WrestleMania 31 appeared to be an incredible success with countless big names in front of a packed Levi’s Stadium on Sunday, but the aftermath is much more worrisome for WWE.
Monday morning, just hours after Seth Rollins claimed the world heavyweight championship from Brock Lesnar, WWE stock fell 14.7 percent, closing at $14.09. The stock continued to drop as of 9:30 a.m. ET Tuesday.
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A similar fallout happened after WrestleMania 30 last year when WWE stock dropped 19 percent the day after the event, according to Forbes.
The WWE Network, a subscription that costs $9.99 per month, announced Monday its subscriber base has exceeded 1.3 million customers, a 31 percent increase from Jan. 27.
However, the drop in stock immediately after WrestleMania 31 shows a number of WWE customers likely subscribe to the network for big events only to drop the subscription with no penalty.
Still, WWE says its product will only grow.
“We are also confident in the long-term potential and understand subscriber growth could take many different paths,” WWE Chief Strategy and Financial Officer George Barrios said in a release. “For example, Network subscribers might show consistent sequential quarterly gains or the quarterly adoption curve could exhibit seasonality with year-over-year growth. Regardless, over the long-term, we believe WWE Network has the potential to drive significant economic returns.”
The WWE Network held a free subscription promotion in February that brought in 201,000 trail subscribers, 77 percent of which became paying subscribers in March. The network will hold another free-month promotion in April.
WWE also announced eight new original series, including an animated series featuring Seth Green and a series hosted by Jerry Springer that relives the wildest moments in WWE history. All eight series are set to premiere between April 6 and late 2015.