WWE.com Doesn’t Work
By Rohan Herbstreit
We have seen the evolution of WWE.com from when it first launched in 1997 as WWF.com. Before then it was only AOL users based in America that had any sort of online coverage of the company until a very small black and gimmicky site complete with animated images launched and the rest is history.
Today WWE broadcasts in 30 languages to more than 145 countries, and it’s a shame WWE.com doesn't compliment this fact online.
WWE has come along way since 2003, but I do miss Byte This!
For years I have been saying this, even to WWE themselves (and to the Australian representative who looked after au.wwe.com at one stage) - if WWE wants to continue to be a market leader Internationally then they need to start catering for the International markets online, and the first step is relevant, up to date local content that is directly related to the country the person is visiting from.
It’s really that simple, WWE.com needs to work in whatever country you are in, and currently it just doesn’t cut the mustard for Australia. It doesn’t work.
I can live with the fact that TV programming will always be on delay, but why do we need to be subject to spoilers simply by visiting the website ?
Why are we given US information when we visit ?
Why aren’t we given Australian pricing and deals in the shop ?
Why aren’t we given relevant Pay Per View times and dates ?
It just doesn’t work anymore, and in this day and age it needs to.
Visit UFC.com for example and you will be taken to au.ufc.com that straight away tells you the next set of TV programming coming up in Australia, almost like a mini TV guide if you will. When UFC were in Australia earlier in the year, straight away we were given local information on the show and a link to purchase tickets! Amazing!
Visit WWE.com and click on “Tickets” and you are sent to a ticketing page, click on “Worldwide Tickets”, then select “Australia”, then click “Tickets” next to your state. After you have just clicked through 4 times, guess what, you are given a link to ticketek.com.au!
Now click on that link and you are sent to the main ticketing page for the tour on Ticketek. Then click on “Buy Now” next to your state, and guess what, you then on the next page need to select the state again, select your state, then click on “Get Tickets”.
Seriously, that’s what you need to do to purchase a ticket through WWE.com - and this company wants to try and sell tickets in Australia. Unbelievable.
The ticketing page you can't actually purchase tickets from
Try ordering a Pay Per View through WWE.com – there’s your challenge. I am not even going to try!
I think the simple fact the company is about to visit Australia and there is not a single note, advertisement, promotion or line about the tour sums all this up.
They have dropped the ball.
But they already know what they need to do, they have already setup a Japanese website at www.wwe.co.jp all they need to do is setup an automatic diversion so when you visit WWE.com you are taken to au.wwe.com and from there you have all the Australian information under your finger.
They can even do this with other countries like uk.wwe.com or nz.wwe.com etc.
Want to visit the USA site that has all the US information ? fine click on another link and your taken to the main US site that is still the same as it is now, nothing changes.
I’m almost shocked that WWE haven’t set all this up, even after they tried to have au.wwe.com running as a standalone site.
The question is how long until they release they are losing out on this valuable resource ?
It’s almost embarrassing , it doesn’t work.
Joey Styles, I'm looking at you.
