A note from WDN founder Daniel Bee:
I recently sat down with “TheDVDFreak” on YouTube to talk about the end of WWE DVDs in 2024. The 1-hour discussion is in the video above, if you would like to check it out or save it for later.
Other topics covered are:
- What happened going into 2022 with the almost-cancellation
- Vince McMahon himself was apparently a big advocate of Home Video
- Some of the more controversial WWE DVD subjects over the years like Owen Hart
- Why there were always less Blu-rays
- Fremantle and Silver Vision going the extra mile for fans in the UK
- Most-wanted DVDs and cancelled ones that never happened
- WWE’s support (and occasional disagreement) with WrestlingDVDNetwork.com
- How WDN came to be, and its future
As a new year update, we should confirm there are still no signs of new WWE DVDs as we near the end of January (we didn’t expect there would be, but some speculated whether or not it was definitely the end in the US market).
We have had access to an internal schedule while running the website — as you can see in the screenshot below the release list ends at Survivor Series 2023 and hasn’t been updated since. The schedule would list the US titles on the way under the Warner Bros. label and it’s the first time the schedule hasn’t updated since Warner’s distribution of WWE started back in 2015.
We reached out to Warner Bros. for a statement – there isn’t one to share unfortunately, because the response that came back stated that they don’t ordinarily comment on deals.
As expected, sadly with the end of the WWE DVDs and Blu-rays this appears to have resulted in layoffs both within WWE and at their partners. One higher-up involved with WWE Home Video (known later as Home Entertainment as a division in WWE) departed from the company in September of last year having been employed by WWF/WWE since the late ’90s.
Given that September 2023 timeframe, one could speculate the decision for WWE DVDs to come to an end may have been known about internally for a while.
A fan has started a petition to bring back WWE DVDs, which has garnered 450 signatures so far.
You can view or sign this petition at the link below.
Petition · Urge WWE to Reinstate the Production of Physical Media · Change.org
We leave you with two quick website updates.
As you may know, we have a WWE DVD List page on the site as a reference of all the titles released over the years. The plan is to keep the 2023-released ones on our WWE DVD Release Dates page, while there are no plans for any new releases.
We had a WWE Network Updates page on the site for many years, it listed new content uploads to the Network/Peacock streaming services, but it stopped working in recent months. Pleased to report it’s back online this week!
Not sure what a petition is gonna do. There’s a reason they stopped making physical media releases. It wasn’t because WWE was bored with them. It was because they weren’t profitable. If the home video department was profitable it would have never been dropped. That’s simple business. If something is making money, you keep it going.
No that is not true. WWE did nt realease DVDs they gave WarnerBros in USA and Freemantle in the UK the license to realease them. If the reason was it was nt worth the money then Freemantle would have ended the contract but it was WWE that chose to end it. I agree a petition wont do much as I convinced that the NETFLIX deal will include a clause that wwe cant realease stuff on DVD for a year after been on NETFLIX. But if it was profitablility no DVDs would be released in entire world as WWE dvds still sell ok in comparison to other DVDs. to throw something else out there if Disney were to realease star wars dvds they would sell well but they want people to subscribe to disney plus so give up that money. also read statemetn from freemantle they explicitly say that it is wwe decison and not theres.
If WWE was making millions of dollars from DVD sales, then there is no way they would ever cancel them. While the DVDs may have been profitable for Fremantle, keep in mind WWE had to split the profits with them.
Whatever money WWE were making in those sales was less than a drop in the bucket compared to the other revenue the company is making. $25 million a year for NXT to the CW, $287 million a year for SmackDown to USA Network, $500 million a year for Raw to Netflix. Their overall revenue for the full year of 2023 was $1.3 billion.
How much of that $1.3 billion did DVD sales contribute to? Let’s say they sold 50,000 DVDs last year (and I think that’s a generous number) at $19.99 each, that’s approximately $999,000 dollars. Now divide that in half with the distibutors, and WWE made about $499,000. That’s less than Brock Lesnar probably made for 1 match. That’s nothing compared to the overall money WWE makes in a year.
Just like the old WWE Magazine was probably still profitable in some parts of the world, the money it was contributing to the overall profit of the company was nothing. And just like the Magazine, home media eventually fell in the same category. It wasn’t worth the returns they were getting on them.
But you still have to except that is not how freemantle or warnerbros saw it.they were profitable but now your saying the profits were nt worth it to WWE maybe esp as netflix either have no DVDs or no DVDS for eighteen months in there contracts.
WWE were not spending much money on these things the risk was all Freemantle and warners as they prob had to pay WWE whether the releases did well or not.
Do you have any analysis of how Disney is now doing the same thing as WWE and ending there home video division but licensing out any realeases they do make to sony?
I really am at peace with this as the change makes sense, but I’d still enjoy if they gave us kinda a special release with WM 40. You know put HOF there, put some history perspective on WWE home video, or history of WM and WWE, etc. Just wrap it up with a bang.
But then again, with the current Vince charges, the further they distance themselves from history, the better.
you need to reconsider bring back wwe Dvd’s for 2024 and Beyond Daniel
can you have competitions for old wrestling dvds and blurays?
netflix deal almost certainly has something in it that they either cant bring dvds back or they have to wait for at least a year after broadcast…it makes me wonder if the dvds were eliminated because of the netflix deal
personally, myself, I would really really rather see a whole lot more of physical media, I’ve been upset about the physical media dying out for a long time. I’m too old fashioned for this digital media crap, I prefer physical media so that I can watch dvd’s/blu ray’s over and over again. I have a list of dvd’s/blu ray’s that I would have liked to see wwe make available for purchase. Documentaries of some of the stars from yesteryear. Also, the hall of fame ceremonies, they stopped putting those on the wrestlemania dvd’s, that was one of the big reasons why I purchased the mania dvd. It upsets me that physical media is dying out.
Wwe please bring back DVDs if Cody Rhodes wins the title at WrestleMania I want to be able to see it on psyical media not on a streaming service
Not bothered about blu-rays since I never bought a single one but am really unhappy about no more DVDs. I have no subscription services so the DVDs are the only way I get to see any of the PLEs. It’s bad enough that Raw is going onto Netflix.
They should at least release the main ones on dvd or blueray
The least you could do is at least mention the collector who started the petition!
Are you ok? 🙂 I linked to the petition and made a headline out of it. The petition page has a name on there who made it.
I work at Walmart as a cashier and DVD sales here in Courtenay, Canada are still quite popular. For myself included. Not all of us are that crazy about streaming services for all our entertainment watching. For one your paying for a bunch of channels you never watch. And secondly, is it just me or does that “spinning icon ” pop-up in your face like a fruitfly! No, I enjoy buying DVDS including WWE ppv. Great picture, great sound and they make nice home art on the shelf rack.
Even if they don’t bring any of the DVDs and Blu-Ray titles back, just please continue with Wrestlemania on both formats, to keep that tradition going, at least. I believe this would be the first Wrestlemania to not be released on any kind of format, if this is still going to be the case.
Just keep Wrestlemania going on DVD and Blu-ray, if anything else.
Just wanted to use this opportunity to say thanks for setting up and maintaining this website.
Not just to read about and discuss new releases but really also to have a database regarding past dvds and blurays.
@whut We really appreciate that, thanks 😀
We want these WWE PPV on DVDs. It not just entertainment. Its a hobby. Witnesses history in the making for those matches that we will never see in the future like hogan vs the rock, goldbert vs triple H, DX vs the brothers of destruction, the return of CM Punk and Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins cashing in his money in the bank briefcase at Wm etc… We want to keep these classic matches in OUR video library.
Please bring back WWE DVDs this year what if Wrestlemania 40 would have been the last DVD if Cody Rhodes finishing the story against Roman Reigns it would have been hey awesome match and it would have been awesome a WrestleMania 40 DVD please WWE home video bring it back for now
I work at Walmart as a cashier and DVD sales here in Courtenay, Canada are still quite popular. For myself included. Not all of us are that crazy about streaming services for all our entertainment watching. For one your paying for a bunch of channels you never watch. And secondly, is it just me or does that “spinning icon ” pop-up in your face like a fruitfly! No, I enjoy buying DVDS including WWE ppv. Great picture, great sound and they make nice home art on the shelf rack.
You’re still expecting Cody vs. Roman? Oh dear…