TSM's Official Countdown To WWE Demise

[Guest utahprowrestler]

Just thought I'd start the thread and ask opinions on the "Twist of Fate" of the WWE. What are ya'll's thoughts on the current WWE *product*.

 

I personally think it sucks beyond belief. I think that WWE's days are numbered and low.

 

UPW - Utah Pro Wrestler

[Guest B-X]

Dude, you spelt heroin wrong in your sig.

[Guest B-X]

Dumbass.

[Guest utahprowrestler]

I will fix that right away asap SIR!

 

UPW

[Guest utahprowrestler]

I hope that this is better SIR!

Thanks for pointing that out SIR!

 

UPW - Utah Pro Wrestler

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

3 years.

[Guest Vitamin X]

however long it took WCW to fall from when the Fingerpoke of Doom happened..I believe that was 3 years right?

[Guest EternallyLazy]

WWE's been through harder times, and the McMahons have enough cash to keep it afloat for a very long time. However, if I really need to give a time, I say 10-15 years when old man McMahon kicks the bucket

[Guest Creepy Crawl]

I give it 10 years at the rate its going right now . If they dont develop new and better money drawing talent after all the big stars are gone I think it will be dead .

[Guest Coffey]

*SIGH*

[Guest j.o.b. squad]

WWE's been through harder times, and the McMahons have enough cash to keep it afloat for a very long time. However, if I really need to give a time, I say 10-15 years when old man McMahon kicks the bucket

you think mcmahon has 10 years left in his ticker why do you think he put steph in charge of the company

 

i say wwe's finger poke of doom was the botched invasion angle so 2 years tops

[Guest EternallyLazy]

i say wwe's finger poke of doom was the botched invasion angle so 2 years tops

2 years tops? Puhleeeaze

 

They're still making money! They're nowhere NEAR the financial state they were in back in 96-97 when they were really suffering

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

They have posted a loss in the last 2 quarters (definition of a recession) and in 2 years (hell, even 11/2) everything has been cut in HALF. That's a very steep fall. Anyone who puts stock in this 'cyclical nature of the business - vince has been there and got through it' remember this: WCW brought the wrestling industry out of it's dark age... There's no WCW now. The WWE has enough money to coast them for a year (said so in the quarterly report) after that they will have to make money quick. Max 5 years of life at this rate (and there is no signs of it improving any time soon)

[Guest j.o.b. squad]

 

i say wwe's finger poke of doom was the botched invasion angle so 2 years tops

2 years tops? Puhleeeaze

 

They're still making money! They're nowhere NEAR the financial state they were in back in 96-97 when they were really suffering

from the wwe corprate site

 

The operating loss for the quarter was $26.7 million versus operating income of $8.5 million last year.

 

they are loseing money real fast and the crap merchandise they are putting out now is not going to help

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

I just thought I'd say that I made this thread quite a long time ago and it got a rather tepid reaction.

 

 

Also, FWIW, I see Vince giving the majority of the reigns to Shane, simply because it keeps the family name McMahon on the company. Not to say he stiffs Steph, but it seems like a Vince kind of thing to do.

[Guest Coffey]

I just thought I'd say that I made this thread quite a long time ago and it got a rather tepid reaction.

No one said it doesn't suck this time as much as it did last time. Why do think my first reply was *sigh*?

 

Because it's fucking ignorant...yet always at the top of the page.

 

Guess I shouldn't be replying to it to bump in anymore huh?

[Guest treble charged]

I think WWE is still making money on the wrestling side of things, though, and most of their financial hit came from the World.

[Guest BoboBrazil]

They only lost all of that money because of the restaurant. Things should go back to normal in the next quarter or the quarter after, which still isn't good seeing as how they are doing twice as many house shows as they were doing before the split and making roughly the same amount of money or even a little less. They have plenty of money to last them a long time. Steph will most likely take over full control if Vince dies.

[Guest Tim]

The whole world economy is screwed- it isn't all WWE's fault

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

You forget that the reason WCW died was because they lost their TV deal with Time Warner and thus Fusient backed out. The AOL/Time Warner merger killed WCW, not Hogan, Bischoff, Nash, Russo, or anything else on the creative side although they certainly helped. If it was still just Billionaire Ted running the company, they would still be around.

 

Since I don't see Vince losing control any time soon, and the WWF still gets better buyrates than WCW did in 1996/1997 let alone 1999-2001, I don't expect WWE to be going away soon.

 

With the exception of the braindead decision to push Shawn Michaels again (and getting the lowest gates, ratings, and buyrates since he last was champion), and extra-curricular business ventures, WWE would be doing okay. The wrestling side of the business IS making a profit. It is crap like the World that is losing them money.

 

Quality-wise, even with the Angle injury, it is a lot better than it was this time last year. RAW is pushing the same old guys, but at least Jericho is better off. For Smackdown, other than Taker everybody else in the upper-midcard is a fresh face at the very least. Benoit, Rhyno, Los Guerreros, Cena, Brock, Team Angle, Rey, A-Train, Big Show, Nathan Jones, Matt Hardy. All of them were on Heat a year ago, if they were even around (and only Benoit & Rhyno were missing because of injuries).

[Guest swan]

The WWE is a publically held multi-million dollar operation with strong television contracts. They aren't going anywhere anytime soon. And the fact that NWA has held on this long shows to me we could see a swing up in the industry in the next couple of years. Nothing more then the pro wrestling industry cycle.

[Guest caboose]

I predict in my eternal non-wisdom, that there will be on last GREAT superstar of the wrestling industry. This last great SuperStar will see the devoloution of the WWE to it's end, and be the last image you see when the credits hit for the last time. This SuprStar I speak of will have success on par, and possibly in excess of Steve Austin, The Rock and Hulk Hogan. However, he will be corrpted and he will also turn out to be the death knell of the WWE. This SuperStar will arrive in approximately 2008. And the WWE will finally die in 2015. His name? I don't know, but that is what will happen.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Here are the WCW buyrates for 1997, the year in which they didn't lose a single H2H ratings battle with RAW. The recent WWE buyrates can be seen elsewhere in this forum.

 

Souled Out 0.47

Superbrawl 0.75

Uncensored 0.89

Spring Stampede 0.58

Slamboree 0.60

Great American Bash 0.60

Bash at the Beach 0.78

Road Wild 0.65

Fall Brawl 0.53

Halloween Havoc 1.1

World War 3 0.56

Starrcade 1.9 (WCW's highest buyrate ever)

 

In 1998 they hovered around 0.7-1.0 until Nash won the title at Starrcade and tanked the promotion, but it remains the most profitable year in WCW history.

 

These are numbers lower on average than 2002 WWE. Gates remain higher now as well. The only thing that isn't is TV Ratings, which people pay far too much attention to. WWE isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

[Guest jester]

All of these arguments, that WWE has too much money saved up, too much support from whoever, was EXACTLY what everyone said about AWA and WCW before they folded.

 

It can happed to WWE.

 

I think the Kurt Angle situation is a major turning point here. They might decided to further cut down the wrestler's moves to make the product even more boring. Or they might notice that it's very easy to lose the current stars and get serious about building new ones. Either way, a major shift up or down is about to occur, IMHO.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

All of these arguments, that WWE has too much money saved up, too much support from whoever, was EXACTLY what everyone said about AWA and WCW before they folded.

 

WCW didn't have that support after the merger, and the AWA couldn't draw flies after Hennig left.

 

WWE is still drawing fairly well, aside from the failed HBK push. Not as well as they used to, but it is still much better than it was in the dark ages. It wasn't close to dying after the Nash/HBK debacle in the mid-90s until 1997. Ratings/attendance/buyrates/merchandise sales etc, are much better now, and Vince is much better off financially than he was after the Golden Age. If WWE dies we are looking at at least five years from now, and that is plenty of time to turn it around.

 

The AWA survived from 1988 to 1991 with basically nothing, and had been declining since 1983. WCW was a disaster from the beginning, only drawing a profit in the NWO years, and even then never drew close to what the WWF did during the Austin era. Even then, they would have survived (at least longer than they did) had they not got booted off TBS & TNT.

 

WWE is better off than either of them, and better off than 1992-1997 which they survived.

[Guest humongous2002]

When Vince dies=the end for the WWF/E

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

When Vince dies=the end for the WWF/E

Unless somehow Shane ends up in control.

[Guest Smell the ratings!!!]

Can we eventually pin one of these? Bacause I can visualize weekly updates and me laughing my sack off.

[Guest notJames]

When Vince dies=the end for the WWF/E

Unless somehow Shane ends up in control.

…Who will then lose it in a power struggle with the real life McMahon/Helmsley Fac-gime.

 

After that, I give it 6 months.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

WCW was on life-support from Turner - they lost $80 million which is why they were cut. To say it died 'just' because of the Merger is ignoring the fact that they were alive BECAUSE of Turner.

 

'The World' is a wrestling venture. Wrestling fans didn't go to it. It failed. That is a reflection of the industry and the company itself. You can't just think of it as an unrelated matter because it is a WWE brand that failed. They didn't even make enough to cover the loss - when a company that used to be able to cover the loss 10 times over can't do it now, that's a sign of trouble.

 

Look at the trends - the WWE is falling and it's falling fast. There is no sign that things will improve. The Stock is around 7.80 now - that is about 5 times less than what it used to be. Ratings are cut in half. Attendance is cut in half. Buyrates are cut in half. It only took 2 years for this to happen.

 

Vince has shareholders to think of now, which is something he didn't have to worry about in the mid 90's. The pressure to make money is stronger than the pressure to stay alive - and that means more cheap stunts to try to stimulate growth (stunts that we know will never be successful).