Indy PW News And Rumors - 4/23/2020
WWE had its first-quarter earnings call today right after the close of the stock market to report its performance. Here are some of the more notable items from the call:
The reason for the year-over-year increase was their TV rights fees mainly from FOX and USA, offset by reduced live event ticket revenue and merchandise sales.
Operating income was $53.3 million which is up from 2019 Q1 earnings of $6.8 million loss.
A record 46 million hours were consumed during WrestleMania week, up 28% from the prior year. Digital video views increased 25% to 9.6 billion and 344 million hours were consumed which is up 15%.
They addressed some of the changes they had to make due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They offset the loss of ticket and merchandise sales by reducing operating events and a "new model" for generating content.
It was confirmed that WWE 2K21 was not going to be released this year.
Vince McMahon at one point during the call stated: "we no longer have Brock Lesnar obviously".
For full details on the entire call, please feel free to click here.
It appears that Kairi Sane has wrestled her last match with WWE this past Monday on Raw as her contract is coming up at the end of this week. Rumors have surfaced about what her future looks like after WWE with her returning to Japan and returning to Stardom. Sane recently got married earlier this year and she made it known through her social media that the relationship was long-distance throughout her time in WWE.
WWE SummerSlam could be taking place outside of the performance center this year. Rumors are that the presentation of the show could have a look resembling WCW Nitro shows from Club La Vela. While Florida is still not fully open from the pandemic, it's possible the show, while with little to no crowd by the time the Summer rolls around, will at least have a different setting for the company's biggest show of the Summer.
On this week's Keepin' It 100 With Konnan during the Mass Republic segment, Konnan went a bit into how negotiations go in Lucha Libre when a Luchador loses his mask. Konnan went on to say the following: Basically what happens is one of two things. We can take the mask off of him and still do something with him. And the company goes to him and they "hey, are you interested in doing your mask? This is how much we have and then you go back and forth. Or a lot of times a wrestler comes up to you and this is probably the biggest thing you'll see. And they come up to you and they're like "hey, anytime you want to talk I am ready to lose my mask." So now you have it in the back burner and then when you're kind of ready you'll go, "okay, in how long do you want to do it?" and they'll usually say "well before the year is over or I want to do it at Triplemania, in two years, so...."
A rumor is flying around that UFC 249 will be held at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida on May 9th. It was recently reported that the state of Florida would allow sports back into the state so long as they were nationally televised. This was after WWE was deemed an essential business. UFC was looking to get the event in Las Vegas, NV at the UFC Apex, however, that may not appear to be the case.
As for the arena in Florida, it has been around since 2003 and has hosted a variety of sports events and concerts and has a seating capacity of 15,000. This show would be an empty arena show. An official announcement will be made soon from the UFC.