How much money is the WWE tape library worth?

[Vice honcho room temperature]

Let's say that the WWE goes belly up tomorrow due to things happening. So its bankruptcy court and they're selling off tape library off separately. How much would you think the WWE library would go for, hell what would WCW's fetch after all these years?

[Magic knows Black Lives Matter]

They could give me the tape collection and, in return, receive my thanks.

[Capt Lunatic]

Couple grand maybe. If the WWE is out of business, who would want it? A rich superfan looking to start an online service?

[Lila]

Not a couple grand at all. Somewhere in the hundred thousands at least.

[chazraps]

C'mon, it's in the millions. We're talking the worldwide rights to the entire multimedia history of a multi-billion dollar industry and centuries old artform. Since we don't know the "things happening" mentioned in the OP, there would still presumably be enough of an audience out there to make an investment in such an astronomical documentation worthwhile.

[Capt Lunatic]

Okay...if there was another WWE level company in existence then yes several million. If WWE went under tomorrow, who is paying any significant amount for it?

New Japan? CZW? AAA?

[Reflecto]

Dec 13, 2013 2:36:27 GMT -5 Capt Lunatic said:

Okay...if there was another WWE level company in existence then yes several million. If WWE went under tomorrow, who is paying any significant amount for it?

New Japan? CZW? AAA?

Who says it has to be a wrestling promotion to pay the significant amount for it? A video content company like Mill Creek Entertainment (makers of every discount multi-pack out there of cheap stuff) would probably pay a significant price for the tape library as well- so it doesn't just have to be wrestling companies.

[chazraps]

Dec 13, 2013 2:43:17 GMT -5 Reflecto said:

Dec 13, 2013 2:36:27 GMT -5 Capt Lunatic said:

Okay...if there was another WWE level company in existence then yes several million. If WWE went under tomorrow, who is paying any significant amount for it?

New Japan? CZW? AAA?

Who says it has to be a wrestling promotion to pay the significant amount for it? A video content company like Mill Creek Entertainment (makers of every discount multi-pack out there of cheap stuff) would probably pay a significant price for the tape library as well- so it doesn't just have to be wrestling companies.

Not to mention museums, higher educational institutions, archival foundations, etc. This is the one instance where the cultural significance and weight of those tapes is "bigger than this business."

[Slammy Award-Winning Cannibal]

It's worth millions. It's 100,000+ hours of the most popular North American pro wrestling in history. Millions of dollahs.

[BigBadZ]

Comcast Universal would buy it up and create a cable channel to show it, along with their on demand service.

[Chuckie Finster]

This isn't just the stuff they have on Raw and Smackdown, but all the original content including the countdown and recap shows for all the countries they market to.

The WWE stuff alone is in the millions, depending on when they started saving tapes and not taping over stuff. Add on all the other libraries they've bought and it's probably closer to the eight figures, considering how rare some of that stuff is.

As for the amount of footage they got, they got over 100,000 hours of footage.

The good news for historians is that WWE has been in the process of digitizing all of it. They started over two years ago in preparation for the network since it's the only reason they would do it since it's a very time-consuming and expensive process.

[onetruemisfit]

It's over 9,000!!!!!!!!

[Deleted]

Probably not much. If the biggest wrestling promotion went under I can't imagine that there would be much demand for its footage and if there's no demand the price will be low. When WWE goes that's pretty much it for wrestling in America.

[mcmahonfan85]

Dec 13, 2013 2:53:48 GMT -5 chazraps said:

Dec 13, 2013 2:43:17 GMT -5 Reflecto said:

Who says it has to be a wrestling promotion to pay the significant amount for it? A video content company like Mill Creek Entertainment (makers of every discount multi-pack out there of cheap stuff) would probably pay a significant price for the tape library as well- so it doesn't just have to be wrestling companies.

Not to mention museums, higher educational institutions, archival foundations, etc. This is the one instance where the cultural significance and weight of those tapes is "bigger than this business."

no, its not. if WWE went out of business and its video library had to be sold, it would mean pro wrestling has completely fallen on its ass everywhere (except for Japan and Mexico), and the overwhelming vast majority of people then wouldn't give two shits about what pro wrestling is or was. other than a very, very small number of wrestlers who transcended wrestling and did become bigger than the business, most would be pretty much forgotten. people would care to know as much about guys like Sheamus or Dolph Ziggler as they do Spiros Arion. and all of WWE's accomplishments don't mean anything to non-wrestling fans. you ask a non-fan what "the largest all time in-door attendance record" is, they A) most likely won't know, and B) most likely won't care, nor would they care about all the other "WWE Facts" that WWE likes to put out there all the time. the boom periods in the late '80s and late '90s when wrestling had a significant place in pop culture would be treated like a fad (which they were), and no one really cares about fads after a period of time. there would be no real demand for an antiquated form of entertainment to release in cheap multi-pack dvds, nor would there be any real demand for it as being "culturally significant", just like there is no real demand from museums, higher educational institutions, etc. for Beanie Babies.

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

Millions, and nobody would outbid Disney.

[chazraps]

Dec 13, 2013 3:54:51 GMT -5 mcmahonfan85 said:

Dec 13, 2013 2:53:48 GMT -5 chazraps said:

Not to mention museums, higher educational institutions, archival foundations, etc. This is the one instance where the cultural significance and weight of those tapes is "bigger than this business."

no, its not. if WWE went out of business and its video library had to be sold, it would mean pro wrestling has completely fallen on its ass everywhere (except for Japan and Mexico), and the overwhelming vast majority of people then wouldn't give two shits about what pro wrestling is or was. other than a very, very small number of wrestlers who transcended wrestling and did become bigger than the business, most would be pretty much forgotten. people would care to know as much about guys like Sheamus or Dolph Ziggler as they do Spiros Arion. and all of WWE's accomplishments don't mean anything to non-wrestling fans. you ask a non-fan what "the largest all time in-door attendance record" is, they A) most likely won't know, and B) most likely won't care, nor would they care about all the other "WWE Facts" that WWE likes to put out there all the time. the boom periods in the late '80s and late '90s when wrestling had a significant place in pop culture would be treated like a fad (which they were), and no one really cares about fads after a period of time. there would be no real demand for an antiquated form of entertainment to release in cheap multi-pack dvds, nor would there be any real demand for it as being "culturally significant", just like there is no real demand from museums, higher educational institutions, etc. for Beanie Babies.

We're talking over a hundred years of footage that captured a year-by-year and region-by-region view of the changing of America, as well as the medium that was the first mainstay of the medium of television. To compare the longstanding worldwide impact of professional wrestling to Beanie Babies is laughable. How many of that "majority of people" could tell you who Milton Berle is today? Or Fibber McGee? Or old newsreels of the 20s and 30s? Yet, those archives are still heavily valued.

[Capt Lunatic]

I think the answer is "It's worth whatever someone is willing to pay."

How much did WCW's library go for? Who bought it?

The X Factor/XPAC!!! here is why is WWE selling...
If the WWE is out of business, then wrestling is dead and no one pays.
If Vince woke up tomorrow and said "No more! Get rid of everything" then yeah, big money from Netflix or Comcast or a video company.

Also, you notice how no one is ever in bidding competition with Vince when he goes after a company's tapes. I think it's cause he's the only one who cares.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

[TGM]

It's worth more than WWF paid for WCW.

[mcmahonfan85]

Dec 13, 2013 4:05:28 GMT -5 chazraps said:

Dec 13, 2013 3:54:51 GMT -5 mcmahonfan85 said:

no, its not. if WWE went out of business and its video library had to be sold, it would mean pro wrestling has completely fallen on its ass everywhere (except for Japan and Mexico), and the overwhelming vast majority of people then wouldn't give two shits about what pro wrestling is or was. other than a very, very small number of wrestlers who transcended wrestling and did become bigger than the business, most would be pretty much forgotten. people would care to know as much about guys like Sheamus or Dolph Ziggler as they do Spiros Arion. and all of WWE's accomplishments don't mean anything to non-wrestling fans. you ask a non-fan what "the largest all time in-door attendance record" is, they A) most likely won't know, and B) most likely won't care, nor would they care about all the other "WWE Facts" that WWE likes to put out there all the time. the boom periods in the late '80s and late '90s when wrestling had a significant place in pop culture would be treated like a fad (which they were), and no one really cares about fads after a period of time. there would be no real demand for an antiquated form of entertainment to release in cheap multi-pack dvds, nor would there be any real demand for it as being "culturally significant", just like there is no real demand from museums, higher educational institutions, etc. for Beanie Babies.

We're talking over a hundred years of footage that captured a year-by-year and region-by-region view of the changing of America, as well as the medium that was the first mainstay of the medium of television. To compare the longstanding worldwide impact of professional wrestling to Beanie Babies is laughable. How many of that "majority of people" could tell you who Milton Berle is today? Or Fibber McGee? Or old newsreels of the 20s and 30s? Yet, those archives are still heavily valued.

old newsreels of the 20s and 30s that show the actual news of the day, important historical events such as prohibition and the depression, are heavily valued? you're shitting me! professional wrestling only matters to professional wrestling fans, and if most pro wrestling fans couldn't care less about pro wrestling that happened 40 years ago why would a bunch of non-fans care. to them it will always be a bunch of guys in their underwear pretending to fight each other.

oh, and as for comparing the worldwide impact of professional wrestling to Beanie Babies, people used to get in physical fights to get Beanie Babies and even the Teenie Beanies at McDonalds. thats how much of an impact Beanie Babies had on pop culture, that people were willing to risk going to jail to get them. other than a tiny number of wrestlers achieving actual mainstream status, pro wrestling has had no lasting impact outside of pro wrestling and pro wrestling fans other a couple of boom periods, when it was basically a fad. from the WWE down to the smallest indy, all promotions try to sell themselves to be bigger than they are, and the god's honest truth is if everyone woke up tomorrow and pro wrestling ceased to exist, it would have to real world impact outside of wrestling fans.