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WWE legend Jim Ross believes UK could be in Wrestlemania reckoning

Posted: Mar 1st 2016 By: Rob Leigh

Revered WWE announcer Jim Ross believes a UK city has a greater chance than ever before of hosting Wrestlemania because of WWE's shift in focus from pay-per-view distribution to its own subscription-based streaming service.

Highlighting how the WWE Network meant the sports entertainment giant - which aired two local time, live shows from Tokyo and London in 2015 - was free to broadcast on demand and on its own terms, disrupting the domestic PPV model that privileged live programming for US viewers, former company

WWE promoted a series of UK-exclusive pay-per-views between 1997 and 2003 ? but devoted fans still dream about an event on this side of the pond to rival the scale of Summerslam 1992 when WWE pulled in their third largest live event audience ever, packing 80,355 into Wembley Stadium.

The Hall of Famer announcer responded to a question about the possibility of a British-based Wrestlemania: "I think as the WWE continues to give more dependence on their network for all the product disruption, I think the chances increase every year that this will happen.

"There's no doubt that the WWE Wrestlemania event could sell out any stadium in the country. They did it before with Summerslam years ago and as [former WWF announcer] Gorilla Monsoon would say: 'The fans were hanging from the rafters!'"

Ross, who recently signed deals with CBS and AXS TV to commentate on boxing and New Japan Pro Wrestling respectively, continued: "WWE looks at revenue from pay-per-views - primarily being from North American and North America TV providers wanting the show to be aired at 7pm Eastern Time. That's been relieved a little bit simply because of the fact that WWE now controls their own platform.

"I think the chance has increased since the network and I would say, merely as speculation and knowing how important the UK is to WWE for their global picture I am beginning to believe that there is a greater chance than before it is going to happen."