Several weeks ago, the WWE had dark matches with a 5 minute time limit and now we know the reason. On Thursday, WWE announced a deal with X (formerly Twitter) where it will showcase WWE matches in under 5 minutes.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, its a two-year deal with the WWE for a new exclusive weekly video series entitled WWE Speed. The series will be live to tape with new episodes every week of the year. The content for WWE Speed will not be repurposed for WWE programming.
The move is a sign that X is moving into the field of entertainment as the Reporter notes other notable exclusive content deals with the likes of former CNN host Don lemon, sports talk host Jim Rome and former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.
Recently, WWE signed a 10-year, $5 billion deal for Raw with Netflix starting in 2025. It also has new deals for Smackdown with the USA Network and NXT with the CW Network.
The deal shows the appeal of the WWE. It has broad expanse of social media users and followers. Thus, X is leveraging this in forging the deal to entice sponsors to be a part of these short matches. The idea focuses on the “short attention span” of many social media savvy WWE fans while honing in on the ability for ways advertisers can reach out to consumers.
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