[Fatal Foresight]

No, I'm not saying WWE is going to die anytime soon, I wouldn't be surprised if they manage to stay around forever, but what I am saying is that they could be making A LOT more money. This coming from someone who likes the love triangle and didn't mind Hornswoggle being revealed as the anonymous GM (that thing was a joke from day one, are people really getting up in arms about it now?). This isn't a matter of what is good and what isn't, its a matter of appropriateness.

Lets take the CM Punk/AJ/Daniel Bryan love triangle. The angle is hot, AJ is over, Daniel Bryan and CM Punk are delivering on their ends too...but it isn't helping them. Bryan and Punk are likely the two best wrestlers in the company, they are unarguably two of the biggest stars in the modern era, and they have yet to be given the ball to draw money together. Oh, sure, they have had tons of matches together and co-headlined a few PPVs but when was the last time you actually bought into any bitter feelings between Bryan and Punk? They put on great matches and there is no denying that people enjoy watching them work together but its been months of interaction with minimal heat between them. They wise crack and mock each other, but I don't buy that they HATE each other.

The WWE World title is supposed to be the top belt in the "sport" and it is sharing spotlight to get over a diva. I think AJ is a great talent, have ever since I saw her in NXT, but three is a crowd. AJ is getting the attention which takes credibility away from Bryan and Punk. If this was an angle involving the Intercontinental title then it would be remembered as one of the greatest angles ever, but when this is the BEST you're offering each week there is a major problem. A bunch of guys aren't going to gather around to find out who AJ is going to kiss next, they don't care unless that person is them.

While we're talking about wrestlers who are supposed to be on different brands, lets talk about the brand split. There is a reason why the brand split is USEFUL. If you need any evidence, just look at Daniel Bryan, he became a main event quality heel on Smackdown and was easily the best thing in WWE for months on end. Then they moved him unofficially to Raw to be in a second-tier feud with WWE CHAMPION CM Punk. Just look at that last sentence and realize how bad that is. John Cena, the guy in what SHOULD be a midcard feud with the Big Show, is headlining all of the PPVs. The Big Show, a guy who has barely been a draw since his original debut, is headlining pay-per-views over the two top talents in WWE right now.

Sheamus. Who honestly cares about Sheamus? This is a guy I've always been a big fan of but he has never been in a good angle. Even his angles with Cena were forced and boring. The worst part is that it isn't his fault. He is a big guy that delivers in the ring with a great physical style but WWE is too scared to utilize him in a way that would make him a bigger star. Or maybe they just don't know how. So, in essence, the WWE and World title scenes are both floundering. Gee, I wonder why they can't draw bigger ratings? You have made the two top guys in your company boring and irrelevant. You could stick Santino Marella in the love triangle angle and it would have the same effect.

I realize that a lot of the top old stars are completely gone now but how did they BECOME top stars to begin with? Think of different feuds and big angles that the Undertaker was a part of, you can probably name ten easily. HHH? The Rock? Stone Cold? Same thing. These guys weren't always big stars, hell a lot of them became big by wrestling EACH OTHER, now apply that standard to modern day stars. Name three memorable angles that anyone outside of John Cena has been a part of. I'll start you off, CM Punk feuded with Cena, Jericho, and Bryan (with the latter two being secondary to Cena matches on the card despite CM Punk being the WWE Champion for BOTH OF THEM). Anyone else? Anyone?

WWE is in major need of star power, so what do they do? Bury Christian. Push Zack Ryder (a guy, like him or hate him, that isn't worth a damn thing outside the midcard). Bury Drew McIntyre. Push Alberto Del Rio (great look and talent but his gimmick is dead, someone just needs to shovel dirt on it). Bury Tensai. Push Great Khali (huge draw in India, no one else gives a damn). It can be argued that Tensai didn't make as big of an Impact as he was expected to so he is getting de-pushed for a while...chalk it up as yet another in the hundreds of times that WWE rushed a new character to the top because they have NO STAR POWER. What happened to building angles to make stars? The laziness in booking is what makes all of these guys fizzle out overnight. Guys like Punk and Bryan have staying power and even they have trouble staying over with the seat of your pants booking they are involved in.

On the plus side, Cody Rhodes has had a nice slow build, there is promise in Damien Sandow, Dolph Ziggler seems like he will be a main eventer that almost never wins for the foreseeable future, so that's nice. NXT has been overhauled and talented stars are allowed the opportunity to...get this...put on an entertaining show without a ton of bullshit. Camacho looked like a credible talent on NXT when he faced Seth Rollins, that would never be allowed to happen on one of the "big two" shows. Mainly because NO ONE looks like a credible talent on the "big two" shows anymore. You're either in a boring multi-man match or you're squashing/being squashed. News flash WWE, people tune in to see competition between top talents, when they perceive 90% of your roster to be jobbers then they STOP CARING.

For fear of ranting forever, I'll end it here.

 

[dxbender]

WWE isn't struggling to draw money. Past few years have been most profitable in WWE history. WWEs most profitable year was 99-00, but most profitable couple of years in history have been 07-10(combining for about 200M)



Despite how much people bash WWE, the only real thing they're really struggling with at the moment, is the actual product/writing itself. Everything else(from the outside campaigns to the stuff they do on social media sites and other stuff) is actually ok.

 

[vanboxmeer]

The only reason they were "okay" was because The Rock saved their asses at their biggest possible drawing show of the year twice and keeping them from hitting their least profitable numbers in years.

 

[bar340]

IMO todays talent just isn't marketable to the demographic WWE is aiming for. The reason it worked so well in the 80's is because they had these colorful charactors, like Hogan, and Savage. But now WWE is trying to market actual good wrestlers to a younger audience, and it just isn't working. Kids aren't going to understand CM Punk, or his promo's. They won't understand Bryan's wrestling ability. They want a more simple wrestling, and that isn't what WWE is offering.

 

[dxbender]

The only reason they were "okay" was because The Rock saved their asses from being the least profitable in years.

The Rock wasn't on TV in 07,08,09,10.........

And those years drew in about 200M(more than any other 4 year time period in WWE history)

And people saying WWE is bad......before the attitude era, they were LOSING money. Up to 6M they were losing a year. So making 40-50M today compared to losing 4-6M just under 20 years ago, is a huge improvement.

 

[Fatal Foresight]

I believe that, when you generate income from numerous sources that you never used to then you can still turn a good profit. The problem is that they could be drawing more money from the actual shows...and they aren't.

 

[dxbender]

WWE is wasting their money on useless things like WWE studios. It costs a couple of millions of dollars per movie. They don't even make like 1M from making those movies.

So they're wasting all this money on no name movies when they could have been spending this money on better writers and stuff like that.

Instead of spending 10M to make a useless movie, why not spend that 10M on buying a whole new set. You could prob have the best set of any tv show for 10M.

 

[666_The_Game_666]

the company is doing fine. As stated before the last 5 year stretch has been the most profitable period in the company and they have all these extra ways of making cash besides the core wrestling product.

 

[doinktheclowns]

WWE is making more money then it ever has done, there is no problem.

WWE 13 pre sales up 150% from last year for example.

 

[Fatal Foresight]

The point I'm making isn't "WWE isn't profitable", its that imagine how much MORE money they would have made if they had done these side ventures back during the Attitude era when they were on top of their game? The reason they have to do them now is because their actual product is lacking and they have to do something to appease their shareholders. Nearly every top company makes profits every year, by hook or by crook, the issue here is that if the product itself was actually good, Vince would likely be a billionaire and then some. They've lost the forest through the trees and their ratings are close to dying days WCW now. That isn't to say they're failing currently, just that they're slowly fading away and it doesn't seem anyone is doing much to stop it.

 

[daemonicwanderer]

Quite a few of the profitable side projects have come about BECAUSE they aren't doing the risqué Attitude Era stuff anymore. WWE is stuck in a catch-22. Their older fans want a product that doesn't lend itself to the "respectability" and family entertainment image the profit making side projects require. I think they are still trying to find that balance while making a good deal of money. Changing the approach would open up the company for a drop in profit margins and the shareholders don't want that, so whatever changes they make they are going to have totally back them top-down and be able to reassure stockholders.

 

[NightmareInc.]

WWE struggling? Lol, no. Just no.

 

[Coffey]

the company is doing fine. As stated before the last 5 year stretch has been the most profitable period in the company and they have all these extra ways of making cash besides the core wrestling product.

And those reasons are why the "core wrestling product" aka the TV shows, are so bad. As long as WWE is making money, they don't give a fuck. And it shows on the TV.

 

[Mike Zybyszko]

WWE isn't struggling to draw money. Past few years have been most profitable in WWE history. WWEs most profitable year was 99-00, but most profitable couple of years in history have been 07-10(combining for about 200M)



Despite how much people bash WWE, the only real thing they're really struggling with at the moment, is the actual product/writing itself. Everything else(from the outside campaigns to the stuff they do on social media sites and other stuff) is actually ok.

Where did you get this? WWE as a company has lost over 100 million dollars from its peak. Just go take a look at their stock price history.

 

[Matt_Yoda]

WWE is still a multi million dollar corporation, while business for them has stifled in terms of trading almost every form of entertainment has suffered losses of some kind within the past 5 years. Despite your reservations about the product they're set in terms of bringing in large profits for at least the next 3 years alone and their product still attracts a considerable core demographic that they have maintained since roughly 2003.

 

[JigsawKrueger]

WWE made a net profit of 52 million last year, before WWE Studios and the Network drained it of millions. Linda's campaign is a waste of money too.

WWE studios might work, but the WWE name is poison outside of wrestling. The only way it stood a chance was if they didn't have wrestlers involved from the start, and kept away from action movies.

The network is doomed to fail at this point in time; WWE Studios won't make money for years. They could have spent that money investing heavily in the indie scene.

 

[BrianAmbrose]

They lost more pre attitude era, hence why they were trying so hard to put on a good product which to most of us it was.
When WWE shows suck or as you said "struggle" it's because WWE is making enough money to keep the writers and McMahon content of just keeping things the way they are without the need of risk.

 

[Mqwar]

Who said WWE is even struggling?

 

[validreasoning]

The only reason they were "okay" was because The Rock saved their asses at their biggest possible drawing show of the year twice and keeping them from hitting their least profitable numbers in years.

rock didnt do it for free, buys might have been up but profits for those manias barely beat out profits for mania 26 because of rocks pay, ppv despite being up 250k buys only yielded $200,000 more in profit because rock took a slice of the profits as well as a $5m payday

PROFIT MARGINS FOR WRESTLEMANIA

2011
Live event tickets 5.6m
Merchandise 0.7m
PPV 8.0m
PPV on web 0.5m
Other 0.5m

2010
Live event ticket 3.8m
Merchandise 0.7m
PPV 7.8m
PPV on web 0.5m
Other 0.5m

 

[validreasoning]

Where did you get this? WWE as a company has lost over 100 million dollars from its peak. Just go take a look at their stock price history.

stock price looks at value of the company not whether they lost money in physical transactions

the money they have brought in and spent or lost is documented here

ear Total Revenue Profit/Loss
94-95 $87,352,000 -$4,431,000
95-96 $85,815,000 $3,319,000
96-97 $81,863,000 $6,505,000
97-98 $126,231,000 $8,466,000
98-99 $251,474,000 $56,030,000
99-00 $373,100,000 $68,937,000
00-01 $456,043,000 $15,987,000*
01-02 $409,622,000 $42,233,000**
02-03 $374,264,000 -$19,455,000***
03-04 $374,909,000 $48,192,000
04-05 $366,431,000 $39,147,000****
05-06 $400,051,000 $47,047,000*****
’06 $262,937,000 $31,617,000******
’07 $485,700,000 $52,137,000*******
’08 $526,457,000 $45,416,000
’09 $475,161,000 $50,303,000
’10 $477,655,000 $53,452,000
’11 $483,921,000 $24,832,000*******

* Wrestling profit was $84,981,000, but WWE’s share of the 50% of the XFL losses (the other 50% was covered by NBC) was $68,994,000
** Wrestling profit was $42,498,000; also figured in was a tax break of $4,638,000 for shutting down the XFL; offset by $4,903,000 in losses for the year from the operation and closing of The World Restaurant
*** Wrestling profit was $16,362,000; offset by losses of $35,557,000 through operation and closing of The World Restaurant.
**** Wrestling profit was $37,778,000; also figured in was a tax break of $1,369,000 for shutting down The World Restaurant; Not figured into the bottom line were $28,340,000 in expenses on producing two movies and $8,078,000 in other expenses and liabilities amortized over time
***** Not figured into the bottom line were $7,323,000 in expenses on early production costs of one movie
****** An eight-month fiscal year total. For a comparison, prorated over 12 months, the revenues would figure to be $394,405,500 and profits at of $47,425,500, so numbers were equivalent to the prior year, but without a Wrestlemania figured in. The figure doesn’t include $17,466,000 in costs of one movie and $2,726,000 in costs of purchasing videotape libraries.
*******Does include $16,000,000 in profits and movies “The Marine” and “See No Evil” and $15,700,000 in losses for “The Condemned.”
*******Includes $23,400,000 in losses in the movie division and $4,000,000 in start-up costs for the new WWE Network.