an interesting books that you should check out......

yak_kadafi

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080652619X/qid=1135628921/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-6777858-9656643?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

Fozzy

Have you read it? I wouldn't buy into that at all. In my opinion, WWE is doing absolutely brilliant, considering they've made so many mistakes, they're still pulling in huge amounts of money

The Cannibal

They've fallen big time if you look at facts and figures.

WWE in their peak 1997-2000 could pull high 7's and sometimes 8 ratings points over the space of two hours and had huge buy rates. Now their buyrates are much less than they were, house show attendences have dipped and they pull on average about 3.7 in the ratings.

During this period they also had so much going for them talent wise. From that era, Foley has retired, as has Austin, Rock has gone to do movies, Undertaker is not the draw he once was and Triple H is still around but is nowhere near the draw Austin or Rock were. They have yet to define the current generation with it's own star as the fans have turned on Cena and Batista is good but not long term good. They tried to make a new star to build around in Brock Lesnar but just look what happened there. Their other attempted star creation Randy Orton also flopped after a promising start.

The logo change, splitting of the brands, XFL and other shenanigans have hurt them as well I think.

They are far from desperate times as they are still turning profits with their merchandise, overseas tours and PPV revenue but when you compare figures to where they were only a few years ago they have taken a big drop.

Lump Basher

Fozzy wrote:

Have you read it? I wouldn't buy into that at all. In my opinion, WWE is doing absolutely brilliant, considering they've made so many mistakes, they're still pulling in huge amounts of money

Don't be so naive. What Cannibal said...

Cactus Col

Lump Basher wrote:

Don't be so naive. What Cannibal said...

I think Fozzy is right though, the wwe is far from dead, they're still making money and their shows are improving.

You could argue that the period 1997-2000 was a freak time for the wwe, when all of a sudden everybody was watching it, you're probably better looking to the years before that, when buy rates were miniscule compared to what they are now.

I would say that the wwe are at a halfway point, most of the top wrestlers from the attitude period have become less and less involved in the wwe (austin, rock, foley), and are trying to develop new wrestlers. As cannibal said before, Orton did flop after an initial good run, but rocky mavia hardly set the world on fire when he first showed up, and orton is slowly but surely being built back up.

Vince135792003

I think what you 've got to look at is the surplus amounts of capital the McMahons have. Its quite alot! Vince doubled the dividend last quarter. In saying that there losing $10 million in ad revenue by moving to USA network and by next quarter using this quarters figures they would really be at breakeven.
PPV buys are down, attendances domestically are down. What is the big money spinner for them is the international tours. If that ever dried up the picture would n't look so rosy.
In saying that 1998/99/00 boom period is a distant memory.

Lita Forever

The WWE will never be dead. Sure the boom period is well and truly over, but a lot of fans are still there. A lot of fans always will be. WWE may go through lulls as it has in the past and is now, but bottom line is it will always be here.

People can write books and analyze figures 'till the cows come home, bottom line is WWE ain't going away.

Vince135792003

Lita Forever wrote:

The WWE will never be dead. Sure the boom period is well and truly over, but a lot of fans are still there. A lot of fans always will be. WWE may go through lulls as it has in the past and is now, but bottom line is it will always be here.

People can write books and analyze figures 'till the cows come home, bottom line is WWE ain't going away.

As long as the people in power dont have the "It could never in a million years die" attitude it'll be ok. Then again whoose to know what wil happen to the WWE when Vince well dies. It might get better or the place might crumble.

20 years ago you had the NWA, the AWA and all the territories in America. If you had said to them that by 2000 there would be just one company with a monopoly on wrestling I'm sure some people would have found that hard to fathom.
So things change. The wrestling world changes and who knows what way it will go.

Lita Forever

As long as the Mc Mahon family is around WWE won't crumble. It's been in the family for generations, it goes as far back as Vince's grandfather I think.

Should anything to happen to Vince there are 3 other family members ( 4 if you count HHH) there to carry on.

I agree with you about people saying the same thing about the AWA and NWA but truly, I don't see anything like that happening WWE.