Vince McMahon returned to WWE television at last night’s Survivor Series. He revealed a golden Easter egg that he said was valued at $100 million. Then, the egg was stolen.
The mystery had cynical fans immediately questioning whether the angle was paid promotion for The Rock‘s Netflix movie Red Notice. As it turns out, this speculation is true. Mike Johnson of PW Insider confirmed as much in an update today.
“I figured this was obvious, but since we’ve gotten a few emails about this, the Vince McMahon missing egg story is 100% a Netflix paid promotional partnership to push “Red Notice.” That storyline is expected to wrap up tonight, having made the company quite a nice payday.”
The battle royal at Survivor Series was also a product placement vehicle. Pizza Hut was featured prominently and mentioned often during the match. Fans were reminded of the WWE-KFC partnership from 2019. The chicken chain staged a Colonel Rumble that was used as an advertisement for KFC.
Fortunately, the storyline is coming to an end on tonight’s Raw. WWE got paid handsomely for the battle royal match as well as the promotion for Red Notice. It’s too bad they’re not passing along the wealth.
WWE has cut over 80 contracted wrestlers in 2021 alone. With Ring of Honor releasing their entire roster, a flood of unsigned talent is entering the market. Meanwhile, WWE continues to rake in record revenues.
What do you think of WWE doing so much product placement? Share your opinion in the comments!