WWE’s Executive Vice President of Global Head of Sales & Partnerships John Brody spoke during a Sports Hiatus conference call this week, discussing Syncing Sponsorship Value with the Return of Live Action. Brody discussed WWE’s decision to keep running events during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The health and safety of our superstars is first and foremost paramount. It comes down to leadership in many ways. Our leader [Vince McMahon] believes we have a social responsibility to put fans first and to help them get a break from what was coming and what we’re in the midst of,” Brody said. “We have a responsibility to take them away for a few hours and give them a smile and a chance to feel something other than what they’re watching, which is also important, on the news. We leaned in to say ‘we’re going to put fans first’ and do everything we can, working with state, local, and federal officials to make sure it’s safe for our most important resource, the WWE superstars, and we’re going to do whatever we can to deliver content for our partners and our fans.”
He continued, “We understand the decision other sports made, we wouldn’t have made the decision we made if we didn’t think we could do it safely for our internal (staff) and for all those affected, but we felt America needed it and needed the ‘pick me up.'”
Brody also said that pulling off WrestleMania 36 during the pandemic was “superhuman” and that WWE communicated with their broadcast partners and sponsors, who were all happy that the company was able to deliver content.
(H/T to Fightful for the quotes)
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