WWE will soon have its own NFT marketplace where fans can purchase, trade, sell, and store officially licensed digital tokens and collectibles based on the company’s extensive catalog of assets.
WWE announced on Wednesday that it has entered an exclusive multi-year agreement with NFT business and creative studio Blockchain Creative Labs to launch the said online marketplace. Under the partnership, WWE and Blockchain Creative Labs will co-create authentic NFTs that celebrate WWE’s most iconic moments, past and present superstars, and premier events, such as WrestleMania and SummerSlam.
Digital tokens and collectibles at WWE’s upcoming NFT marketplace will be authenticated through Eluvio’s blockchain and will be interoperable across Ethereum and other blockchains. To join the marketplace, fans need to create a secure and easy-to-use WWE digital wallet through Eluvio that acts as a vault and enables members to purchase collectibles using traditional currency or cryptocurrency. More details about the marketplace, including its official name and launch date, will be announced in the coming weeks.
Formed by FOX Entertainment and Bento Box Entertainment earlier this year, Blockchain Creative Labs recently launched The MaskVerse, an exclusive NFT marketplace for digital tokens and collectibles based on FOX’s reality singing competition The Masked Singer. Blockchain Creative Labs is also set to launch a dedicated NFT marketplace for the upcoming FOX animated comedy series Krapopolis, created by Emmy winner Dan Harmon.
Though WWE’s upcoming NFT marketplace marks Blockchain Creative Labs’ first-ever content partnership with an external property beyond FOX, WWE and FOX are no strangers to one another. The digital marketplace is in fact the second collaboration between WWE and FOX. Back in October 2019, FOX Sports started to broadcast Friday Night SmackDown live on primetime from 8-10 p.m. ET/PT for 52 weeks a year. The said weekly program will play an important role in promoting WWE’s NFT to fans.
WWE’s partnership with Blockchain Creative Labs is not the former’s first foray into the world of NFT. During this year’s SummerSlam, WWE released special packages of merchandise items inspired by The Undertaker and John Cena, Since each package came with an NFT, WWE thought it was a good idea to sell them for $1000 each. But Cena later admitted that the NFT kits were a “catastrophic failure.”
“WWE wanted to put together a once-in-a-lifetime fan experience. This kit is not just this kit, it’s the belt, the clothing, an autograph picture, an autographed canvas picture, and an NFT,” Cena said at a Florida Supercon Q&A last September. “When it came up with the face value for what it cost, it came up around $500-$600 retail value and then threw in the value of the NFT. I talk a lot about failure. This idea failed.”
He continued: “Why is it $1000? Because myself and the folks at WWE thought $1000 was a fair price point. We were wrong. We were absolutely wrong. (This shirt) is number zero of 500. I thought, ‘with a value like that, the 500 will be gone.’ We sold [only] 37 of them. It was a catastrophic failure.”