Elon Musk has been pushing X as a more video-friendly platform, and now World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. WWE has struck a deal to showcase five-minute wrestling matches on the erstwhile Bird platform.
What Happened: The WWE and X announced on Thursday that they will bring exclusive five-minute matches to the X platform, Forbes reported. The matches will be part of a weekly video series that will feature popular WWE stars. The platform, however, did not specify which wrestlers would be involved.
The WWE confirmed the new format for high-paced timed matches, which is set to kick off in the spring. This announcement was made during the WWE’s WrestleMania Kickoff event, serving as a teaser for April’s 40th annual WrestleMania in Philadelphia.
Notably, the announcement comes shortly after Netflix secured the rights to WWE’s “Raw” program in a $5 billion deal. This acquisition allows Netflix to stream “Raw” in the U.S. and internationally exclusively and air WWE’s other weekly program, “Smackdown,” and pay-per-view events outside the U.S.
Why It Matters: Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, has been making significant strides to push video-based content on X. It is challenging the dominance of other platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch with more focus on video, creators, and commerce partnerships.
From allowing verified users to download videos from the platform to introducing live video game streaming to compete with Twitch, the addition of WWE matches to its lineup is another example of the platform’s innovative content strategy.
One of the prime success stories of uploading videos on X is that of former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson. His interviews with public figures like Vladimir Putin and Javier Milei have garnered considerable attention. For instance, his interview with former U.S. President Donald Trump garnered 74 million views in under an hour.
However, some creators raise doubts that uploading their videos on X will reap any monetary benefits.
Popular YouTuber Mr.Beast recently expressed his hesitation about uploading videos on X as an alternate platform, stating that “even if they [his videos] got a billion views on X it wouldn’t fund a fraction of it.”
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This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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