Powerslam Magazine is from the UK and has been producing a "Top 50" wrestlers list for a decade. Their period of observation is between Dec 1 and Nov 30.
2006
1. Edge
2. Bryan Danielson
3. KENTA
4. Samoa Joe
5. Naomichi Marufuji
6. AJ Styles
7. Takeshi Morishima
8. Christopher Daniels
9. Yugi Nagata
10. Rey Mysterio
11. CIMA
12. Low Ki
13. Homicide
14. Shiji Kondo
15. Kurt Angle
16. Takarshi Sagiura
17. Satoshi Kojima
18. Hiroshi Tanahashi
19. Chris Benoit
20. Randy Orton
21. Austin Aries
22. Rob Van Dam
23. Shawn Michaels
24. Nigel McGuinness
25. Finlay
26. Katsuhiko Nakajima
27. Kenta Kobashi
28. Koji Kanemoto
29. Kensuke Sasaki
30. Roderick Strong
31. Jun Akiyama
32. Davey Richards
33. Jay Briscoe
34. Chris Sabin
35. Mark Briscoe
36. Triple H
37. Booker T
38. Petey Williams
39. Abyss
40. Rhino
41. Brian Kendrick
42. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
43. Paul London
44. CM Punk
45. The Undertaker
46. Matt Sydal
47. Matt Hardy
48. Johnny Nitro
49. Gregory Helms
50. Pac
2005
1. AJ Styles
2. Shawn Michaels
3. Samoa Joe
4. Kenta Kobashi
5. Kurt Angle
6. Kenta
7. Christopher Daniels
8. Naomichi Marufuji
9. Eddie Guerrero
10.Kensuke Sasaki
11.Chris Benoit
12. Rey Mysterio
13.Satoshi Kojima
14. Edge
15. Jamie Knoble
16. Triple H
17. Toshiaki Kawada
18. Austin Aries
19. Chris Jericho
20. Jun Akiyama
21. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
22. Koji Kanemoto
23. CM Punk
24. Chris Harris
25. Suwa
26. Bryan Danielson
27.Hiroshi Tananashi
28. James Storm
29. Roderick Strong
30. Chris Sabin
31 Shelton Benjamin
32. Doug Williams
33. Alex Shelly
34. Christian
35. Low Ki
36. Petey Williams
37. Hiroyshi Tenzan
38. Milano Collection A.T
39. Takashi Suguira
40.Randy Orton
41. Eric Young
42. Jay Lethal
43. Matt Hardy
44. Homicide
45. Nigel Mcguiness
46. Jeff Jarret
47. Abyss
48. Booker T
49. Batista
50. Sabu
2004
1. Chris Benoit
2. Kenta Kobashi
3. AJ Styles
4. Samoa Joe
5. Shawn Michaels
6. Randy Orton
7. KENTA
8. Jushin Liger
9. Kensuke Sasaki
10. Eddie Guererro
11. Hiroshi Tanahashi
12. Low Ki
13. Naomichi Marufuji
14. CM Punk
15. Triple H
16. Rey Mysterio
17. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
18. Kurt Angle
19. Chris Daniels
20. Doug Williams
21. Yuji Nagata
22. Bryan Danielson
23. Yoshihiro Takayama
24. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
25. Shinsuke Nakamura
26. Toshiaki Kawada
27. Mitsuharu Misawa
28. Koji Kanemoto
29. Christian
30. Jun Akiyama
31. Homicide
32. Mick Foley
33. Edge
34. Shelton Benjamin
35. Minoru Tanaka
36. Chris Jericho
37. Susuma Yokosuka
38. Chris Sabin
39. Chavo Guerrero
40. Paul London
41. Chris Hero
42. Alex Shane
43. Petey Williams
44. James Tighe
45. Tajiri
46. Jonny Storm
47. Jeff Jarrett.
48. Undertaker
49. Colt Cabana
50. Paul Burchill
2003
1. Kenta Kobashi
2. Kurt Angle
3. Eddie Guerrero
4. Yugi Nagata
5. Brock Lesnar
6. KENTA
7. AJ Styles
8. Jun Akiyama
9. Chris Benoit
10. Naomichi Marufuji
11. Paul London
12. Koji Kanemoto
13. Shawn Michaels
14. Rey Mysterio Jr.
15. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
16. Christopher Daniels
17. Shinjiro Ohtani
18. Jushin Liger
19. Low Ki
20. Yoshihiro Tajiri
21. Yoshihiro Takayama
22. Rob Van Dam
23. Juventud Guerrera
24. Samoa Joe
25. Chris Jericho
26. Christian
27. Toshiaki Kawada
28. Shelton Benjamin
29. Doug Williams
30. Satoshi Kojima
31. Charlie Haas
32. The Undertaker
33. Jerry Lynn
34. Booker T
35. CIMA
36. Bryan Danielson
37. Raven
38. Chris Sabin
39. Randy Orton
40. Chris Harris
41. Johnny Storm
42. Yossino
43. CM Punk
44. Chavo Guerrero Jr.
45. Jeff Jarrett
46. Matt Hardy
47. Jay Briscoe
48. John Cena
49. Bill Goldberg
50. James Tighe
2002
1: Kurt Angle
2: Yuji Nagata
3: Low Ki
4: Eddie Guerrero
5: Satoshi Kojima
6: Jerry Lynn
7: Keiji Muto
8: RVD
9: Edge
10: Genichiro Tenryu
11: A.J. Styles
12: Jun Akiyama
13: The Rock
14: Chris Benoit
15: American Dragon
16: Yoshinobu Kanemaru
17: Christopher Daniels
18: Koji Kanemoto
19: Rey Mysterio Jr.
20: HHH
21: Doug Williams
22: Hiroyoshi Tenzan
23: Chris Jericho
24: Shinjiro Ohtani
25: Minoru Tanaka
26: Yoshihiro Takayama
27: Bokker T
28: Manabu Nakanishi
29: Jushin Lyger
30: Jamie Noble
31: Mat Hardy
32: Mitsharu Misawa
33: Jodie Fleisch
34: Jeff Hardy
35: Steve Austin
36: Chavo Guerrero
37: Brock Lesnar
38: Jonny Storm
39: Christian
40: Masahiro Chono
41: Spanky
42: Masato Tanaka
43: Tajiri
44: Kenta Kobashi
45: Magnum Tokyo
46: Undertaker
47: Trent Acid
48: Dragon Kid
49: Red
50: Lance Storm
2001
1. Steve Austin
2. Keiji Muto
3. Kurt Angle
4. Rob Van Dam
5. Yugi Nagata
6. The Rock
7. Minour Tanaka
8. Jun Akiyama
9. Triple H
10. Chris Jericho
11. Satoshi Kojima
12. Booker T
13. Chris Benoit
14. Jeff Hardy
15. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
16. Edge
17. Toshiaki Kawada
18. Genichiro Tenryu
19. Buh Buh Ray Dudley
20. Rhyno
21. Tatsuhito Takaiwa
22. Matt Hardy
23. Christian
24. D-Von Dudley
25. Yoshihiro Tajiri
26. Shinjiro Ohtani
27. Kensuke Sasaki
28. Jushin Liger
29. Shinya Hashimoto
30. Mitsuharu Misawa
31. Test
32. Taiyo Kea
33. Kanyon
34. El Samurai
35. Shane Helms
36. Doug Williams
37. Christopher Daniels
38. Bryan Danielson
39. Scott Steiner
40. William Regal
41. Johnny Storm
42. Vader
43. Alex Shane
44. Lance Storm
45. EZ Money
46. Kaz Hayashi
47. Billy Kidman
48. Low Ki
49. Kane
50. Sean Waltman
2000
1 HHH
2 Chris Beniot
3 The Rock
4 Yoshihiro Tajiri
5 Kenta Kobashi
6 Chris Jericho
7 Jeff Hardy
8 Shinjiro Ohtani
9 Rob Van Dam
10 Jun Akiyama
11 Kid Kash
12 Minoru Tanaka
13 Kurt Angle
14 Justin Credible
15 Toshiaki Kawada
16 Edge
17 Mike Awesome
18 Guido Maritato
19 Tatsuhito Takaiwa
20 Scott Steiner
21 Matt Hardy
22 Mitsuharu Misawa
23 Jeff Jarrett
24 Christian
25 Jerry Lynn
26 Lance Storm
27 X-Pac
28 Booker T
29 Kensuke Sasaki
30 Buh Buh Ray Dudley
31 Vader
32 DDP
33 Super Crazy
34 Koji Kanemoto
35 Dean Malenko
36 Rhino
37 Eddie Guerrero
38 Masato Tanaka
39 Jushin Liger
40 Genichiro Tenryu
41 Scotty Too Hotty
42 D-Von Dudley
43 Mick Foley
44 Keiji Muto
45 Kanyon
46 Grandmaster Sexay
47 Terry Funk
48 Val Venis
49 Steve Corino
50 Crash Holly
1999
1. Chris Benoit
2. Keiji Muto
3. Kenta Kobashi
4. The Rock
5. Steve Austin
6. Jerry lynn
7. Yugi Nagata
8. Shinjiro Ohtani
9. Rey Mysterio Jr.
10. Koji Kanemoto
11. Billy Kidman
12. Mitsuharu Misawa
13. Triple H
14. Diamond Dallas Page
15. Justin Credible
16. Jushin Liger
17. Juventud Guerrera
18. Jun Akiyama
19. Super Crazy
20. Mick Foley
21. Yoshihiro Tajiri
22. Jeff Hardy
23. Tatsuhito Takaiwa
24. Sabu
25. Satoshi Kojima
26. Vader
27. Christian
28. Toshiaki Kawada
29. Dean Malenko
30. Raven
31. Yoshinari Ogawa
32. Edge
33. Lance Storm
34. The Great Sasuke
35. Rob Van Dam
36. Bill Goldberg
37. Matt Hardy
38. Bam Bam Bigelow
39. Masato Tanaka
40. Jeff Jarrett
41. Sean Waltman
42. D-Lo Brown
43. Tazz
44. Perry Saturn
45. Bret Hart
46. Shane McMahon
47. Mike Awesome
48. Eddie Guerrero
49. Test
50. Hardcore Holly
1998
1. Steve Austin
2. Koji Kanemoto
3. Mick Foley
4. Chris Benoit
5. Jun Akiyama
6. Shinjiro Ohtani
7. Chris Jericho
8. Ken Shamrock
9. Jushin Liger
10. Billy Kidman
11. Kenta Kobashi
12. Jerry Lynn
13. The Rock
14. Diamond Dallas Page
15. Raven
16. Mitsuharu Misawa
17. Shinya Hashimoto
18. Satoshi Kojima
19. Juventud Guerrera
20. Masato Tanaka
21. El Samurai
22. Bam Bam Bigelow
23. Owen Hart
24. Booker T
25. Tatsuhito Takaiwa
26. Triple H
27. Dean Malenko
28. Toshiaki Kawada
29. Sean Waltman
30. Rob Van Dam
31. Ultimo Dragon
32. Eddie Guerrero
33. Justin Credible
34. Bret Hart
35. Lance Storm
36. Chavo Guerrero Jr.
37. Genichiro Tenryu
38. Terry Funk
39. Rey Mysterio Jr.
40. The Undertaker
41. Disco Inferno
42. D-Lo Brown
43. Sting
44. Chris Candido
45. Billy Gunn
46. Saturn
47. The Great Sasuke
48. Kanyon
49. The Road Dogg
50. Sabu
1997
1) Bret Hart
2) Jushin Liger
3) Shawn Michaels
4) Shijiro Ohtani
5) Eddie Guerrero
6) Ultimo Dragon
7) The Undertaker
8) Steve Austin
9) Mitsuharu Misawa
10) Diamond Dallas Page
11) El Samurai
12) Dean Malenko
13) Rey Misterio Jr.
14) Kenta Kobashi
15) Toshiaki Kawada
16) Shinya Hashimoto
17) Randy Savage
18) Chris Benoit
19) Koji Kanemoto
20) Sabu
21) Ken Shamrock
22) Mankind
23) Akira Taue
24) Davey Boy Smith
25) Curt Hennig
26) Owen Hart
27) Jun Akiyama
28) Kensuke Sasaki
29) Vader
30) Shane Douglas
31) Hiroyoshi Tenzan
32) Jeff Jarrett
33) Syxx
34) Taka Michinoku
35) Keiji Muto
36) The Great Sasuke
37) Taz
38) Booker T
39) Scott Steiner
40) Bam Bam Bigelow
41) Chris Candido
42) Masa Chono
43) Hunter Hearst-Helmsley
44) Marcus Bagwell
45) Chris Jericho
46) Rocky Maivia
47) Rob Van Dam
48) Brian Christopher
49) D-Von Dudley
50) Scott Hall
1996
1. Shawn Michaels
2. Kenta Kobashi
3. Dean Malenko
4. Sabu
5. Mick Foley
6. Rey Mysterio Jr.
7. The Great Sasuke
8. Mitsuharu Misawa
9. Steve Austin
10. Jushin Liger
11. Akira Taue
12. Shinya Hashimoto
13. Steve Williams
14. Chris Benoit
15. Bret Hart
16. Ultimo Dragon
17. Nobuhiko Takada
18. Toshiaki Kawada
19. Too Cold Scorpio
20. Shinjiro Ohtani
21. Davey Boy Smith
22. Perry Saturn
23. Shane Douglas
24. Jun Akiyama
25. Chris Jericho
26. Eddie Guerrero
27. Keiji Muto
28. Marc Mero/Johnny B. Badd
29. Owen Hart
30. Mikey Whipwreck
31. Johnny Ace
32. Triple H
33. Steven Regal
34. Psicosis
35. Pit Bull Two
36. Diamond Dallas Page
37. Kevin Nash
38. Shiro Koshinaka
39. John Kronus
40. Rob Van Dam
41. Raven
42. Dustin Rhodes
43. Tazz
44. Stevie Richards
45. Scott Hall
46. Riki Choshu
47. Booker T
48. Vader
49. Ric Flair
50. The Sandman
1995
1. Mitsuharu Misawa
2. Chris Benoit
3. Shawn Michaels
4. Eddie Guerrero
5. Toshiaki Kawada
6. Bret Hart
7. Sabu
8. Kenta Kobashi
9. Keiji Muto
10. Ken Shamrock
11. Jushin Liger
12. Koji Kanemoto
13. Too Cold Scorpio
14. Dean Malenko
15. Ginsei Shinzaki
16. Nobuhiko Takada
17. Rey Mysterio Jr.
18. Akira Taue
19. Marty Jannetty
20. Mick Foley
21. Johnny Ace
22. Vader
23. Sean Waltman
24. Mikey Whipwreck
25. Alex Wright
26. Davey Boy Smith
27. Psicosis
28. Brian Pillman
29. Owen Hart
30. Rocko Rock
31. Al Snow
32. The Great Sasuke
33. Raven
34. Terry Funk
35. Triple H
36. Ultimo Dragon
37. Scott Hall
38. Johnny B. Badd
39. Arn Anderson
40. Steve Austin
41. Ric Flair
42. Chris Candido
43. Bam Bam Bigelow
44. Hayabusa
45. Scott Steiner
46. The Sandman
47. The Head Hunter(s)
48. Kevin Nash
49. Shane Douglas
50. La Parka
1994
1. Shawn Michaels
2. Chris Benoit
3. Toshiaki Kawada
4. Mitsuharu Misawa
5. Jushin Liger
6. Bret Hart
7. Steve Williams
8. Sabu
9. Nobuhiko Takada
10. Vader
11. Steve Austin
12. Kenta Kobashi
13. Too Cold Scorpio
14. Art Barr
15. Hiroshi Hase
16. Sean Waltman
17. Shane Douglas
18. Terry Funk
19. The Great Sasuke
20. Keiji Muto
21. Eddie Guerrero
22. Owen Hart
23. Mick Foley
24. Stan Hansen
25. Brian Pillman
26. Jimmy Del Ray
27. Tracey Smothers
28. Dan Kroffat
29. Ultimo Dragon
30. Sting
31. Rey Mysterio Jr.
32. Tom Prichard
33. Ginsei Shinzaki
34. Psicosis
35. Bam Bam Bigelow
36. Ricky Steamboat
37. Scott Steiner
38. Kevin Nash
39. Chris Candido
40. Arn Anderson
41. Super Delfin
42. Heavy Metal
43. The Patriot
44. Billy Gunn
45. Dustin Rhodes
46. Scott Hall
47. Rocko Rock
48. Mike Awesome
49. Hulk Hogan
50. Steven Regal
Thanks to Crippler for his help collecting this data!
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Friday, December 15, 2006
Adaptation in Wrestling
Q: Explain how species adapt to changing environments to enhance
survival and reproductive success, including changes in structure,
behavior, or physiology and give examples.
By Zip Whittle
Throughout history organisms have adapted to their changing
environments in order to enhance their survival and reproductive
success. Successful transformations have involved bringing sexual
partners closer to a creature's natural habitat, finding adaptive
advantages within ecological limitations and developing the use
colorful marks in order to confuse and disorient your enemies. These
behavioral and structural alterations have been implemented both
through biological evolution and organic realization.
For most of the 20th Century, the halls of smoky-filled arenas were
filled with professional wrestlers each limited in their ability to
seek appropriate mating partners. Often, wrestlers would be forced to
take turns with rats and stunt grannies in order to fulfill their
carnal urges. However, in the 1980s an adaptation displayed by
promoters uncovered a new way to satisfy the wrestler's insatiable
sexual cravings. Instead of traveling town to town searching for
lustful encounters, the promoters would simply bring along a female
valet. For instance, World Class Championship Wrestling hired Missy
Hyatt in 1985 for the purposes of satisfying the wrestler's wanton
carnal hankerings when confused young ring boys simply would not do.
Some scientists speculated that this adaptation could not be further
improved. However, nature continues to amaze and prevail. In 2004,
the world was stunned to learn that within the nesting environment of
Vincacious McMahonicus a new species, DIVASEARCH DIMWITICUS, had been
discovered! Research into this whole new genus had already led to
breakthroughs in many fields including luggage/fecal matter cleaning
innovations as well as explaining the rise of back injuries among
blonds in Kentucky (the so-called Billard-Rogers conundrum).
Millions of years ago, many giant dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Yet,
after the Xenu coordinated the asteroid strike on the planet, it was
the smaller, more agile creatures which survived to the next age.
While the towering Tyrannosaurus Rex struggled to find enough food to
eat and eventually became extinct, fossil records demonstrate that the
smaller, cleverer Velociraptor survived much longer. While brain size
(especially in ratio to body mass) could have played a role in the
positive adaptations which benefited the Raptors, there were other
behavioral differences which benefited the one species of terrible
thunder lizard far greater than the other. While both faced with the
same changing planetscape and similar predators, the Velociraptor was
better adapted to the new environment. Similarly, the modern saga of
the "Big Man" in professional wrestling has always pitted natural
enemies: Behemoths vs. Gravity. Compare "Psycho" Sid Euly to Nathan
"Wacky Spinkick" Jones. Neither rain nor snow nor squeegees nor
softball season nor prison could fully stop either lumbering beast.
However, the powerful ability of being "absolutely batshit crazy" has
preserved Jones in relative good health while Euly career ended
following a horrific bone breakage from lack of sufficient calcium in
his weekly steroids. Again, we see that within creatures of the same
size, mental capacity will play an important role.
In nature, the use of color has always had an interesting correlation
to both speed and craziness. In the beginning there was the Destroyer
(DESTROYER EXECO), and it was good. While the speed was slow, the
sanity was normal. But lo, as time rolled on, the mask evolved.
Masks added colors, horns, levers and eventually when combined Paso
devaluation these entire species evolved. This new class was quicker
but far more insane with notable examples such as such Nicho Psicosis
(WATERPISTOLIO INSANACO). This remarkable evolution has come so far
that in some remote locations, like Australia, the creatures are known
to remove all their clothes (including the distinctive masks) and
operate in the broad daylight (see Juvi Guerrera -NAKEDONE INSANACO).
A parasite is a life form that has evolutionally adapted the
phylogenetically ability to feed off another living organism's
resources in a non-symbiotic fashion. A prime example would be the
Brock Lesnar (species: CARNIVORA SOUTHDAKOTIUS) and Rena "Sable" Mero
(MILFANIOUS HAGGARDFACIOUS). With each successive ridiculous chest
tattoo, the female indvidiaul borrows further into the checkbook of
the male. After a series of several years and several pounds of drug
medication, the creatures become completely inseparable. This
adaptation can also be seen in other places in the animal kingdom such
as K-Fed/Brittany and Helter Skelter/Indy Wrestling.
As you can clearly see, species adapt to changing environments to
enhance survival and reproductive success.
survival and reproductive success, including changes in structure,
behavior, or physiology and give examples.
By Zip Whittle
Throughout history organisms have adapted to their changing
environments in order to enhance their survival and reproductive
success. Successful transformations have involved bringing sexual
partners closer to a creature's natural habitat, finding adaptive
advantages within ecological limitations and developing the use
colorful marks in order to confuse and disorient your enemies. These
behavioral and structural alterations have been implemented both
through biological evolution and organic realization.
For most of the 20th Century, the halls of smoky-filled arenas were
filled with professional wrestlers each limited in their ability to
seek appropriate mating partners. Often, wrestlers would be forced to
take turns with rats and stunt grannies in order to fulfill their
carnal urges. However, in the 1980s an adaptation displayed by
promoters uncovered a new way to satisfy the wrestler's insatiable
sexual cravings. Instead of traveling town to town searching for
lustful encounters, the promoters would simply bring along a female
valet. For instance, World Class Championship Wrestling hired Missy
Hyatt in 1985 for the purposes of satisfying the wrestler's wanton
carnal hankerings when confused young ring boys simply would not do.
Some scientists speculated that this adaptation could not be further
improved. However, nature continues to amaze and prevail. In 2004,
the world was stunned to learn that within the nesting environment of
Vincacious McMahonicus a new species, DIVASEARCH DIMWITICUS, had been
discovered! Research into this whole new genus had already led to
breakthroughs in many fields including luggage/fecal matter cleaning
innovations as well as explaining the rise of back injuries among
blonds in Kentucky (the so-called Billard-Rogers conundrum).
Millions of years ago, many giant dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Yet,
after the Xenu coordinated the asteroid strike on the planet, it was
the smaller, more agile creatures which survived to the next age.
While the towering Tyrannosaurus Rex struggled to find enough food to
eat and eventually became extinct, fossil records demonstrate that the
smaller, cleverer Velociraptor survived much longer. While brain size
(especially in ratio to body mass) could have played a role in the
positive adaptations which benefited the Raptors, there were other
behavioral differences which benefited the one species of terrible
thunder lizard far greater than the other. While both faced with the
same changing planetscape and similar predators, the Velociraptor was
better adapted to the new environment. Similarly, the modern saga of
the "Big Man" in professional wrestling has always pitted natural
enemies: Behemoths vs. Gravity. Compare "Psycho" Sid Euly to Nathan
"Wacky Spinkick" Jones. Neither rain nor snow nor squeegees nor
softball season nor prison could fully stop either lumbering beast.
However, the powerful ability of being "absolutely batshit crazy" has
preserved Jones in relative good health while Euly career ended
following a horrific bone breakage from lack of sufficient calcium in
his weekly steroids. Again, we see that within creatures of the same
size, mental capacity will play an important role.
In nature, the use of color has always had an interesting correlation
to both speed and craziness. In the beginning there was the Destroyer
(DESTROYER EXECO), and it was good. While the speed was slow, the
sanity was normal. But lo, as time rolled on, the mask evolved.
Masks added colors, horns, levers and eventually when combined Paso
devaluation these entire species evolved. This new class was quicker
but far more insane with notable examples such as such Nicho Psicosis
(WATERPISTOLIO INSANACO). This remarkable evolution has come so far
that in some remote locations, like Australia, the creatures are known
to remove all their clothes (including the distinctive masks) and
operate in the broad daylight (see Juvi Guerrera -NAKEDONE INSANACO).
A parasite is a life form that has evolutionally adapted the
phylogenetically ability to feed off another living organism's
resources in a non-symbiotic fashion. A prime example would be the
Brock Lesnar (species: CARNIVORA SOUTHDAKOTIUS) and Rena "Sable" Mero
(MILFANIOUS HAGGARDFACIOUS). With each successive ridiculous chest
tattoo, the female indvidiaul borrows further into the checkbook of
the male. After a series of several years and several pounds of drug
medication, the creatures become completely inseparable. This
adaptation can also be seen in other places in the animal kingdom such
as K-Fed/Brittany and Helter Skelter/Indy Wrestling.
As you can clearly see, species adapt to changing environments to
enhance survival and reproductive success.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
WWE QTRLY FINANCIALS (report by Zip Whittle)
Highlights of the WWE fiscal quarter lasting 7/29/06 until 10/27/06 (released 12/5/06)
Pay-Per-View REVENUE
2Q 2006 = $18.6m in PPV revenue vs 2Q 2005 = $18.8m in PPV revenue.
“International buys comprised approx. 36% of total buys this quarter vs 40% total buys prior year quarter.”
Remember: PPVs cost $5 more domestically in 2006 vs 2005.
Summerslam 06 – 528k buys (Hogan/Orton, Edge/Cena, DX vs McMahons, Flair/Foley, Batista/Booker)
Summerslam 05 – 534k buys (Hogan/HBK, Batista/JBL, Cena/Jericho, Orton/UT, Rey/Eddy Ladder)
SS06 = $13.5m (338k buys domestic) / SS05 = $11.2m (320k buys domestic) +$2.3m/17.5k buys.
Unforgiven 06 – 290k buys (Cena/Edge TLC, Trish/Lita Retirement, DX/McMahons/BS HIAC)
Unforgiven 05 – 225k buys (Cena/Angle, HBK/Masters, Hardy/Edge Cage, Flair/Carlito)
UF06 = $7.4m (186k buys domestic) / UF05 = $4.7m (135k buys domestic) +$2.7m/50k buys.
No Mercy 06 – 195k buys (Booker/Lashley/Batista/Finlay, Benoit/Regal, Rey/Chavo FallsCountAnywhere, MVP debut, Kennedy/UT, Hardy/Helms)
No Mercy 05 – 219k buys (Batista/Eddy, Ortons/UT Casket, JBL/Rey, Benoit/Christian/OJ/Booker)
NM06 = $5.0m (125k buys domestic) / NM05 = $4.6m (131k buys domestic) +$0.4m/-6.6k buys.
ECW is tanking the attendance average.
NA attendance average: 4000 (w/ ECW), 5200 (w/o ECW). ECW averages 1200 ($25 ticket).
Last year NA attendance: 4300.
ECW TV is generating about $1.4m in TV rights this quarter. The live events generated about $800k.
Venue Merchandise totaled $4.2m (vs last year’s $3m). Per head, that’s $11.20/fan at live event.
Hulk Hogan 3-disc DVD sold about 200k units. VKM, History of WWE Championship #s not quoted.
Magazine revenue is slightly up ($3.4m vs $3.1m) – recognizes the new WWE magazine which replaced RAW/Smackdown magazines.
WWE CONFERENCE CALL Q&A HIGHLIGHTS
There was the usual babble about nitpicking this margin or that, some questions about their new Genius distribution deal and clarification of "other income". Here were the short highlights:
• International buys PPV this quarter was about 36% compared to 40% last year over this same time frame. They explained it as "cooling in the international market, particularly Italy where previously the product had been very hot." (Again, they never frame it as domestic buyrates falling, only international segment growing!).
• Did they think NA attendance could continue to grow? In short, yes. It's gone up 7 consecutive quarters and is now averaging 5200/live event (excluding ECW). Linda noted their peak was something like 9500, so they believed they could continue to grow. (If you leave ECW's attendance average in, then there is actually a drop this quarter compared to last year's time. So, this is probably another reason they want to not include the ECW empty venues.)
• They are shipping over a million units of "See No Evil" and expect to sell around a million copies.
• The "sell-through rate" (I presume this is sent-to-store:people-actually-buying it) dropped a bit this quarter compared to last year at the same time. In particular, last year's Undertaker DVD was very successful with a sell-through rate of about 80%.
The two most interesting topics covered were: (1) brand management, (2) thoughts on IFL going public
Bob Jenkins – Schafer Capital Management
QUESTION: Brand Management: Why not have them as three separate & distinct brands, ran by three different people, set up their own budgets and keep them independent; no mingling of wrestlers except in special occasions? Because right now it seems like all three brands seems homogenized into just one entity – no difference between the three and gives the viewer no reason to check out any other brand over one?
Linda McMahon: Clearly, our entire goal was have these three brands to have them as stand-alone brands. However, the decision we made when we first separated the RAW & Smackdown brands was to provide us with opportunity to reach different audiences on Cable and on Broadcast. Also, to give us and different touring teams so we could increase our international live events. All of which we have done.
We've spent the last four to five years in the brand separation. And now We've found that you can still create more rivalaries sometimes by crossing over the brands, no different than if you have a different
league competing with another. So, part of the cross-over effect has been the increasing of that competitive factor.
We also look as ECW is a developmental brand. It also gives us an opportunity to launch newer talent through there. I think we're accomplishing the goals that we set out when we first started:
* Give us the opportunity to create more stars by having the two brands and now adding ECW.
* Providing the opportunity for greater international growth
* More licensing products off the two brands, and now the three brands with ECW. And ECW is growing slowly.
Your question really is "why not make them even more distinct?" I think we have created even more distinct brands and since they are now created distinctly we have the opportunity to cross-promote and have some of the talent migrate back and forth across the different brands. So that we can increase the storylines and continue to grow all the brands in our total business.
Thoughts on IFL going public. (Jefferies & Company, Inc. - Robert Routh)
Linda McMahon: IFL and UFC are "good competitors in the marketplace for sporting programs. Good demo reach for them. And clearly a growing sport. We're taking a look at too and even announced last week that we had the folks from Pride in to meet with us. We having an opportunity to look at the developmental of that particular business as well." (WWE likes to pretend Pride is #1 in the World as a way of slighting UFC. They actually had an offer to buy UFC back in the SEG days with Shane McMahon interested in running it but obviously that wasn’t persued.)
The last interesting thing was in response to a question by James Clement from Sidotti & Company, LLC. He asked about whether the decrease in "prior event buys" in the PPV category meant that they were getting closer estimates from the providers. WWE responded that while "international business means that reporting timeline is slower. On balance going forward, don't expect big adjustments that we've seen in the past. Initial forecasts are better than previously reported."
Pay-Per-View REVENUE
2Q 2006 = $18.6m in PPV revenue vs 2Q 2005 = $18.8m in PPV revenue.
“International buys comprised approx. 36% of total buys this quarter vs 40% total buys prior year quarter.”
Remember: PPVs cost $5 more domestically in 2006 vs 2005.
Summerslam 06 – 528k buys (Hogan/Orton, Edge/Cena, DX vs McMahons, Flair/Foley, Batista/Booker)
Summerslam 05 – 534k buys (Hogan/HBK, Batista/JBL, Cena/Jericho, Orton/UT, Rey/Eddy Ladder)
SS06 = $13.5m (338k buys domestic) / SS05 = $11.2m (320k buys domestic) +$2.3m/17.5k buys.
Unforgiven 06 – 290k buys (Cena/Edge TLC, Trish/Lita Retirement, DX/McMahons/BS HIAC)
Unforgiven 05 – 225k buys (Cena/Angle, HBK/Masters, Hardy/Edge Cage, Flair/Carlito)
UF06 = $7.4m (186k buys domestic) / UF05 = $4.7m (135k buys domestic) +$2.7m/50k buys.
No Mercy 06 – 195k buys (Booker/Lashley/Batista/Finlay, Benoit/Regal, Rey/Chavo FallsCountAnywhere, MVP debut, Kennedy/UT, Hardy/Helms)
No Mercy 05 – 219k buys (Batista/Eddy, Ortons/UT Casket, JBL/Rey, Benoit/Christian/OJ/Booker)
NM06 = $5.0m (125k buys domestic) / NM05 = $4.6m (131k buys domestic) +$0.4m/-6.6k buys.
ECW is tanking the attendance average.
NA attendance average: 4000 (w/ ECW), 5200 (w/o ECW). ECW averages 1200 ($25 ticket).
Last year NA attendance: 4300.
ECW TV is generating about $1.4m in TV rights this quarter. The live events generated about $800k.
Venue Merchandise totaled $4.2m (vs last year’s $3m). Per head, that’s $11.20/fan at live event.
Hulk Hogan 3-disc DVD sold about 200k units. VKM, History of WWE Championship #s not quoted.
Magazine revenue is slightly up ($3.4m vs $3.1m) – recognizes the new WWE magazine which replaced RAW/Smackdown magazines.
WWE CONFERENCE CALL Q&A HIGHLIGHTS
There was the usual babble about nitpicking this margin or that, some questions about their new Genius distribution deal and clarification of "other income". Here were the short highlights:
• International buys PPV this quarter was about 36% compared to 40% last year over this same time frame. They explained it as "cooling in the international market, particularly Italy where previously the product had been very hot." (Again, they never frame it as domestic buyrates falling, only international segment growing!).
• Did they think NA attendance could continue to grow? In short, yes. It's gone up 7 consecutive quarters and is now averaging 5200/live event (excluding ECW). Linda noted their peak was something like 9500, so they believed they could continue to grow. (If you leave ECW's attendance average in, then there is actually a drop this quarter compared to last year's time. So, this is probably another reason they want to not include the ECW empty venues.)
• They are shipping over a million units of "See No Evil" and expect to sell around a million copies.
• The "sell-through rate" (I presume this is sent-to-store:people-actually-buying it) dropped a bit this quarter compared to last year at the same time. In particular, last year's Undertaker DVD was very successful with a sell-through rate of about 80%.
The two most interesting topics covered were: (1) brand management, (2) thoughts on IFL going public
Bob Jenkins – Schafer Capital Management
QUESTION: Brand Management: Why not have them as three separate & distinct brands, ran by three different people, set up their own budgets and keep them independent; no mingling of wrestlers except in special occasions? Because right now it seems like all three brands seems homogenized into just one entity – no difference between the three and gives the viewer no reason to check out any other brand over one?
Linda McMahon: Clearly, our entire goal was have these three brands to have them as stand-alone brands. However, the decision we made when we first separated the RAW & Smackdown brands was to provide us with opportunity to reach different audiences on Cable and on Broadcast. Also, to give us and different touring teams so we could increase our international live events. All of which we have done.
We've spent the last four to five years in the brand separation. And now We've found that you can still create more rivalaries sometimes by crossing over the brands, no different than if you have a different
league competing with another. So, part of the cross-over effect has been the increasing of that competitive factor.
We also look as ECW is a developmental brand. It also gives us an opportunity to launch newer talent through there. I think we're accomplishing the goals that we set out when we first started:
* Give us the opportunity to create more stars by having the two brands and now adding ECW.
* Providing the opportunity for greater international growth
* More licensing products off the two brands, and now the three brands with ECW. And ECW is growing slowly.
Your question really is "why not make them even more distinct?" I think we have created even more distinct brands and since they are now created distinctly we have the opportunity to cross-promote and have some of the talent migrate back and forth across the different brands. So that we can increase the storylines and continue to grow all the brands in our total business.
Thoughts on IFL going public. (Jefferies & Company, Inc. - Robert Routh)
Linda McMahon: IFL and UFC are "good competitors in the marketplace for sporting programs. Good demo reach for them. And clearly a growing sport. We're taking a look at too and even announced last week that we had the folks from Pride in to meet with us. We having an opportunity to look at the developmental of that particular business as well." (WWE likes to pretend Pride is #1 in the World as a way of slighting UFC. They actually had an offer to buy UFC back in the SEG days with Shane McMahon interested in running it but obviously that wasn’t persued.)
The last interesting thing was in response to a question by James Clement from Sidotti & Company, LLC. He asked about whether the decrease in "prior event buys" in the PPV category meant that they were getting closer estimates from the providers. WWE responded that while "international business means that reporting timeline is slower. On balance going forward, don't expect big adjustments that we've seen in the past. Initial forecasts are better than previously reported."
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
IWW notes 12/3/06
Roddy Piper –
Lymphoma Cancer
Age 52
Left the UK Tour from great pain & mass in his back
Drank seven red bulls at a Fan Fest shortly before his recent surgery
Jim Ross –
Contract Expired 10/29
Signed One-Year Contract Extension
Dave Taylor – Returning to TV despite a torn meniscus
Wrestlemania in Detroit (rumors) – Batista vs Undertaker (TITLE VS STREAK)
Hardy Boyz –
Unknown how long they’ll stay together
They were very hot on RAW & ECW
Helped draw RAW 3.8 (3.6 / 3.9)
Helped draw ECW 1.8 (up from 1.6 avg)
ECW PPV (THIS SUNDAY) –
Hardyz vs MNM
Bob Holly vs Sandman
RVD vs Big Show vs Sabu vs CM Punk vs Test vs Lashley
(EXTREME ELIMINATION CHAMBER)
Candace – Broke her nose while wrestling Victoria on RAW. Same town where Victoria broke Beth Phoenix’s jaw! Also where Charlie Haas knocked Lillian Garcia off the apron.
Ric Flair –
He might have some time off to deal with his divorce with Beth but overall isn’t expected to be leaving the company anytime soon. Who knows what he’s going do? Some speculate that 2007 will be his last year, but honestly they’ve been saying that for almost two decades.
Rey Mysterio –
Contract with WWE until Spring 2007
Unlikely to jump to TNA
Rumored to have a low downside guarantee like <$100k
Chris Benoit – Just resigned a long-term contract and unlikely to go anywhere
Monty Brown – Signed with WWE
Trish Stratus –
Shooting new reality show with Erik Estrada, Latoya Jackson, Wee Man (Jackass), and Jack Osbourne (Ozzy’s Son) working the streets of Muncie, IN as “legit police officers”.
WWE is going after E-Feds
Indy Wrestler Nick Berk (maybe from OVW?) was the guy pretending to be Kramer on the CT skit.
“We Want Angle” chants in Philly at RAW on Monday Night.
UFC is either in the final stages of purchasing or has already purchased the Lemoore, CA-based World Extreme Cagefighting promotion. Why?
Tim Sylvia wanted to fight Fedor when he heard that Chuck might fight Liddell a few months ago. In other news, Luke Cuomo is challenging the Sun to a no-holds barred match.
TNA on Thanksgiving Quarter hour ratings were 0.87, 0.85, 0.85 and 0.88. Could be a lot worse!
See No Evil DVD has been released. Again, why was this not ready in time for Halloween?
The Marine (10/13 release) DVD/UMD is rumored to be released in 1/30/07. There will be both PG-13 and UNRATED versions. If there is any nudity on the unrated version, the person will probably still be on fire. IMDB has the movie grossing $18.3m thus far versus the $15-$20m budget including advertising.
TNA’s Houseshow in Mexico at Monterray drew about 4200 fans (in a 18k building). They said they’d return in May 2007 for a “Champions Cup”. All wrestlers were TNA though some AAA appeared:
* AMW beat Naturals in a match with a Powder finish.
* Ron Killings beat Robert Rude.
Jeff Jarrett & Konnan (with AAA’s Cibernetico, Javier Gonzalez, Joaquin Roldan) did promos.
* AJ Styles beat Eric Young & Petey Williams in a three-way.
* LAX (Konnan & Senshi) beat Kip James & BG James.
* Christian beat Rhino in a Monster’s Ball match that involved crowd brawling.
* Angle beating Abyss. Abyss was said to look so bad that he made Angle look bad.
No TNA merchandise was available for purchasing and Fans were not happy about that.
TNA Conference Call: don’t expect Warrior or Goldberg anytime soon. Called the Dupp Cup the worst thing TNA ever did. (That’s worse than midgets in garbage cans doing unmentionable things?)
Meltzer suggested that TNA Genesis was looking at their best buyrate ever, probably 50-60k based on feedback. It’s always difficult to predict purely on internet feedback but I’d expect this is true because:
a) Joe/Angle was a big deal match that people hadn’t seen before. This was Kurt Angle’s first appearance on TNA PPV. This was a match that appealed to new/casual fans. Even Biff Chedderhead (Biff from Tampa) made the effort to attend the PPV which he’s never bothered to do anytime in the past.
b) TNA’s audience is very much on the internet, much more than WWE’s audience. This means that internet feedback is a much better representation of who was buying the PPVs. In WWE, the “internet” audience represents a smaller percentage and therefore their feedback levels aren’t necessarily as indiciative of the audience as a whole.
c) We’re dealing with a much smaller buyrate numbers. Consider this - A weak WWE PPV will do over a 150,000 buys. When WWE presented the first ECW: ONS, there was an enormous outpouring of feedback to wrestling sites leading many people to speculate that this PPV would do BIG FOUR (RR, SS, SurvSeries, WM) #s. In the end, it posted remarkable but not incredible numbers. However, the estimating process for a WWE PPV involves a much bigger multiplier.
“Samoa Joe beat Forrest Griffin of UFC last week. Seriously. It was in a charity video game tournament, though. Joe earned $6,000 for the Autism Society of America and Forrest won $4,000 for the USO.”
Director’s Cut of “Heroes of World Class” will be released next month at rightherepictures.com
WSX (MTV promotion) is scheduled to debut at the end of January 2007.
Michelle McCool was hospitalized for about a week over Thanksgiving due to an enlarged kidney and electrolyte imbalance.
IFL announced today that they are now a publicly traded company.
Lymphoma Cancer
Age 52
Left the UK Tour from great pain & mass in his back
Drank seven red bulls at a Fan Fest shortly before his recent surgery
Jim Ross –
Contract Expired 10/29
Signed One-Year Contract Extension
Dave Taylor – Returning to TV despite a torn meniscus
Wrestlemania in Detroit (rumors) – Batista vs Undertaker (TITLE VS STREAK)
Hardy Boyz –
Unknown how long they’ll stay together
They were very hot on RAW & ECW
Helped draw RAW 3.8 (3.6 / 3.9)
Helped draw ECW 1.8 (up from 1.6 avg)
ECW PPV (THIS SUNDAY) –
Hardyz vs MNM
Bob Holly vs Sandman
RVD vs Big Show vs Sabu vs CM Punk vs Test vs Lashley
(EXTREME ELIMINATION CHAMBER)
Candace – Broke her nose while wrestling Victoria on RAW. Same town where Victoria broke Beth Phoenix’s jaw! Also where Charlie Haas knocked Lillian Garcia off the apron.
Ric Flair –
He might have some time off to deal with his divorce with Beth but overall isn’t expected to be leaving the company anytime soon. Who knows what he’s going do? Some speculate that 2007 will be his last year, but honestly they’ve been saying that for almost two decades.
Rey Mysterio –
Contract with WWE until Spring 2007
Unlikely to jump to TNA
Rumored to have a low downside guarantee like <$100k
Chris Benoit – Just resigned a long-term contract and unlikely to go anywhere
Monty Brown – Signed with WWE
Trish Stratus –
Shooting new reality show with Erik Estrada, Latoya Jackson, Wee Man (Jackass), and Jack Osbourne (Ozzy’s Son) working the streets of Muncie, IN as “legit police officers”.
WWE is going after E-Feds
Indy Wrestler Nick Berk (maybe from OVW?) was the guy pretending to be Kramer on the CT skit.
“We Want Angle” chants in Philly at RAW on Monday Night.
UFC is either in the final stages of purchasing or has already purchased the Lemoore, CA-based World Extreme Cagefighting promotion. Why?
Tim Sylvia wanted to fight Fedor when he heard that Chuck might fight Liddell a few months ago. In other news, Luke Cuomo is challenging the Sun to a no-holds barred match.
TNA on Thanksgiving Quarter hour ratings were 0.87, 0.85, 0.85 and 0.88. Could be a lot worse!
See No Evil DVD has been released. Again, why was this not ready in time for Halloween?
The Marine (10/13 release) DVD/UMD is rumored to be released in 1/30/07. There will be both PG-13 and UNRATED versions. If there is any nudity on the unrated version, the person will probably still be on fire. IMDB has the movie grossing $18.3m thus far versus the $15-$20m budget including advertising.
TNA’s Houseshow in Mexico at Monterray drew about 4200 fans (in a 18k building). They said they’d return in May 2007 for a “Champions Cup”. All wrestlers were TNA though some AAA appeared:
* AMW beat Naturals in a match with a Powder finish.
* Ron Killings beat Robert Rude.
Jeff Jarrett & Konnan (with AAA’s Cibernetico, Javier Gonzalez, Joaquin Roldan) did promos.
* AJ Styles beat Eric Young & Petey Williams in a three-way.
* LAX (Konnan & Senshi) beat Kip James & BG James.
* Christian beat Rhino in a Monster’s Ball match that involved crowd brawling.
* Angle beating Abyss. Abyss was said to look so bad that he made Angle look bad.
No TNA merchandise was available for purchasing and Fans were not happy about that.
TNA Conference Call: don’t expect Warrior or Goldberg anytime soon. Called the Dupp Cup the worst thing TNA ever did. (That’s worse than midgets in garbage cans doing unmentionable things?)
Meltzer suggested that TNA Genesis was looking at their best buyrate ever, probably 50-60k based on feedback. It’s always difficult to predict purely on internet feedback but I’d expect this is true because:
a) Joe/Angle was a big deal match that people hadn’t seen before. This was Kurt Angle’s first appearance on TNA PPV. This was a match that appealed to new/casual fans. Even Biff Chedderhead (Biff from Tampa) made the effort to attend the PPV which he’s never bothered to do anytime in the past.
b) TNA’s audience is very much on the internet, much more than WWE’s audience. This means that internet feedback is a much better representation of who was buying the PPVs. In WWE, the “internet” audience represents a smaller percentage and therefore their feedback levels aren’t necessarily as indiciative of the audience as a whole.
c) We’re dealing with a much smaller buyrate numbers. Consider this - A weak WWE PPV will do over a 150,000 buys. When WWE presented the first ECW: ONS, there was an enormous outpouring of feedback to wrestling sites leading many people to speculate that this PPV would do BIG FOUR (RR, SS, SurvSeries, WM) #s. In the end, it posted remarkable but not incredible numbers. However, the estimating process for a WWE PPV involves a much bigger multiplier.
“Samoa Joe beat Forrest Griffin of UFC last week. Seriously. It was in a charity video game tournament, though. Joe earned $6,000 for the Autism Society of America and Forrest won $4,000 for the USO.”
Director’s Cut of “Heroes of World Class” will be released next month at rightherepictures.com
WSX (MTV promotion) is scheduled to debut at the end of January 2007.
Michelle McCool was hospitalized for about a week over Thanksgiving due to an enlarged kidney and electrolyte imbalance.
IFL announced today that they are now a publicly traded company.
IWW covers latest WWE Conference Call Q&A (12/5/06)
, I just listened to this quarter's Q&A for the WWE Conference Call.
There was the usual babble about nitpicking this margin or that, some
questions about their new Genius distribution deal and clarification
of "other income". Here were the short highlights:
• International buys PPV this quarter was about 36% compared to 40%
last year over this same time frame. They explained it as "cooling in
the international market, particularly Italy where previously the
product had been very hot." (Again, they never frame it as domestic
buyrates falling, only international segment growing!).
• Did they think NA attendance could continue to grow? In short, yes.
It's gone up 7 consecutive quarters and is now averaging 5200/live
event (excluding ECW). Linda noted their peak was something like 9500,
so they believed they could continue to grow. (If you leave ECW's
attendance average in, then there is actually a drop this quarter
compared to last year's time. So, this is probably another reason they
want to not include the ECW empty venues.)
• They are shipping over a million units of "See No Evil" and expect
to sell around a million copies.
• The "sell-through rate" (I presume this is
sent-to-store:people-actually-buying it) dropped a bit this quarter
compared to last year at the same time. In particular, last year's
Undertaker DVD was very successful with a sell-through rate of about
80%.
The two most interesting topics covered were:
(1) whether the three separate brands should be managed independently
and (2) IFL going public. I tried to write down Linda's answers as
closely as possible.
Bob Jenkins – Schafer Capital Management
QUESTION: Brand Management:
Why not have them as three separate & distinct brands, ran by three
different people, set up their own budgets and keep them independent;
no mingling of wrestlers except in special occasions?
Because right now it seems like all three brands seems homogenized
into just one entity – no difference between the three and gives the
viewer no reason to check out any other brand over one?
Linda McMahon: Clearly, our entire goal was have these three brands to
have them as stand-alone brands. However, the decision we made when we
first separated the RAW & Smackdown brands was to provide us with
opportunity to reach different audiences on Cable and on Broadcast.
Also, to give us and different touring teams so we could increase our
international live events. All of which we have done.
We've spent the last four to five years in the brand separation. And
now We've found that you can still create more rivalaries sometimes by
crossing over the brands, no different than if you have a different
league competing with another. So, part of the cross-over effect has
been the increasing of that competitive factor.
We also look as ECW is a developmental brand. It also gives us an
opportunity to launch newer talent through there. I think we're
accomplishing the goals that we set out when we first started:
* Give us the opportunity to create more stars by having the two
brands and now adding ECW.
* Providing the opportunity for greater international growth
* More licensing products off the two brands, and now the three brands
with ECW. And ECW is growing slowly.
Your question really is "why not make them even more distinct?" I
think we have created even more distinct brands and since they are now
created distinctly we have the opportunity to cross-promote and have
some of the talent migrate back and forth across the different brands.
So that we can increase the storylines and continue to grow all the
brands in our total business.
(endquote)
Thoughts on IFL going public. (Jefferies & Company, Inc. - Robert Routh)
Linda McMahon: IFL and UFC are "good competitors in the marketplace
for sporting programs. Good demo reach for them. And clearly a growing
sport. We're taking a look at too and even announced last week that we
had the folks from Pride in to meet with us. We having an opportunity
to look at the developmental of that particular business as well."
(endquote)
The last interesting thing was in response to a question by James
Clement from Sidotti & Company, LLC. He asked about whether the
decrease in "prior event buys" in the PPV category meant that they
were getting closer estimates from the providers. WWE responsed that
while "international business means that reporting timeline is slower.
On balance going forward, don't expect big adjustments that we've
seen in the past. Initial forecasts are better than previously
reported."
There was the usual babble about nitpicking this margin or that, some
questions about their new Genius distribution deal and clarification
of "other income". Here were the short highlights:
• International buys PPV this quarter was about 36% compared to 40%
last year over this same time frame. They explained it as "cooling in
the international market, particularly Italy where previously the
product had been very hot." (Again, they never frame it as domestic
buyrates falling, only international segment growing!).
• Did they think NA attendance could continue to grow? In short, yes.
It's gone up 7 consecutive quarters and is now averaging 5200/live
event (excluding ECW). Linda noted their peak was something like 9500,
so they believed they could continue to grow. (If you leave ECW's
attendance average in, then there is actually a drop this quarter
compared to last year's time. So, this is probably another reason they
want to not include the ECW empty venues.)
• They are shipping over a million units of "See No Evil" and expect
to sell around a million copies.
• The "sell-through rate" (I presume this is
sent-to-store:people-actually-buying it) dropped a bit this quarter
compared to last year at the same time. In particular, last year's
Undertaker DVD was very successful with a sell-through rate of about
80%.
The two most interesting topics covered were:
(1) whether the three separate brands should be managed independently
and (2) IFL going public. I tried to write down Linda's answers as
closely as possible.
Bob Jenkins – Schafer Capital Management
QUESTION: Brand Management:
Why not have them as three separate & distinct brands, ran by three
different people, set up their own budgets and keep them independent;
no mingling of wrestlers except in special occasions?
Because right now it seems like all three brands seems homogenized
into just one entity – no difference between the three and gives the
viewer no reason to check out any other brand over one?
Linda McMahon: Clearly, our entire goal was have these three brands to
have them as stand-alone brands. However, the decision we made when we
first separated the RAW & Smackdown brands was to provide us with
opportunity to reach different audiences on Cable and on Broadcast.
Also, to give us and different touring teams so we could increase our
international live events. All of which we have done.
We've spent the last four to five years in the brand separation. And
now We've found that you can still create more rivalaries sometimes by
crossing over the brands, no different than if you have a different
league competing with another. So, part of the cross-over effect has
been the increasing of that competitive factor.
We also look as ECW is a developmental brand. It also gives us an
opportunity to launch newer talent through there. I think we're
accomplishing the goals that we set out when we first started:
* Give us the opportunity to create more stars by having the two
brands and now adding ECW.
* Providing the opportunity for greater international growth
* More licensing products off the two brands, and now the three brands
with ECW. And ECW is growing slowly.
Your question really is "why not make them even more distinct?" I
think we have created even more distinct brands and since they are now
created distinctly we have the opportunity to cross-promote and have
some of the talent migrate back and forth across the different brands.
So that we can increase the storylines and continue to grow all the
brands in our total business.
(endquote)
Thoughts on IFL going public. (Jefferies & Company, Inc. - Robert Routh)
Linda McMahon: IFL and UFC are "good competitors in the marketplace
for sporting programs. Good demo reach for them. And clearly a growing
sport. We're taking a look at too and even announced last week that we
had the folks from Pride in to meet with us. We having an opportunity
to look at the developmental of that particular business as well."
(endquote)
The last interesting thing was in response to a question by James
Clement from Sidotti & Company, LLC. He asked about whether the
decrease in "prior event buys" in the PPV category meant that they
were getting closer estimates from the providers. WWE responsed that
while "international business means that reporting timeline is slower.
On balance going forward, don't expect big adjustments that we've
seen in the past. Initial forecasts are better than previously
reported."
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