Tag: 2015

How much money did WWE make in 2015?

How much money did WWE make in 2015?

• WWE finished 2015 with $24.1 million net profit.
WWE brought in more money this year than ever before ($658.8m) but spent a lot more, with a profit of half of what they used to make pre-Network (eg 2007-10). Main factors are still bearing the brunt of startup costs (like a media center expansion project), and of course, killing their PPV business in favour of a steadier monthly income with the Network.
WWE’s main revenue comes from TV rights (which increased this year, at $54.4m) and WWE Network ($44.4m).
75% of their revenue comes from North America.
Worth noting Total Dividend payments were $36.33m, which means they used cash on hand to cover payments, effectively meaning they lost $12.2m this year.

• WWE Network ended with 1.2m subs.
This is 20,000 less than Q3 but still 50% more than at the start of the year.
There’s been 2.5m subscribers since the launch.
Sneakily they’re switching how they’ll predict future Network subscriptions – average paid vs period end.
The Network roughly costs them the revenue of 45,000 PPV buys each month. (Profit of 1.2m subs @ $9 vs 2009 PPV buys @ $35)

• Everything else:
Live events: Flat domestically but up 18% internationally (cheaper tickets with increased attendance)
Merch: Up 25% from last year! 55% of which is online
PPV: Buys are down almost 40% to 1.4m buys this year (to be expected with the Network)
Home videos: $13.4m. operating profit is 131% lower than last year (Top sellers WM31, Rock vs Cena, Ultimate Warrior, Best of Nitro, Kliq rules)
WWE Studios: worked at a loss of $1.5m, the venture having lost them $33.1 million so far.

“Answering” questions:
• How can Vince plug holes in the roster given the injuries to top talent? “By being creative. We’ll have an awesome WrestleMania.”
• Looking at India, China, Latin America, Middle East for expansion, rather than Japan (“great market for talent perspective”).
• Wouldn’t give specifics about subscribers in India, or the top 10 international markets, beyond UK is great and Canada is good.
• Dodged answering if NXT makes any money but says it has a great social media presence and trends globally on twitter.
• TV ratings dropping? “ratings were down as much as the TV Networks were down”, used the word “ecosystem” a bunch and that’s about it.

Anything else to note?
• It’s been a concern for a bit about NXT’s profitability – it’s quite expensive for a developmental ground, it has no TV deal in the US. Numbers haven’t been officially released but I’ve heard 200,000 watch NXT. That’s quite low but of that, tour attendance and merch sales are really good. So for the moment it’s a hardcore niche.
• WM32 looks pretty bleak but it’s worth noting that they already have 1.2 million subscribers in the pocket (out of sight!) – this is their yearly biggest push for new subscribers (and of course, to fill Cowboy Stadium).
• It always happens post conference-call but WWE stock went down about 7% over the day.
• There’s an excellent full write up at PiledriverWrestling.net, highly recommend checking it out.

Back to editing! Newest stuff on OSW:
• Latest Update on new OSW vids: OSWreview.com/update-feb-2016.
• Wrote up a recap of Daniel Bryan on SportsCenter, admitting he had seizures. Scary stuff. OSWreview.com/daniel-bryan-sportscenter
• Newest Audio – I was on the radio talking Death in videogames! OSWreview.com/death-in-videogames

February 12, 2016
WWE Survivor Series 2015 review

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Note: We’re recording our first tattoo review this week! It also means there won’t be a video review of Survivor Series, so here’s all my thoughts!

Mountain Dew Kickstart & Rolaids Advanced presents Survivor Series! Nov. 22nd, 2015 in the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, with an attendance touted as 14,481. The main bit of ska (scandal) coming into the PPV was ‘hactivist’ group Anonymous leaking information of a possible ISIS threat to the Survivor Series PPV. However the FBI looked into it and the information wasn’t credible; WWE just ended up tightening security and not allowing bags into the arena. This pic near the arena made the rounds, which is a terrifying sight to me (Irish policemen don’t carry guns so you never see ’em in public)

@bryanalvarez They weren't kidding about "increased security." pic.twitter.com/hEgP77NCaw

— Joey (@Man_in_the_Flan) November 22, 2015

Roster-wise; WWE are having a rough time being stretched so thin – Cena is out filming “American Grit”, a new fitness-themed reality show with FOX, Cesaro has a torn rotator cuff that’ll have him out 4-6months, Orton’s shoulder injury is thought to be more serious (he’ll miss Mania), Rollins tore his knee ligaments (ACL/MCL) at a house show in Dublin (and will be out another 6-8 months) and Rusev ruptured his bicep tendon last month. Just for completion, Daniel Bryan still hasn’t been cleared by WWE’s doctors (which is very scary news for his health) and this is the off-period for part-time beast, Brock Lesnar. It’s actually great in a sense that WWE will be forced to build new stars, but more likely they’ll keep seats warm until until their mainstays come back. Hopefully the former!

Kayfabe-wise, Rollins’ injury means the WWE title is vacant (along with the AAA and TNA world titles, hilariously), so WWE started a tournament with the semi-finals and finals taking place at the Survivor Series. WWE have also been marketing Series as a nostalgia push that it’s Taker’s 25th Anniversary, which it is. Check out those hamhocks! A small nitpick, I must point out that WWE are re-using last year’s Survivor Series graphics package. How long has this been going on? I don’t recall it ever happening before. Times are tough! Never mind though, let’s do it to it!

PRE-SHOW MAIIIIIIIN EVENT!
The Cosmic Wasteland (Stardust & The Ascension) & Bo Dallas & The Miz vs. Dudleyz & Neville & Titus O’Neil & Goldust
Yes, Goldust, Black Reign himself, made arsurprise return! He jobbed out Viktor 30s into the match. Sadly they break in the match to tell you about new programming on the WWE network and it finishes with Stardust being the last member on his team, tries to flee and is chased into the ring and eats a 3D, Dudleyz/Titus/Goldust getting the win in 18:01. Bo Dallas is a real jobber, sadly, so if anyone wants to claim him as a boy he’s all yours!

SEMI-FINALS: Roman Reigns vs Alberto Del Rio
• Since losing his WWE title match at WrestleMania, WWE have shifted a lot of focus away from him, which is great for Roman, as the negativity that goes along with focus dies down, while he improves his wrestling. Sadly his promos haven’t improved much, but he’ll be much better suited for being in the main event come 2016. He’s the favourite to win the tournament.
• Alberto Del Roidy, wow, they have some primo stuff in Mexico! He returned to relieve Cena of his US title and is doing this “Mex-America” thing with Zeb Colter that fans and creative can’t get their heads around. He was touted as being brought back in for $1.45m but WWE refuted that number. That’s probably a ceiling number, his guaranteed paycheck is likely well lower, but sure Sheamus must be making a million a year, and WWE ‘stole’ Del Rio from AAA. He left WWE under bad terms, as WWE’s social media manager Cody Barbierri employee made a racist remark about him (saying Del Rio should have to clean the dishes in catering because he’s Mexican.) and Del Rio slapped him. Barbierri left WWE 2 months after Del Rio. As US champion and facing Reigns, nobody expected Del Rio to win this.
• Reigns had a rough time dead-lifting Del Rio for a sitdown powerbomb, fair dues to him. The crowd were into the match. Aitch was shown in the most comfortable position watching TV, which is standing intently at an angle very close to a large TV. The finish was Reigns denying Del Rio an armbar, Alberto jumping off the top turnbuckle (with Reigns beautifully commando rolling through) and hitting the spear to advance in 14:04. Both guys did much better than I thought they’d do, well done lads.

SEMI-FINALS: Kevin Owens vs. Dean Ambrose
• KO is a hoot on twitter, he recently took offence to Melissa Joan Hart calling his character ‘lazy’ and blocked her, leading to more fans harassing/blocking her with the hashtag #IStandWithOwens. She live-tweets Smackdown people, who among us can say that? Treasure this lady!
• Owens is excellent at working the crowd and getting his personality over in the match. While doing rest holds he’s tell Michael Cole for Ambrose to quit; pull a Jericho and say “Ask him!” to the ref, and later “he says yes!”. Owens threw Ambrose spread-eagled/dick first into the announce booth, ouch. Amazingly, there’s a dude in a What Bar shart with a “Crash Holly mark” sign in the crowd. Marked out. To the sign, not Crash Holly (that’s your boy). Give that man a can of coke! We see Aitch watching the match backstage. Both KO and Dean are excellent wrestlers but there wasn’t much of a story, KO hit a gorgeous 2nd rope package lift into a twisting slam, and they had a fun repeated reversal finish, which saw Ambrose finally hitting Dirty Deeds (this weird front facing DDT yolk), and taking a spot in the finals after 11:18.

The TLC ad saw Roman in this side-scrolling/platform videogame which was really cool.

CLICKY FOR PART 2!!

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November 23, 2015
Tough Enough S6E1 “Boot Camp or Bust”

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Wow, nobody is talking about Tough Enough! Here’s a review of the little engine that could, but probably shouldn’t, but is anyway.

Review of the Competition Special here

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• The première of Season 6 of Tough Enough! Originally going to be a Network exclusive, WWE managed to get a deal with USA Network. It’ll be free on either WWE.com or YouTube soon for countries without a TV deal. Austin was supposed to be the host, but the repeated delays caused him to drop out of the project (hence Chris Jericho instead). Taped at Full Sail University Studios (i.e. the same media university where they tape NXT), the live portion is shot in a condensed American idol setup; smattering of fans around the host area, which is a ring with a long desk on it, facing the titantron where the contestants are standing.
• The show is set up like the finale of S1 of Tough Enough: judges and contestants in the building live, but most of the show is pre-recorded, highly-edited footage from the past week. The judges are Daniel Bryan, Paige and Hulk Hogan; which are great choices; DB being the younger veteran, Paige being a more sincere/honest & most prominent Diva and Hogan being the hot-dogging old coot.
• The show ended up doing a 0.87 (1.2m viewers) which is about ONE THIRD of what last season’s première did, and below USA Network’s 1.5m average. So this is the “boy” of WWE TV shows! News credit: PiledriverWrestling.net
• Only about 15 minutes (of the 41) of the show is live: the hello and rules at the start, a HIGHLY OBNOXIOUS 1 minute 21 second clapping segment (I shit you not) and the end where they reveal the final three, stall for time to allow voting, and send one packing.
• A small point but the rules are poorly written! The first sentence ends with “each week” and the second sentence starts with “each week”. Convoluted explanation where the judges choose their bottom three and the least-voted for gets eliminated. Judges have one “save” per season but are asked before hearing the results, so their save could be thrown away. So let’s get to it!

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• They go through the contestants, expecting you to have already watched the Competition Special (which would’ve made for a much better 1st episode)
• Always interesting to see how WWE edit the footage to show the story they want to tell – they earmark Dianna for failure as they nab a sound clip of her already complaining (“ugh, great”) about a challenge and cut to her clucking about her fiancé. Later she gets heel heat as although she says she’s hurting, she does the best stamina drills out of the women, then sneaks off to see her fiancée and gets into an argument with the Brazilian Gabi. In the live element she complains about how the editing portrayed her.
• Physical drills at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando (site of WM24). Massive blurring, it’s like 2002 all over again, likely didn’t want to give free advertising or plug the soccer team Orlando City.
• The house they’re staying in is called “the barracks”, a basic military-style digs, not flashy like previous years. It looks pretty ghetto, but it’s different for WWE, who always want to look lavish.
• ZZ’s 18 and can’t drink, so gets in the hot-tub with Patrick instead. He makes an analogy of it being like soup. If it has only meat, it’s a stew. Amazing.
• The main story is how 4 bigger guys get jealous of MMA guy Tanner, who smoked them physically in the first drill. They come off like douchebags. There’s a great little storyline of cocky Tanner saying he can do double of what the other guys do. Patrick blows up about it (which seemed very rehearsed, much like the 4 lads getting together to bitch about Tanner). The men’s average is for drills was 8, and Tanner does 16. Suck it, everyone else!
• In the live elimination portion (3 men, i.e. gender-neutral eliminations) ZZ’s called out for being unfit. Since it’s a weekly evaluation it’s a tall order for him to get up to scratch in such a short time, hopefully he won’t get bumped in a few weeks, he’s the best contestant there. I initially thought Paige was calling out Sarah Lee (who had the least amount of screen-time of anyone – which could mean getting eliminated, or perhaps the Maven-type deal where she’s a front runner, and won’t be featured until later on in the Season) but Paige calls out the completely forgettable Joshua, who evades being cut. Hank completely ducks the “he’s the worst…including the women” suffix he made out ZZ being physically unfit. I think just Paige asking the question, and the shifty response so close to voting really hurt him, and ended up getting him eliminated. He could’ve said he meant since there are two separate contracts (one male/one female) to win but he’s the overall worst. Daria said something about risk, and the whole thing wasn’t very good at all.

Overall, the most likeable person on the show is Daniel Bryan, by a wide margin! Then ZZ, and that’s about it. Feels like a soulless contestant show, not a lot of personality, but it’s early days, and I’m still happy to watch it. This live element is new but overall it’s the same mindset they’ve always had with Tough Enough, for better and worse. I hope one time they’ll only get indy wrestlers, it’d be amazing. So it’s like True Detective Season 2, not looking great but I’ll watch the next few and see how it pans out. If you can’t be arsed watching the show, I got ya covered.

Review of the Competition Special I posted earlier today!
Latest update on the next OSW Review!
Super OSW 64 returns this Saturday![/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Cool update, Shotzi (aka Ashley, the electric red-haired model/wrestler who had to withdraw) commented about her time on our facebook page! Here’s what she wrote:

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June 24, 2015
Tough Enough Competition Special

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Thoughts on the special:

• This show was the first few rounds of tryouts at the WWE performance centre, 40 were chosen from over 11,000 entries, whittled down to a final 13.
• Trainers: Booker T, Lita, Billy Gunn (Tensai is shown in clips as well). Billy admonished a hopeful for swearing, saying it was offensive to women. Thanks, Mr. Ass, the guy who made his career saying “suck it!”
• One-legged Army vet Mike was a definite with his personality and backstory, but withdrew due to medical concerns.
• Jericho is the host, he’s so much less intimidating than Austin, always smiling with his showbiz pizazz, always sounding like a nice guy. When choosing between two hopefuls he’d talk to one and swerve, it’s the other that’s being chosen. I know it’s for the cameras but it felt very unprofessional.
• They chose unique model/indie wrestler Ashley (with the electric red hair who keeps saying “ballsy”) but she also had to withdraw.
• Same with Nick, a powerlifter who had Gears of War, Zelda AND Resident Evil tattoos. Devastated.
• There’s a black exotic dancer who looks great but doesn’t know anything about wrestling. Shockingly he doesn’t make the first cut.
• Zack Ryder’s mate The Big O doesn’t make the cut in general, which is surprising and saddening.
• Most featured are Daria (“The Jersey Devil” who came out as a lesbian during the audition, is an MMA fighter and bartender) and gator wrestler ZZ, who is awesome and is tailor-made for reality shows and WWE. They cut him (to add drama, I imagine) and slot him in after another fails his medical.
• Also of note, Georgia (Lance Storm’s student from Australia) and Gabi, the gorgeous Brazilian model who’s already shown as being a bitch.

At just over an hour long, it felt about 20 minutes too long, just a new season of the same idea, a highly-edited reality show focusing on any kind of drama. However it’s always fun to see so many different personalities vying to get into WWE. Tough Enough officially started last night, review coming tonight!

The FULL competition special can be found (legally) on YouTube! Here it is:

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Cool update, Shotzi (aka Ashley, the electric red-haired model/wrestler) commented about her time on our facebook page! Here’s what she wrote:

Click here for my review of episode 1 of Tough Enough![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

June 24, 2015