TSM's Official Countdown To WWE Demise

[Guest Brian]

Judging from the financial reports, they're not in that much trouble right now. WCW was showing significant losses for a long amount of time and had neither the profitability level the WWE had on its own. It was dying and losing money for a long amount of time and wasn't structured, in terms of contracts and business, as well as the WWE.

 

I don't think the World is a good sign either. It was a poorly managed and poorly handled extension. It went through so many problems it was destined to fail from the start. And aside from that, the quarter turned a strong profit.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

You're assuming that this is the lowest the WWE can get.

[Guest Brian]

No I'm not. I'm just saying taht business operations, aside from the blunder, are pulling it a profit and it will take a while of making in the red for them to actually start looking dead. They're in the middle of a strong business period with strong international business. When the lull hits after Mania towards the start of the summer, they'll be overseas with strong numbers over there.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

For the past 2 quarters they have posted a loss. "business operations" isn't covering that. Sure, the law suit from the WWF and the demise of the World was the cause of the problems but the simple fact that the WWE couldn't cover that is a strong reflection of their current condition. You look at their statements and almost everything is 'down 2%', 'down 8%', 'down 10%', 'down 17%' 'down 27%'. They are still making money, yes, but they aren't GROWING. Growth is the most important thing - they aren't doing it. They haven't been doing it in a long while. Next quarter they STILL won't be growing. The quarter after that and they won't be growing. The quarter after that.... Investors will pull out, stock will continue to fall, the value in the company will shrink until it becomes valueless. It will get to the point to where Vince will have to buy back the company.

 

I'm not saying they're dead now. I'm saying if things continue the way they are (and I see no signs of improvement to assume otherwise) they will be gone in 3 years (5 max).

 

This 'wrestling cycle' won't save them because the industry needs at least 10 years to fully recover from the attitude era. The biggest hope Vince has is MMA.

[Guest teke184]

Let's take a look at this logically:

 

The WWE is now worth $500 million (net), down from a billion two years ago.

 

A large amount of those losses came from depressed stock prices, the XFL, The World, and a few other ventures.

 

They have $250 million in cash reserves right now, so they aren't going away immediately.

 

They just re-upped their deal with UPN for a year, but they are in danger of UPN folding and not gettnig picked up by Fox or some other network if that happens.

 

TNN is currently high on WWE programming, but if ratings bottom out or the company refocuses itself again, there may be problems. Having 4/5 of all WWE programming (RAW, Velocity, Confidential, and Heat in the near future) gives TNN an inordinate amount of leverage on the WWE right now.

 

 

They're currently making money on the wrestling side of things, but that is because they're exploiting foreign markets for the first time in years. That won't last forever considering several large foreign markets no longer have WWE TV or PPV (Germany and Australia in particular).

 

House show business is down from a year ago despite the fact that they've nearly doubled the amount of shows they run (in the neighborhood of 200 per year).

 

Buyrates since WM X-8 range from a low of 0.50 (Vengeance) to about a .9 (Royal Rumble). Things are looking scary if they go through with brand-specific PPVs for 8 out of the 12 each year.

 

The big dangers to the WWE are the WWF lawsuit, which can cost it probably $90 million of its cash reserves, and the split-PPV plan.

 

 

The WWE can bring up business within 2 years if it develops stars now, but Vince either refuses to make stars or chooses people who can't get over (A-Train) to push. This is the same story we've heard ever since things peaked three years ago, except that Angle and Lesnar are the only two stars created since then.

[Guest JHawk]

They're guaranteed SmackDown for another 3 1/2 years.

 

After that, who knows?

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin]

I'm pretty sure that as long as Vince is breathing he won't let the WWE die.

 

If they get really desperate the McMahons could turn it back to a private company and fund it themselves.

[Guest teke184]

They're guaranteed SmackDown for another 3 1/2 years.

 

After that, who knows?

Wrong, JHawk... they're agreed to 3.5 years of SD BUT, however, UPN has the right to cancel it from their lineup if they deem it necessary and UPN's in some financial trouble. Considering that Smackdown is their flagship and it's not doing well, that isn't a good thing.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Vince keeps screwing his fans and shows no sign of stopping. There will be another huge drop off in consumers if it doesn't change ASAP.

[Guest creativename]

Things are looking scary if they go through with brand-specific PPVs for 8 out of the 12 each year.

That's it right there. This is going to be a distaster for the company. We all know it. It's simply amazing that they don't.

 

Things will get MUCH worse for the WWE over the next few years before they get any better. This is a long-term decline directly resulting from Vince's wrestling philosophies. While there should be some level of decline anyway due to business cycles, Vince's absurd ideas exacerbate the decline many times over.

 

I'd say the WWE has 5-6 years left...however, I also think that in 6-7 years they will get a new major draw and a change in writings styles for the better. So it's basically the same thing as before: survive, then wait for the next Austin and creative renaissance.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

But the next 'creative renaissane' came with the NWO. There is no company in pro wrestling today that will get on par with the WWF in the next 10 years.