07-14-2017, 04:06 PM | #1 |
Trickster Demon
Posts: 59,750
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Is WWE in financial trouble?
* No more custom sets except for WM it seems
* No more fireworks/pyro * Talking Smack CANCELLED * Won't air Mae Young tournament live because it's 'expensive' * House Show attendence down * Merchandise sales down since Cena went part-time * PPVs not selling out arenas (Great Balls sold out though) Is WWE in a little trouble financially? Obviously they aren't in danger of going out of business...but something seems up. Where there is smoke there is fire....What do you think? |
07-14-2017, 04:10 PM | #2 |
I am the cheese
Posts: 51,016
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Trouble is stretch but's its a down period.
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07-14-2017, 04:30 PM | #3 |
Feeling Oof-y
Posts: 17,136
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It's ok because YouTube views are up!!
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07-14-2017, 04:33 PM | #4 |
boop/bop/beep
Posts: 38,427
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Romans reactions will bring them out of this funk since he is the big dawg.
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07-14-2017, 04:34 PM | #5 |
boop/bop/beep
Posts: 38,427
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And its totally good for business that the fans shit on everything he does.
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07-14-2017, 04:40 PM | #6 |
Let me talk to ya
Posts: 11,749
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Hold on, Talking Smack is cancelled? I haven't watched it in a while but that was a good show. Talent really seemed to like it and was a place they weren't totally scripted.
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07-14-2017, 05:38 PM | #7 |
Just Some Guy
Posts: 14,679
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Shock as years of half arsed shite catch up to them.
Stock price is fairly stable so clearly the market has confidence in them still so expect it is just the usual business just tightening their belts. Often can be for financial reasons completely separate to the main business, such as specific costs rising rather than revenue dropping. At the same time, finances are likely to be a bigger driver for change and lord knows change is needed.... |
07-14-2017, 05:43 PM | #8 |
Former TPWW Royalty
Posts: 66,588
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Think they had similar financial issues somewhere in 2010-2011 that lead to them cutting back costs on both talent related stuff and production.
Whatever they are experiencing now is going to be nothing compared to when the current set of tv contracts expire by late 2019. Been speculated the new contracts are going to be a lot lower and the cutbacks to be serious. |
07-14-2017, 05:51 PM | #9 | |
Just Some Guy
Posts: 14,679
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07-14-2017, 05:53 PM | #10 |
Posts: 52,478
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Time to end the Brand split
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07-14-2017, 06:00 PM | #11 |
Trickster Demon
Posts: 59,750
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They are talking about that actually, according to Dave Meltzer
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07-14-2017, 06:06 PM | #12 |
boop/bop/beep
Posts: 38,427
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07-14-2017, 06:07 PM | #13 |
President of Freedonia
Posts: 58,167
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I'll probably be done if they end the brand split again.
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07-14-2017, 06:08 PM | #14 |
Trickster Demon
Posts: 59,750
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My guess is they will probably just go back to every other week being a 'Raw Supershow' with SD main-eventers on as well...and then 'nothing of note' will go back to being the SD routine...then they'll get kanefused when SD ratings go down
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07-14-2017, 06:10 PM | #15 |
Trickster Demon
Posts: 59,750
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The entire reason John Cena is a 'free agent' or w/e they are calling him is for ratings. Cena is still their most popular superstar by a massive margin when it comes to merchandise sales. Roman is #2, but he is nowhere near Cena.
Odd Roman is even #2...imo at GBOF while waiting to get in I saw lots of Balor Club and Hardy Boys shirts. Seth Rollins, Braun, Brock as well. Only saw 1 Roman shirt in line or in the arena. Lots of kids in Balor Club and Hardy Boys shirts. |
07-14-2017, 06:12 PM | #16 |
President of Freedonia
Posts: 58,167
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Pretty much. SmackDown was utterly unwatchable when the initial split ended. Any good SmackDown match would get re-done on Raw. Garbage.
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07-14-2017, 06:24 PM | #17 | |
Former TPWW Royalty
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07-14-2017, 06:30 PM | #18 |
It's all Bullshit
Posts: 6,910
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Well maybe the Bruce Lee movie they are taking part in will help them afford pyro
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07-14-2017, 06:37 PM | #19 | |
I am the cheese
Posts: 51,016
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07-14-2017, 08:26 PM | #20 |
Posts: 60,919
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I wouldn't say that they are in financial trouble right at this moment, but their expenditures are high and their margin of profit is quite low, and when they count so much on television to bring in that profit, and the future of television looks quite bleak, it's not a situation that the company should be sweeping under the rug.
While they were #1 or #2 for the ratings shares in the time slot, they could sit quite comfortably, but advertisers aren't going to be as interested in paying as much money on a property that is losing ground, nor is the USA Network. For a while, I was frustrated because I thought that the WWE could comfortably guarantee roughly the same deal or even a larger one with NBC Universal, based solely on where they were positioned on that leader board, but with them dropping down, I think that for the first time there is actually reason to speculate that their costs will be cut. That is when the WWE will panic. The brand split is always a horrible idea for RAW. Always. SmackDown gets a little bit out of it, because they actually fucking try, but they often fall into the trap of using it to filter stuff into RAW, and right now is a glaring example of that. Jinder Mahal as WWE Champion? Carmella and Baron Corbin as Money in the Bank Winners? It's a Vince McMahon vanity project warm-up act. SmackDown never gets out of RAW's shadow this way. I can't think of a period where it was more obvious that the SmackDown crew was just there to create future RAW "stars." That being said, it surprises me that the WWE is already considering ending the brand split, because Vince can be god damn stubborn, and I could have seen the Universal Championship sticking around for 12 years just to prove that it could outlast the World Heavyweight Championship. That being said, if they do bring the rosters back together, I could see them keeping the Universal Title around just to spite everybody. A lot of their foreign stuff hasn't worked out as well as they'd like it to. They got a new TV show in India or something, but it hasn't affected business domestically like you would expect an Indian WWE Champion who genuinely connected with people to. Bollywood films draw all over the world, whereas attendance during the reign of Jinder Mahal's title reign is down. They went with the TJP push with him representing the Philippines, but then the Philippines dropped their television or something. Ha. It's like the tone-deaf nature of the WWE is finally starting to affect how they play. Ratings were always good, no matter what crap they through at people, but now they are down to #6 instead of being #1 or #2. Attendance was never perfect, but now photos are starting to circulate that affect perception. Remember TNA in the baseball field? That's the feeling I got seeing the vacant side of the building during the most recent RAW. PPV is a non-entity for them anymore, but very few people would buy their shows, and they are using the Network specials more as episodic content. They wanted to go with more, more, more to bombard the viewer and make it seem like their Network subscription was going to be worth it based on the sheer volume of content being delivered, but now it's starting to plateau, given that the stuff that is there isn't, truthfully, very good. It can't be. Three hours is something you need to fill, not something you can artfully design each week to tell a beautiful and engaging story. Then you've got SmackDown. You are always working towards another Network special where very little is going to be able to be presented as fresh. On top of that, you have competing visions and a philosophy which has no problem admitting that everyone is just playing a character, and then can't understand why none of its heels have heat. Merchandise might be doing well for certain stars. The video game might continue to sell well. Network subscriptions might be steady. But those will go down if the television presence of WWE continues to decrease. If <2 million people are watching RAW each week, because the show is tiring and bloated as fuck, then that is a smaller pool from which to pluck potential Roman Reigns shirt buyers, those interested in WWE 2k19 or linking themselves up to a direct debit with that company. There definitely needs to be a correction in direction. Cynical as we as fans can be, we often overestimate the doom and gloom. I think many might be here. But it isn't nothing. For years many have spoken about "Ooh, it doesn't look good," when the WWE was actually not showing much in the way of wounds. But now they are starting to betray them a bit, and it's largely because of the stuff fans have been crowing about. It's starting to catch up to them, because you can only fatigue people for so long. The bubble won't pop, per se, but you're going to start to see things start falling off. |
07-14-2017, 08:27 PM | #21 |
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Unfiltered with Renee Young has just been canceled.
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07-14-2017, 09:41 PM | #22 |
Former TPWW Royalty
Posts: 66,588
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At least in Nikki's case, she also had the benefit of being a Divas champion for a long time. Same happened for AJ Lee and other women champions who had long reigns due to how WWE used to book the division.
Unlike AJ Lee, Bellas also had Total Divas which gave a big boost to their merch sales. Bayley at one actually managed to topple the Bellas as #1 merch seller for the WWE but only for a brief time due having around 2-3 pieces of merch against the Bellas 80+ pieces. |
07-14-2017, 09:47 PM | #23 |
I am the cheese
Posts: 51,016
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The dont print a new merch until a print hits X number of sales. So everytime they hit that mark a new product is pumped out to keep their fans buying. The bellas merch moves. And well. So a higher volume and no. of varients are made.
Its a business. If Bayley doesnt have 80 shirts in print its because either they dropped a bad print no one wanted or her base was good with the one shirt. Bayley like Cena has a huge leg up with her having t shirts and arm tassles and head bands. Shes super marketable in that way. |
07-14-2017, 09:48 PM | #24 |
I am the cheese
Posts: 51,016
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But no one is keeping bayley down by leaving money on the table.
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07-14-2017, 10:22 PM | #25 | |
Former TPWW Royalty
Posts: 66,588
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Cena and Reigns tops the charts only because the WWE overstocks their merch for house shows and online shop at the expense of others. Bellas got a ton because of Total Divas and being the main focus of the women's division at the time. Orton and Punk have complained about this before for house shows and Ryder had to plead several times to get more merch during his peak. Bayley has more now but took a while for the WWE to start pumping out more merch numbers for her even though she kept selling out or was the top seller for NXT. |
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07-14-2017, 10:58 PM | #26 |
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07-14-2017, 11:08 PM | #27 |
Let me talk to ya
Posts: 11,749
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That's partially because of how she's been booked. That whole Bayley cant get extreme thing didnt do her any favors and they continue to book her in a sympathetic fashion.
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07-14-2017, 11:15 PM | #28 |
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It's partially to do with her she's been booked, I won't defend the company on that. She's also not very good. Her promos and ring work leave A LOT to be desired. She had a few great matches with Sasha Banks, and that's about it. Zack Ryder once had a great match with Christian. Things can deceive if you if they are in the right environment.
The Triple Threat between Charlotte, Sasha and Bayley at Clash last year busted a lot of ideals I held about the women in that scene. It was just so...rote. But I jumped off the "Bayley is a star" bandwagon when she was reading that poetry on RAW to Charlotte, and the crowd was eating her alive, basically begging for her to not go through with it, and she was like "Yep, well, here's another one" trying to act like she was doing it badly on purpose. It was a tough situation, but she could not survive it. She might have gotten heat if she had bucked the script and said "You know what, Charlotte? These people don't want me to read poetry, they want me to kick your ass and take your title," but at the end of the day it would have been the right call and Bayley would have actually come off like a star instead of being someone who needs to be given a certain level of material in order to work. |
07-14-2017, 11:16 PM | #29 |
Trickster Demon
Posts: 59,750
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They didn't tell D-Bry either and he found via Twitter!
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07-14-2017, 11:29 PM | #30 |
Posts: 60,919
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This seems like a really dumb blow to morale.
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07-15-2017, 12:22 AM | #31 |
Trickster Demon
Posts: 59,750
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How is a show where the talent is already paid to be there, that has maybe two camera shots at most too expensive to produce? Imagine looking at 205 Live and Talking Smack and then deciding to cancel the show that actually got talent over.
I sure hope they keep that show where JBL and that Rosenberg kiss-ass dude tell us why hardcore fans are dumb on the network advertised to and largely paid for by hardcore fans. |
07-15-2017, 12:28 AM | #32 |
MVP Mark
Posts: 16,447
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Talking Smack was awesome. What the Hello? Thought that was them testing the waters seeing who will watch something live weekly on the network.
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07-15-2017, 12:45 AM | #33 |
Large Marge sent me
Posts: 32,245
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It was their only content that came close to "going viral" which is so vital in today's media market. I'm not sure why they'd kill it unless they just figured it was never going to get better than the worked shoot with Bryan and Miz and hasn't generated any interest since.
I know when they send out their surveys, alot of times the directly ask if you watch the wrap up shows so it's also probable they got bad feedback from those and see ot as more evidence as to why they needed to go in another direction. |
07-15-2017, 01:13 AM | #34 |
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Isn't 205 Live watched by virtually no one?
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07-15-2017, 01:19 AM | #35 |
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You also can't expect people to tune into a wrap up show on the network that is just great interviews/promos, no matter how great the interviews/promos are. Why not put some of those great interviews/promos on your actual tv shows to draw people in to watching something even better on the Network?
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07-15-2017, 01:24 AM | #36 |
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I think they originally teased doing that sort of thing. It could help pepper out SmackDown well, even though it's really RAW that needs the help with that sort of thing. I dunno, it's all very grim.
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07-15-2017, 02:34 AM | #37 |
Trickster Demon
Posts: 59,750
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07-15-2017, 03:10 AM | #38 |
Posts: 60,919
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This thing has been going on for about a year now. There is like one over guy in the division. I feel sorry for the ring crew who have to tape those damn ropes for multiple segments a week. Just get rid of it.
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07-15-2017, 05:19 AM | #39 | |
BAY BAY
Posts: 36,524
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thanks WWE Creative Twitter account! |
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07-15-2017, 05:56 AM | #40 |
Reigning Tipsters Champ!
Posts: 2,087
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I welcome this if true. With a lack of competition, the best way to put pressure on for change is hitting their pockets.
It has taken a while for fans to finally give up and walk away, but TV numbers are declining too quickly to just be "a sign of the times" It's the same old predictable, boring shit every week and there needs to be a change in how they write their characters and develop TV. I love wrestling, but I won't be back as a subscriber until things are worth watching again. |