Recent WWE Pay-Per-View Buys, WWE Reports Earnings, Vince Comments

Posted by Marc Middleton on Thursday, August 5th, 2010

- WWE stock is down more than 7% at press time after the company reported quarterly revenue and earnings that missed analyst estimates and “fell below management expectations.”

While the presence of WrestleMania 25 in the same quarter last year makes an apples-to-apples comparison difficult for some metrics, WWE Chairman and CEO pointed to domestic pay-per-view buys and live attendance as disappointing for the quarter as far as revenue was concerned. He blamed decreased profitability on reductions in revenue from high margin business lines and “the logistical costs related to the Icelandic volcano.”

But McMahon’s concern for North American revenue involved something more significant than logistical costs, like that of addressing a European volcano. In addition to blaming the economy, McMahon also declared that the changing “talent base” might have adversely impacted performance, particularly in the weak latter part of the quarter.

“Although we believe the continued softness in the economy played a part in our results, recent changes in our talent base may have also impacted key operating metrics, particularly domestic pay-per-view buys and live event attendance,” said McMahon, presumably suggesting the absence of veteran Superstars negatively impacted WWE’s performance for the past three months. He nonetheless was optimistic that some of the affecting challenges were temporary and would be overcome by “producing compelling content and cultivating consumer demand.”

Compared to last year, many of WWE’s performance metrics washed out. Home video and television licensing revenues were higher, while WWE.com, WWEShop.com and live event merchandise sales (even when excluding WrestleMania) were down.

In terms of pay-per-views, the comparison is difficult due to the presence of two extra pay-per-views last year–WrestleMania 25 and Backlash–and due to the increased price tag for this year’s events. Nonetheless, in terms of buys, the events were clearly down.

WWE Over the Limit garnered 197,000 buys, a reduction from the 228,000 for Judgment Day. Extreme Rules’ 183,000 was down from last year’s 213,000 (the events took place in different months) and Fatal 4 Way fell to a low 143,000, as compared with 178,000 for The Bash.

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Comment

16 Responses to Recent WWE Pay-Per-View Buys, WWE Reports Earnings, Vince Comments:

  1. !?

    Date: Aug 05, 2010 at 4:07 AM

    …Just wow.

    In my opinion, Vince can put any spin he wants on it. But the fact of the matter is that people are losing interest in the WWE product, at least in North America.

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  2. brody

    Date: Aug 05, 2010 at 4:09 AM

    Some compelling content would be nice, instead of the repetitive jackassery we know and loathe from the creative side. The changing talent base also might not be so much of a problem, if they’d push more of their younger talent into the spotlight and main event as serious competitors instead of selling them as midcard fodder. But what do I know?

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  3. RKOmonster

    Date: Aug 05, 2010 at 6:12 AM

    the kids don’t have the money, the adults do. they need to put the mature audience back in this. the blood, death defying acts and such.

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  4. Darren

    Date: Aug 05, 2010 at 7:09 AM

    Alot of you seem to forget that before the attitude era WWE was PG. You why none of you complain its cause all of you were kids at tht point. you enjoyed it thn so enjoy it now

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  5. Jack

    Date: Aug 05, 2010 at 7:37 AM

    @ Darren…

    Are you serious? Please tell me your joking. The attitude era was anything but PG. You had women showing their tits (sable, chicks in the crowd). You had first blood matches, bra and panties, etc. Now they have banned chairshots to the head and other BS. You obviously didn’t watch anything in the attitude era. Maybe you should before spouting off some non sense like that.

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  6. Ryan

    Date: Aug 05, 2010 at 8:05 AM

    @Jack

    Did you even read his comment properly? he said that BEFORE the attitude era during the 80′s wrestling boom it was PG. Dont beg for the attitude era to come back because you wont get it if Vince see’s a way to put his revenue up after this statement then yes maybe he will put the ratings back up but it doesnt mean all of a sudden we will have blood chair shots and tits…WWE have been clever enough to actually notice that chair shots to the head needed to be banned for the wrestlers own good. Complain all you like but when WWE come out of this PG era dont all of a sudden expect attitude era 2.0 because that was created to win ratings from WCW and the way TNA is going their product wont be around much longer so they don’t need to react, If and this is a huge if TNA got to the level WCW did in the 90′s WWE might see them as a threat but i think it is pretty much safe to say in the next 5 years there won’t be a TNA.

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  7. fisher

    Date: Aug 05, 2010 at 8:40 AM

    the pre attituide era was pg in a way but then if you got busted open you carried on not stopping good matces because somebody has got a tiny cut on their nose or something and waiting to resrtart. Linda running for office is ruining wwe if TNA had any sence they would un pg there product more. Vince just needs to let linda do her thing but say i’m not ruining the buisness for for you to play president.

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  8. keylo

    Date: Aug 05, 2010 at 9:29 AM

    economy has nothing to do with it Vince, its the rubbish your putting out and the non stop effort of turning cena into the new hulk hogan. And Darren yes pre attitude was pg but look at the talent they had back then compared to the fools they have now bar RKO Edge, Jericho,, they hold back the likes of Christan and push muppets like miz, cody rhodes only cause of his name and no doubt daddies backstage making sure of it. They had numerous great tag teams, we get the uso and harts and oh yeah thats it.

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  9. Jolly

    Date: Aug 05, 2010 at 10:15 AM

    RKOmonster is spot on. God this news is so depressing for a product that has so much history of golden times and memories for me, but possibly this news is bad enuff that creative and progressive changes might happen.

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  10. Zach

    Date: Aug 05, 2010 at 12:08 PM

    Guys, it’s just Vince being arrogant and stubborn. He knows why his product sucks just like we do. Once he dies and the company is turned over to Shane or Paul(HHH), things could get better.

    Don’t get me wrong, I don’t wish harm on the man. I love Vince, but that’s just the reality of things.

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  11. DK Monster

    Date: Aug 05, 2010 at 12:24 PM

    Let’s face it guys.
    We the adults, the long-time wrestling fans purchase
    the “wrestling” products that WWE has to offer and that’s it.
    We tune into Raw and Smackdown and purchase PPVs each month.
    Any other product that we pay our money is probably for
    DVDs that include rare matches.
    I never bought a T-shirt or any other merchandises that
    is aimed for children, not adults.
    I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with adults buying
    a John Cena shirt for instance, but it just does not happen.
    Maybe WWE should think about where their money will really
    come from.
    It comes from the ticket money and PPV buys.
    Unless there’s another Stone Cold Steve Austin which will
    not happen anytime soon, I’m not buying any of their
    merchandise products.

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  12. stockshark

    Date: Aug 05, 2010 at 12:43 PM

    The WWE is great dont you dare talk bad about it!!! Dont make me cry in my milk and cookies!!! CENA CENA CEAN Goodnight all its 8 and I have school in the morning!!!! LOL

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  13. stockshark

    Date: Aug 05, 2010 at 2:05 PM

    God i love TNA. Its so TV-14, with sexy ass abyss talking about how he gets his powers from a decoder ring. oh Tommy Dreamer ur so dreamy….. id luv to see dixie, hulk, & eric in a three way. BTW vince is the devil & RVD is cool cuz he smokes weed

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  14. governor of connecticut

    Date: Aug 06, 2010 at 9:26 AM

    well it could be tna’s buyrates ah damn somebody already said that well here i go stealing from someone’s idea, god i must be like tna

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  15. 321kid with a razor

    Date: Aug 06, 2010 at 12:17 PM

    Too many ppvs a year, too expeNsive and people don’t have the money to be fans anymore. Either take out a ppv. Give us more time to care about storylines again. Quit making the same main events just different type of matches for 3 to for ppvs in a row. Also give us a deal. Buy 2 ppvs get one free or something. Or just drop the price by 10 bucks. the more people can afford to buy. the more they will. if its less in price there will be more in quantity

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  16. erik

    Date: Aug 08, 2010 at 7:57 AM

    I know the atttiude era is over imo it was about austin vs mcmahon and there on screen hate and rivary that is what the attitude era was it was okay. Imo i wish we had www pg of 1989-1996 great tag teams great matches ppvs like in your house king of ring ppvs the best ever. I want that 1989-1996 wwe pg back is it possible?

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