never thought I would've said back when it launched in 2014. We're being squeezed from all directions, and it's all starting to feel less fun, less like we have a choice, and more like we have to bow down before our corporate overlords.
There must be some way to resist that process, even in a small way.