{"id":853235,"date":"2025-06-04T00:12:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T05:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/04\/inside-wwes-divide-and-conquer-youtube-strategy\/"},"modified":"2025-06-04T00:12:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T05:12:39","slug":"inside-wwes-divide-and-conquer-youtube-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/04\/inside-wwes-divide-and-conquer-youtube-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside WWE\u2019s divide-and-conquer YouTube strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With over 108 million subscribers, WWE<\/a> has truly colossal reach on YouTube. The company currently sits just behind PewDiePie at number 11 on the list of most-subscribed channels<\/a> across the entire platform. When you\u2019re at that level of popularity, there\u2019s constant communication with YouTube about best practices, key viewership metrics, and the latest strategies for pulling in even more eyeballs. <\/p>\n

Last year, WWE decided to shake up (and split up) its YouTube strategy. The company introduced a new standalone channel called WWE Vault<\/a> that became the new destination for classic live events, full matches, and rare archival footage \u2014 much of which fans are seeing for the very first time. For a company with a fanbase that\u2019s never universally happy with anything<\/em>, the Vault became an instant hit. Scroll down to the comments of any video, and fans heap praise upon the channel. For some, it has filled the void that was left when WWE Network went dark after WWE and Peacock announced their streaming partnership several years ago.<\/p>\n

The Vault also helps the flagship channel stay focused on modern WWE programming as the company continues to do big business with stars like Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, Gunther, and CM Punk. \u201cThe current product on our main channel seemed to be outpacing a lot of what we were doing from a historical perspective,\u201d Steve Braband, who oversees WWE\u2019s digital team, told me this week. \u201cSo a few of us sat around and said, \u2018our historical content still means a lot to us on YouTube.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Older programming still has its place on the main WWE channel; this month has featured a countdown of the 50 all-time greatest WrestleMania<\/em> matches as part of the run-up to WrestleMania 41<\/em> in Las Vegas this weekend. But the majority of it now gets forked off to the Vault. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to see the internet wrestling community kind of try and figure out who the admin of the Vault is,\u201d Braband said. In reality, it\u2019s a group effort that involves many longtime employees. \u201cWe have a ton of knowledge within the building of clips from years in the past and clips that we haven\u2019t unearthed,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs much as people want to believe it\u2019s one person just clipping and posting the best video they could find off a server, there\u2019s a whole cohesive digital strategy to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Being able to stream some of yesteryear\u2019s best pay-per-views (now \u201cpremium live events\u201d in WWE parlance) for free on YouTube without a Peacock subscription is nice, but it\u2019s the unpolished, never-before-seen clips that have kept lifelong fans coming back and hitting the notification bell. Not all that long ago, it would\u2019ve been unthinkable for WWE to pull back the curtain to this degree. Maybe you\u2019d catch some raw, unrehearsed moments during a DVD documentary \u2014 but now they\u2019re popping up weekly on the WWE Vault channel. Full matches easily still get the most views, but it\u2019s these random segments that prove so addictive.<\/p>\n

Easily the highlight among them is the \u201cFound Footage\u201d series. WWE\u2019s team of archivists, researchers, and video editors sift through the company\u2019s vast library to find backstage gems, fan signings, and even footage from un-televised live events. \u201cThere\u2019s been a few examples of content that was filmed from house shows, which in the past we wouldn\u2019t have shown,\u201d Braband said. \u201cNow we\u2019re a little more flexible with some of that unseen footage going out on Vault.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the clip above, you\u2019ll see wrestlers playing on an arcade cabinet in between takes for Monday Night Raw\u2019<\/em>s TV opening. At the end, Bret \u201cHitman\u201d Hart very casually offers Jerry Lawler \u2014 his longtime rival in WWE lore \u2014 a hookup for Cavaliers \/ Celtics tickets. Even if you stopped watching WWE decades ago, these shots of nostalgia might reel you back in. The Vault also includes \u201cThe Story Of\u201d compilations that pack entire feuds and storylines into single videos, which means viewers don\u2019t have to hop between a playlist to see everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have people that really, really like to do it,\u201d Braband said of wading through all that footage. \u201cIt\u2019s a good team of people led by Ryan Murphy and John Clapp utilizing both content research and ultimately our video editing teams. As much as people want to believe it\u2019s one person just clipping and posting the best video they could find off a server, there\u2019s a whole cohesive digital strategy to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like WWE\u2019s primary YouTube channel, some videos posted to the Vault will eventually disappear. But others are meant to be more evergreen. As John Cena continues his final year of in-ring action for the company, a collection like the one below is guaranteed to rack up views. \u201cThe edit is really raw and it\u2019s not a full in and out of each moment,\u201d Braband said. \u201cSo we\u2019re hoping that sits on the channel for a while as Cena does this last run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Encouraged by Vault\u2019s success, WWE has recently launched a dedicated channel for WCW<\/a>, the wrestling promotion that it famously spent decades competing against and eventually acquired. Soon there will be another for ECW and its extremely brutal events. \u201cIt\u2019s a clear destination telling fans where to go,\u201d Braband said of the strategy. For now, the recipe is largely the same with new matches and full events posted weekly. But eventually more original programming might weave its way into these split-off WWE channels as the company makes every effort to reach fans wherever they are.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With over 108 million subscribers, WWE has truly colossal reach on YouTube. The company currently sits just behind PewDiePie at number 11 on the list of most-subscribed channels across the entire platform. When you\u2019re at that level of popularity, there\u2019s constant communication with YouTube about best practices, key viewership metrics, and the latest strategies for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":853236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,2193,104640],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-853235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-inside","8":"category-wwes","9":"category-youtube-videos"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}