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Interesting Article on the financial situation in wwe


Hey Scott,

I don't know if you've seen this yet but its an interesting read about the damage all of WWE's extra projects have done to the WWE's cash flow. The basic premise is that the reality shows, movie ventures, the network etc have used almost literally all of WWE's on hand cash without bringing anything as far profit back in. This is going to cause the WWE to suspend paying dividends on their stock for very soon.

That's extremely significant because the absolute largest draw that stock has is its consistent divided payout. Without that who is going to want that stock? It will be far less valuable.

People love to bring up how booking decisions won't hurt the stock price, but not having cash to pay dividends because you wasted it all on bad ventures (not saying the network but certainly the film studio and if divas really is a cost as the analyst here says...wow) is going to hurt it badly.

Here's the link: http://seekingalpha.com/article/2872636-wwe-burning-through-cash-and-running-out-of-options

Thanks

​A lot of it seems to veer towards the obvious (you mean the movie and TV division WASN'T a great idea?) but I didn't realize that Total Divas was such a money sink. ​

Comments

  1. The company would rather go broke than just admit to being a wrestling company.

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  2. Oh, but I had all the investors here telling me that it didn't matter that they scrapped PPV because the Network would replace all that money and then some.

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  3. Wrestling is a business that is built of lies, deceit and treating their audience like knukledraggers. Investors included.

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  4. "Be great at something and do it better than everyone else". I never understood why that was never good enough. Wrestling can be reinvented and revisited as many times as needed to make money. Never understood why Vince has this need to be accepted by legit entertainment types when he doesn't really need them at all to be a success.

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  5. It's stuff like this that's actually making more keen to the idea of a major company getting its hands on wrestling because at the very least, they'd look at the bottom line and say, "Motherfucker, you need to be doing as much wrestling-related stuff as possible. It's the only thing making money!"

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  6. He has an inferiority complex it seems.

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  7. I would bet my left nut that this is the game plan once Vince dies. This and possibly buying back the stock and going private again.

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  8. Yep. It's a personal need, not a business one.

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  9. If anything, I would say this makes them double down on the non-wrestling stuff.

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  10. Because he's a stubborn prick.

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  11. So basically, it's a carny... As we all knew all along.

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  12. Going private again would be the best thing for the product. No restrictions on content, no one adding their two cents when it's not even worth that.

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  13. Someone pointed it out once, and I gotta agree. The reason why Vince had such a big bone to pick with Turner wasn't because Turner wanted to get into the Wrestling Business, but because deep down Vince wants to be Turner, the successful multi-media billionaire and not just that carny promoter from that carny business that is carny pro-wrestling.

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  14. Yep. Vince took a 19th century circus sideshow act and became a billionaire promoting it. That's why I think it's funny that investors would go anywhere near the product given its roots.

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  15. It actually has to be seen as a sort of achievement. What other business has people paying money for something they know fully well is just a bunch of lies, deceit and carny business practises?!
    I can only think of the people that sell financial products that promise ridiculously and unrealistically high interest rates.

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  16. Court Bauer is a very smart guy who knows a LOT about wrestling. He's not always right (and doesn't claim to be), but he's always worth listening to.

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  17. TJ: James Dolan's completely insane response to an angry fan:

    http://deadspin.com/dolan-start-rooting-for-the-nets-because-the-knicks-d-1684489469?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

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  18. Love his mlw podcasts. Always enjoy when he rips on Michael Hayes.

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  19. The stock already took a massive hit once when they cut way back on the dividends they were paying. I don't think the stock will drop all that much if they stop paying them altogether. On the other hand, there's really no point in buying WWE stock. They've kinda killed their own market and are a failure at everything else.

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  20. I'm not an expert in marketing by trade but you would think a better strategy would have been for Vince to totally distance new projects from WWE. Calling his film studio something different than "WWE Films" for example. I'm a big fan of the concept of spring football I think as skeptical as people were about XFL he didn't help the situation. Having Rock, Austin, cheerleaders, and even Jerry Lawler calling games certainly didn't help to distinguish them. On the other hand no one would confuse CNN with WCW or even the Atlanta Braves.

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  21. Dolans letter came off like it was written by a teenage girl spoiled by her parents.

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  22. Not to say Divas isn't a ridiculous money trap, but on the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if it's some BS corporate accounting and they're trying to pass off core product declines on divas shit. Like Hollywood and movies that make hundreds of millions "don't make a profit" because of the way they account for things. (can't remember the specifics, but an example I vaguely remember was a hit being in the red because they threw a bunch of extra production shit onto the costs of that movie even though it was shared by the entire studio division)


    Can see Vince and co trying to pass off Raw production costs onto Divas to cover up declining revenues from Raw

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  23. TJ: Just watched Savage/Bret from the November 1987 SNME and it's definitely the best SNME match up to that point.

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  24. Wow. That's just...how do you own a huge business and be stupid enough to make ad hominem attacks in an e-mail? That alcoholic shot will come back to bite him.

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  25. Register for FREE to finish reading this article.


    Nope!

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  26. Yeah, that's some bullshit. I got something telling me the rest of the article is only available in the app.

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  27. The films definitely agree. Football was a little different though. They needed the publicity to differentiate from World league, arena league, cfl and all the other failed attempts to put non-NFL football out there

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  28. They needed to differentiate it, that didn't mean making WWE's version of football. All the games are on youtube, the music, announcing, and Kevin Dunn production just has WWE stink all over it.

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  29. Pisses me off that google finance picks up their articles when you're looking for stock news. If it's not a legitimate news source, they shouldn't include registration required sources

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  30. TJ: http://deadspin.com/dean-smith-dead-at-age-83-1684510001


    Shit, another one in the "I'm old" column.

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  31. There's no football today. :(

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  32. A fringe major leaguer from the 70s & 80s passed away this past week but I remember exactly who he was. But yeah - another piece of my childhood gone.

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  33. February and March NBA basketball is awesome, at least.

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  34. It's true. I love the NBA...but the NFL with its drama and hilarious off-field incidents and controversies...that's good watching.

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  35. At least the playoffs were great, because I don't remember another NFL season having this many terrible nationally televised games.

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  36. See, I find all those things you mentioned as awesome.

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  37. And the quality of the articles on SA is VERY hit and miss. Maybe one step above Motley Fool (which itself is nowhere near what it was in its heyday of 10-15 years ago).

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  38. You forgot the worst of all. The damn Patriots win the Super Bowl. Worst. NFL Season. Ever.

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  39. And yet....AND YET....they were able to find someone WORSE in The Miz. Even Hunter couldn't move the needle one iota in the movie genre, despite how popular he THINKS he is.

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  40. No one forcing themselves on the audience, and putting themselves over VASTLY superior acts because their own ego cannot handle how utterly irrelevant they are....yeah, for all his business acumen, and so-called "love" of wrestling, I wouldn't be sad to see either H or Steph GONE for good.

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  41. They missed the boat by not starting an action hero series with Hogan am I right. Coulda called him "Ax Bomber"!

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  42. And so does his son-in-law, only with Hunter, it's targeted at other, better wrestlers.

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  43. Left off Cheatriots winning again.

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  44. Huh so maybe pro wrestling was more profitable than being a wannabe all-encompassing media conglomerate? Maybe the whole Jerry Springer thing was a fad?? How am I not shocked.

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  45. However that kind of immediate financial outlook doesn't include the value of items long term nor the intangibles.
    It costs nothing more now to sell a films package to tv channels. Similarly they can release dvds, blue rays, VOD on demand content for free.
    Every time a wrestler is talked about on the movie pages of newspapers, or on review shows, it makes WWE that little bit more mainstream.
    Odds are that at some point one of the wrestlers will turn out to be a hit and get legit film offers and then you end up with another star like Rock or Batista.

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  46. It's crazy. Being the last credible game left in town, WWE should be making money hand over fist.

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  47. The shocking thing was Randy Orton's acting being called "pitch-perfect" by *Variety*.

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  48. Been saying that for awhile now.

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  49. I thought this was going to be about the magazine.

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  50. are you saying that that they can't bring a lawsuit? Legally they absolutely can. It happens and has happened. Now whether openly turning down revenue from USA reaches that level is a matter of opinion and for judges to decide, but shareholders absolutely can sue for mismanagement. heck I lived that in a way when Carl Icahn sued the Bockbuster Video board for mismanagement. Usually these are settled out of court in exchange for more power for a major (but not majority) shareholder, but occasionally there are class action type lawsuits involving small shareholders as well.

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  51. Entirely incorrect, but thanks for chiming in.

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  52. Yeah, the whole thing was just cop-outs. I was pleasantly surprised I didn't spend more time screaming at my tablet while I listened, but there was still a ton of eye-roll worthy lines.

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  53. Hell, he took better bumps than most of the WWE roster. I remember someone just tossing him over the top rope, and he took a Undertaker - Wrestlemania 25 - suicide dive bump, except without anyone on the floor to catch him, and the cameraman barely even paid attention to it.

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  54. You got it, kid.

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  55. I don't know if I can justify a house show match that maybe 0.00005% of the WWE audience has ever seen as the only example. My only choice is the KOTR match with Ahmed, but that tops out at ** on a generous scale.

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  56. I gave other examples above.

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  57. I forgot about the match with Venis. Sits at 3-stars, I'd say. Don't recall any matches with Lawler and the match at the Rumble was probably his best work as "The Artist"

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  58. I was around for Goldberg and I think he sucked, but I can't argue against the fact that he was a success.

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  59. "MAN...KIND is a GAWWWWD" -- fan in Warzone

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  60. The King match was on RAW. It was in USWA country, so King was crazy over. It was only 5:19 though

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  61. A properly financed, properly booked women's wrestling promotion would be a license to print money. Sadly, this is David McClane, so yeah.


    Wish Shimmer would get a TV deal. i've heard good things.

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  62. Yeah, WOW was awful but strangely entertaining. If they can recapture the spirit of the original, I'll watch.

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  63. It's interesting, that it seems that not the 3 hours is the problem, but the actual show. On the other side, if HHH says that it's hard to write three hours... maybe they all think too much about the booking of the show. When you hear about nitro back then it seems that nobody had a clue and that they just made some matches and sometimes on the fly and maybe it's sometimes better to just make some matches and don't care about too much. Let the wrestlers fill the show - and not the writers.

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  64. I think that's not true anymore. because the WWE hasn't had physical assaults on women by men for quite some time I am sure it would at least have some "shock value" to it.

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  65. USA is basically holding a gun to Vince's head. Vince cannot change RAW back to two hours if he wants. Come on.

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  66. Because it wasn't three hours of the same show?

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  67. Yea, that's not going to fly.

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  68. Not a chance. It's an hour out of 5 hours of weekly programming provided to Universal Television Networks. That $200+ million deal didn't hinge on getting that 3rd hour of RAW. It just increased the amount of the deal. He couldn't go back to 2 hours right away because of ads already sold, but down the road he could. Certainly at deal renewal time. I'm not saying USA wouldn't fight for it, because you start doing the math and you'll see USA is actually getting those hours cheap relative to other programming. But if the case could be made that cutting back to 2 hours would improve overall quality enough to offset the amount they'd lose then Vince would take that stand. The real problem is Vince wants (needs) that money, and feels his company is capable of delivering a quality enough product. Convincing him that they should give up $40 million or so won't fly when his solution would be to yell at people louder.

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  69. I'd swear to god it's right there in one of the Monday Night War episodes with them pointing out that Nitro going to 3 hours was a disaster.

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  70. Such a lawsuit could be brought, sure, but WWE's defense would be that the prolonged 3rd hour of television was damaging to their brand. I can't see stockholders being able to rebut that.

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  71. 1. The point I was going for in the "mapping out" comment related to them forming a new writing/booking team. Once that change is made they need to map a course. Of course injuries are a problem--they always have been. That's why you simultaneously map out plans B, C & D.

    2. The whole "stars on RAW" meme is a throwback to the brand split and when SmackDown was on a different corporate owned network. Today USA just wants the best possible programming WWE can provide.

    3. See below.

    4-5. When quality suffers, quantity becomes an issue. Most people wouldn't even be complaining if RAW were a good 3 hour show. But with shorter matches, less action, and commercial breaks, the same crowd that can sit through a 3 hour PPV with no problems has a harder time staying entertained. RAW becoming more soap operatic during the Attitude Era worked because it was new & different. That was almost 20 years ago. It's hard to guess what may become a new successful formula when WWE is so unwilling to stray from the current one.

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  72. They don't care about quality and if Vince even tried that, he'd be laughed out of the room.


    The company needs all the TV revenue it can get, especially with the network. Once you go to three, it's hard to go back. How will USA make up the loss of ad revenue?

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  73. You like "Chrisley Knows Best"? That's exactly the type of show USA would put on to get the best ratings per cost ratio closest to RAW.

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  74. Kathie Lee Gifford made money off of child labor.

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  75. Ahmed when he first debuted was awesome though. He had this aura about him

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  76. I guess I'll have to take your guys' word for it. He was pretty much done by the time I started being a fan, but watching him out of context years later (I mean, for Christs' sake, guys, I post HERE. I'm as hardcore of a fan as the rest of you. I've seen all of his stuff you're all talking about) it just doesn't hold up well for me.

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  77. There was a fun as hell 6 man tag on Shotgun Saturday Night in 98, heading into King of the Ring that year. Dustin Runnells/Terry Funk/Bradshaw v. Lawler/Too Much. It was in Texas so the crowd was just amped beyond belief for the faces. Great stuff includes Funk bouncing Lawler's head off the announce table a good 12 times, Funk & Lawler trading piledrivers and Bradshaw murdering Brian Christopher with a CFH that rivals the one hit hit on Heath Slater not too long back. Dustin was a small part of the match but I'd give it a solid ***.

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