Vince McMahon on The Condemned, MMA, TNA, ECW and more

Mr.Nice Guy

Vince held a meeting with shareholders today and made some pretty interesting comments on a number of subjects. Here's Mike Johnson's recap on PWInsider:

On The Condemned...

He said that there are no excuses for not drawing or succeeding, but noted he has not called the head of Lion's Gate "for fear of what I might say or I might do." McMahon claimed it was "almost sabotage" for the film in that if you didn't watch WWE programming, you wouldn't know anything about it. He said that in terms of reaching out to the mass audience, WWE didn't have control. McMahon explained that normal distributors control everything but the film itself, from a marketing, advertising, poster, etc. aspect. He said that Lion's Gate worked reasonably well with the Kane film and treated WWE as if they had "stumbled upon this great film" and that the Condemned should be pushed and handled by their marketing department.

*McMahon noted that Lion's Gate tried to promote a film that "didn't have a star" saying that WWE were the only entity to push that it starred Steve Austin. McMahon said that a film has to 'star" someone and John Cena made a name starring in the Marine although the general movie audience might not have known who he was beforehand. He said Fox did a great job building Cena and marketing the film around him.. In comparison, The Condemned didn't utilize the Stone Cold Steve Austin brand and that when you look at the poster, you just see a bunch of people and nothing that really tells you anything about the story. He said that the 30 second commercials for the film featured Austin for only 10 seconds, while ads in the Latin markets focused on a female character, which made no sense. McMahon said that Vinnie Jones is a great performer, but scoffed at Lion's Gate giving Jones equal billing in comparison to everything Austin has accomplished.

*McMahon said that the Condemned's marketing confused the audience. He said haven't been given numbers for the film yet and Lion's Gate told them that it tested well, including unusually well among women. That said, they didn't spend any money to try and attract women into the film.

*McMahon commented, "They took our product and just destroyed it."

*McMahon also said that the R rating for the Condemned was a mistake and he's not sure WWE Films should be doing anything beyond PG-13. He said the mindset was to do something blood and guts oriented since Austin's character is a little more hardcore but in the future he doesn't want to do another R rated film.

*McMahon said that they are counting on DVD sales and said he doesn't know if the film will make money. International distribution is not considered one of Lion's Gate's strengths, so that isn't expected to help the film either.

On MMA...

*McMahon said that some think MMA is a natural expansion for them, but it's tough to build an intellectual property and noted it's a sport. He said that if you have a fighter you build up as a brand once he gets knocked out, you are left with nothing. He said that MMA is everywhere right now and will burn out over time. He said that he doesn't know if it will have the long-running legacy of the boxing industry, using names like Sugar Ray Leonard as an example. He said that you can't own the fighters, so there's no intellectual properties to build and market.

*From a TV standpoint, McMahon said MMA is, "Everywhere, wherever they can possibly be on the air, they are." He said that the public is going to eventually say enough and that there are no big stars. He said they looked into it a lot, but it's not for them. He said the upside isn't there for boxing or MMA under WWE's auspices.

On ECW...

Noting that ECW's relaunch is about a year old, a shareholder asked McMahon if the brand has met his expectations. McMahon said that it hasn't lived up to his expectations but has met those of their broadcast partner. He said that when you take the concept of "what that brand was, it can't stay there; it was unsuccessful." McMahon says you have to take the brand and morph it to make it different but not that different. He said it is a slow evolving process and has a bright future but not as quick as he would like.

On too many titles...

*When asked if having so many titles dilutes all of the championships, McMahon said he doesn't subscribe to that. He said that the more championship matches you have, the bigger bargain you get as a consumer, especially with their recent price increase. McMahon said you have to look at the long range but also have to try and give the most you can to the consumer. He said going forward they will be more "judicious" with championship bouts. He said that only after they put Backlash together did they realize how many title matches they had. He said you have to give the consumer enough but not enough to satiate them, and that's a balancing act they have with broadcasted shows as well.

On TNA...

*When asked if he views TNA as a competitor to WWE, McMahon said he doesn't have time to watch the product. He says he doesn't even have time to watch all of WWE's product with all of his responsibilities. McMahon said that he thinks TNA will continue to do fine "where they are" and that their biggest mistake strategically will be trying to compete with WWE. He said that once you invest the type of money that a Ted Turner did, they have to compete on the WWE level and if they do that, "Yikes! Good luck to them." He said that if TNA produces a different product compared to WWE, they can be successful, but it will always be a niche product.

Some other interesting bits...

*When asked about a WWE Book on his life, McMahon said no. There's too much to cover and his time would be better spent devoted to other aspects of the business. He said that Donna Goldsmith and Kevin Dunn have been on him about doing one, but it's not likely going to happen.

*McMahon said currently they are trying to get back to the fundamentals inside the ring. He said that the in-ring product hasn't changed since the day he was born and they will notice a big in-ring difference in the future because they were the first official reality show. He said that the company is a quasi-sport and they are going to give the official more authority and forcing breaks. He said no one can touch them from a production standpoint, so they are working on improving their in-ring presentation and that will be a piece of what's made the company better a year from now when they gather again. He said that their product can always change and morph and that's what makes them unique.

*Randy Savage's name was brought up by a shareholder, who asked why his name hasn't been signed like other older names. McMahon said they are wide open to using anyone who has a meaning to their audience, but you have to recreate and morph towards the future.

*When asked about using legends, McMahon said that they are signing older talents for WWE 24/7 but aren't bringing them into "the mainstream environment yet" because "you can't get your money out of that." He noted the WWE 24/7 roundtable discussion show and they have to use legends in the right forum.

*McMahon noted there would be an event titled "Night of Champions" where every match is a championship match coming up.

Sounds like they're very disappointed in The Condemned. I think the real factor in the film bombing is that Austin is no longer a draw. Interesting that he thinks MMA will burn out over time. I thought his comments on TNA were pretty sensible.

Shame about the book because I don't think there would be a more interesting read than a book on Vince's career.

Looking forward to the 'Night of Champions' but didn't we already have that with Backlash?

Fozzy

The Night of the Champions might just be Saturday Night's Main Event. Sounds like bad promotion by Lion's Gate

That comment about giving the referees more power is interesting. As long as it doesn't mean that we'll see guys being DQed for closed fists or top rope moves then it should be ok. I think it was Jim Cornette who made the refs in OVW act like that. He gave the refs that power so that the wrestlers would learn how to cheat properly, meaning that they'd have to literally go behind the refs back if they wanted to double-team their opponent, and if they were spotted then they'd have to stop it straight away. It would make wrestlers think more about their in-ring psychology

ShawnRaven

Yeah the Comdemned was a disaster, and i'll agree with you in the fact that Austin isn't the big name that he once was. Although he will go down as a legend for his contributions from 91-94 in WCW 95 in ECW (little as they were, they were enough to get him noticed and get more viewers for ECW) and 96-02 in WWE, but once he walked then, it wasn't the same. Stubborness and Injury just killed him.

A McMahon book, if it was brutal truth like Foleys 2 books and not the ghost written bollox that has been coming out over the last few years, then it would be damn good, but otherwise forget it.

And agreed also with Backlash, wasn't every night a title match?
Unless he's unifying SOME of the belts?

VR!

Minto

Some nice ideas there, I really like how WWE are starting to take an interest in wrestling again. I think we could see some great matches and as for the referees being given more power, I'm all for it. I read during the week that the refs aren't being told what is happening before the matches anymore. If you watch the last week or two, you can sorta see the surprised faces on the referees.

Bubs101

Minto wrote:

I think we could see some great matches and as for the referees being given more power, I'm all for it. I read during the week that the refs aren't being told what is happening before the matches anymore. If you watch the last week or two, you can sorta see the surprised faces on the referees.

I think this will have to change the in-ring dynamic of some wrestlers. Finlay, for example, wont be as reliant on hornswaggle and his Irish sounding twig anymore. Might actually force him to win a match cleanly

littlejp

You should change the title of this thread to Dr. Vince McMahon