Chris_in_joliet wrote:
Looks like it is going to be Big Show vs Cody Rhodes at WM for the IC belt(per smackdown report). Also Kane came back and choke slammed Randy Orton at the end of the show so maybe Kane vs Randy Orton? I guess that's the best they could do really considering they didn't know if they were going to have Orton or not for Wrestlemania. If that match goes down you could see Orton beating Kane with Zack Ryder's help only to see Ryder getting the RKO treatment after the match is over. Meh.
hmmm. i guess that makes sense. i couldn't figure out what they were going to do with Kane or Randall and couldn't put it together. I figured Kane vs Woo woo, but since zack can't really work, he best off just taking an rko like Chris said.
I think those ratings have to be concerning. Throw in that 1 raw where they had zack,punk and bryan in that main event that was one of the worst qtr ratings ever. they've had:
the lockout,
football is over,
its been re-run season all year on the networks for the most part
and its their biggest ratings time of the year Rumble-Mania,
the Rock
and ratings are going down? I can't imagine what they'll be like in the summer.
==========
Thanks to the amazing business operation that is WWE Films, World Wrestling Entertainment had a money-losing quarter for the first time in a decade.
The bad news is that the company lost $13.1 million this quarter as compared to making a $14.4 million profit in this quarter last year (fourth quarter, October through December). The good news is that wrestling operations as a whole remained steady, and were it not for the movie studio losses, it would have been yet another stable, profitable quarter. Vince McMahon in his investor’s call last week admitted that if the new three-picture deal with 20th Century Fox didn’t pan out in a positive manner, they were not in the business of holding onto money-losing divisions – in other words, they are open to dropping WWE Films if there isn’t a turnaround.
The wrestling business news has its pluses and minuses as well. Although PPV was very slightly up this year, the reality is that it’s only up for two reasons: The Rock and the fact that they scored several thousand “out of period buys” (meaning, buys from prior quarters that just now came in to be counted). The bad news is that without Rock, PPV was down across the board, and even Survivor Series, which he headlined, did a very disappointing buyrate (281,000 worldwide, 180,000 US). The good news is that Rock is back through WrestleMania, and it is believed that he’ll be doing another match at SummerSlam this year and a third at next year’s WrestleMania. So provided they don’t burn him out, which is doubtful given he has movie commitments throughout the year, it should be another good two years of PPV revenue even if the rest of the shows see further minor declines.
In addition to losing $12 million on movies, they also spent $4 million on the WWE Network, which still has no launch date other than “sometime this year.” Latest we heard was around November, but I would be surprised at all if that date was pushed back as well. Interestingly, for whatever this is worth, most of the various departments (consumer products, licensing, merchandise, digital media, etc.) saw declines this year, but WWE Classics, which is already off some cable providers and will likely be gone nationwide come WrestleMania, remained stable. WWE.com, which is pushed super hard on television, was down by almost half ($2.7 million versus $4.5 million last year) due to drops in advertising revenue. Live event revenue year-to-year was stable.
For the year, thanks entirely to wrestling operations, they grossed $483.9 million, up from $477.7 million last year. And by wrestling operations, I mean the impact Rock had on WrestleMania and Survivor Series this year. That’s literally the entire reason, which makes it even more preposterous to hear wrestlers complaining about the Rock coming back to main event WrestleMania this year.
Vince McMahon in the investor’s conference didn’t sugarcoat anything, saying it was a “less than stellar quarter” that resulted in a less than stellar year. He blamed it all on the film division and “television licensing” – in other words, money not received from NXT and Superstars, since the claim is that there is great demand for these shows (incorrect), and they are saving them to help kick off the WWE Network.
“I must say,” Vince McMahon claimed with a straight face, “there has never been a stronger demand for WWE product than there is now.”
In the end, it wasn’t a great year, but given Rock’s apparent interest in wrestling at least three matches for the company in the next year, things are going to be fine on the wrestling end, even if all the other shows continue to see minor declines. Next month’s WrestleMania will more than likely be the single most profitable wrestling event in history, and provided they don’t screw everything up, SummerSlam and WrestleMania 29 should be huge as well. The two big questions long-term are whether the 20th Century Fox deal will help them turn their sluggish movie business around, and whether they can find a significant strategic partner on the cable side (Comcast, for example) who can help make the WWE Network launch a success. So far, it doesn’t appear they have one, but McMahon feels it’s only a matter of time before they do.
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Drop In wrote:
I'm picturing a 12 year old Bob Loblaw bitching out a Randy Savage Wrestling Buddy for botching his finisher. Also envisioning Bob Loblaw getting bitched at for lighting the living room table on fire for said finisher.
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