WWE Moneyball: Are Analytics Killing Wrestling?

Shaz and the “Feral Horse Boy” Morro are back in the Gorilla Room to discuss one of the biggest questions facing WWE right now: what happens when wrestling starts looking too much like Moneyball?

With WWE increasingly using data and analytics to assess its roster, how much should numbers influence who gets a new contract, who gets pushed and who gets left behind?

The recent departure of Ilja Dragunov provides the perfect starting point. Dragunov's WWE contract expired this month, with reports suggesting WWE wanted to keep him but he ultimately chose not to renew.

But can you really judge a wrestler purely through numbers when WWE itself creates the character, controls the presentation and decides how much television time they receive?

If someone isn't drawing, is that the wrestler's fault or the company's?

Shaz and Morro get into the problems with treating professional wrestlers like statistics, whether analytics can actually measure charisma and connection with an audience, and what WWE risks losing when the spreadsheet becomes more important than the performer.

And, naturally, the conversation gets considerably more complicated than that.

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