The WWE has shattered its own gate, viewership, merchandise, sponsorship, and social records, making the event one of the most successful live events in company history. The event took place in Indianapolis, the first of its innovative partnership with the Indiana Sports Corp that will also bring WrestleMania and SummerSlam to the city.
On top of the gate and viewership records, social media and social video reach was at an all-time high, with popular streamers Kai Cenat and IShowSpeed both taking part in the weekend festivities, the latter of the two becoming an actual participant in the Rumble itself. With Triple H at the helm of the Netflix Era, WWE is leaning heavily into its social campaigns in multiple avenues, producing incredible results and higher engagement than ever.
During the post-Royal Rumble press conference, The Game answered a question from ScreenRant about the statistical impact of these players on the WWE Universe, and why the likes of IShowSpeed and Kai Cenat are now more valuable participants even than movie stars and most musicians:
"Yeah, I think, look, it's something that has always been a huge part of WWE. I just think that the folks now that are the needle movers for eyeballs in the world have changed."
Triple H Sees The Needles Moving
He's A Numbers Guy. He Gets It.
Triple H continues to change the presence of professional wrestling in the media space by leaning into the modern aspects of media, culture, and society, specifically with regard to the popular streamers of our time.
You can make an argument that some movie stars... they don't move the needle. You know, some musicians - like we have musicians come in, right? Don't necessarily move the needle. Some do, you know, you start talking about like Travis Scott and [Bad] Bunny and people like that, that just bring incredible eyeballs onto WWE.
Bring in people like IShowSpeed or Kai. They're incredibly popular outside of our world. A lot of their fans are our fans, but outside of our world and being able to bring those people into what we do. What is unique to me about this time frame is there's nothing happening where we're going to people and saying, like, 'Hey, would you like to do this with us? We feel like it could be a good thing for us and for you.'
These are people that are just coming in as fans now. You know, when we go to Atlanta, there's so many musicians and artists and people that want to be a part of the show. So many comedians that come in, you know, as you saw in Texas a few weeks ago, so many, you know, influencers off social media are just attaching to what we do. And it's great.
Celebrities like Killer Mike, Vanessa Hudgens, and Quavo have all made appearances on WWE television programs and live events within the past year, all producing several highly viewed social media posts and responses. Bad Bunny, whose ECW's New Jack-style entrance at 2023's Backlash has just shy of 3 million views on WWE's YouTube channel, has also stated recently that he is looking forward to returning to WWE for a potential final match, and will undoubtedly provide a host of international viewers coming to see the most streamed artist in the world.
Triple H Says The Celebrities Come To WWE
It's A New Era For Everything, And They Want To Be Involved
In previous years, WWE would approach celebrities, sports stars, or musicians to be a part of the show, but he says that, due to the popularity and crossover appeal of WWE, they come to them for these appearances.
Our talent, our fans are fans of theirs and vice versa. These are people that grew up watching some of that WWE, the Attitude Era, and now they just want to be a part of it, or they grew up - you know, for some of them, they're growing up right now and watching it in the moment. But we're in the place of a moment in time where we are just resonating across all forms of entertainment and people are watching us, and that's not just here, that's globally. So it's very cool for us to have every place that we go to people calling us and saying, 'Hey, can I come by? Hey, can I be on the show? Hey, can I hit somebody with a chair? Hey, can I jump off top rope?' Until they get here and realize they don't want to, not very many of them are saying, 'Hey, can I get speared by Bron Breakker?' Let me just say that, and I don't think anybody will be asking for that in the future, but it's an incredible time. And, yes, definitely, it helps our engagement as it helps theirs, right? I think I just heard a little bit ago that, you know, Speed was streaming live. He had, like, a few million people watch that in, like, a very, very short period of time, right? So the numbers are incredible for him. For us, he's an incredible talent. You see what he's doing around the world. He has a massive following. We have a massive following. You put that, that together, it's incredible momentum for everybody.
The crossover responses and metrics are already available, as Travis Scott's new song "4x4", which first debuted as the theme song for WWE's Raw on Netflix in January, is currently the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 with 6.2 million streams after its first official release week, according to Variety. Cenat's live-streamed video of John Cena's entrance and elimination from the Rumble currently shows just under half a million YouTube views, and his video of IShowSpeed's entrance in the Rumble itself shows 1.6 million views.
IShowSpeed, appearing at his first Royal Rumble event, helped Bron Breakker eliminate Otis from the match, and after hitting a standing backflip in the ring, took a vicious and brutal spear from Breakker, who then lifted him over his head and threw him to Otis, who backhand tossed him over his shoulders onto the announcer table and eliminating him from the match. The clip has ricocheted across the internet, with the clip of Speed's appearance in the Rumble generating more than 300 million social views in less than 24 hours, as well as Speed's tweet gaining 1 million likes and is now the most liked wrestling-related tweet of all time.
WWE's crossovers with the most popular streamers and musicians of the modern era are proving to be massive successes for both parties, and are bringing additional attention to the product. Triple H seems content and focused on partnering with creators and new media for the foreseeable future, and allowing WWE to take every avenue possible for attention to the product.
