Anddddddd It's Gone

Chrome said:

Next week will probably suck too as it'll be a holiday throwaway episode.

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16 man tag team in main event confirmed.

Chris JeriG.O.A.T said:

Merch sales are up 61% over last year.

Ratings and attendance are falling but it hasn't hit WWE in the pockets at all as they've been having their best revenue year ever.

Whatever the fuck they're saying internally to keep stock prices from falling has got to be magical. There's got to be big changes in the New Year to keep investor confidence so high or maybe they're lying like they did last year and when the truth comes out they have another 300M single day loss.

Is Vince crazy/senile enough to try and pull the same bullshit twice?

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I'm not a financial expert but they do look to be in a pretty grim situation if ratings continue to slide. It has an effect on all parts of the business.

I wasn't aware sales were up 61% but then again, it's possible and perhaps even probable (given the falls in other areas) that this is total sales and not profit.

It's easy for merch sales to go up when you are selling the same product at a fraction of the cost. Has it been the year of the discount sales at WWE? I'm not too sure, but I'd be very surprised if they had a much better year in terms of merch this year when everything else has been declining.

Another worrying fact about their financials this year is that the 'record revenue' was achieved through the network expansion into the UK and other markets (which has since stagnated post first Quarter) and the money they received from their TV deals.

Obviously, lower ratings = less money from those deals but it also means less potential customers to flog the WWE network too.

I'm with you when you said you have no idea how they are keeping their stock from plummeting. They've recently put out some information on how they are going to focus on China as a new market (perhaps this looks appealing on paper to investors)

I don't know anything about the Chinese market in all honesty (If there is even is one for wrestling) but it would seem very strange to me that if in 2016, after a decades worth of near constant decline, they were able to crack a new market with such a poor product.

Who knows? :shrug

When your top guy is so bad that you have to rely on the McMahons being there every step of the way to hold his hand and get him reactions, obviously you're going to keep running into this same problem. Certainly doesn't help matters that their "top heel(s)" are a bunch of jobbers thrown together randomly. They're such fucking jobbers, that Sheamus won the WWE Title, lost it in a month, and doesn't even talk about it last night. Because...why would he? Nobody cared that he was champion because the whole world knew he was dropping to Reigns immediately. Just like they also know that Sheamus will never see the title again.

I imagine next week, after the League of Nations runs in on the Cena/ADR match, we'll end up seeing Cena/Reigns/Ambrose vs League of Nations main eventing RAW. It's already predictable, not that it ever wasn't. Vince appearing was simply an act of desperation, because he knows the show needs something there to carry it without Cena there. This way they can start their build to Cena vs. Cena Jr.