More change is on the way for WWE. And its not coming cheap

[Carbomb]

Can you imagine a Strikeforce or UFC with WrestleMania-level production like we've seen at the past three 'Manias? Bloody hell, that'd be good.

[King Pitcos]

It might be counter-productive. If Brock Lesnar came down to the octagon on a hoverboard from behind a giant video screen while a choir of sixty sings gospel songs and a million fireworks go off in the background, people might think UFC has gone too gaudy and ridiculous. UFC has to be careful in not borrowing too much from wrestling. Didn't they used to have silly wrestling-type stages and entrances at one point?

[Loki]

Hey, it works for the darts.

[King Pitcos]

Darts isn't a sport, though, it's a pub game.

[garynysmon]

* Off-Topic* Of course it's a Sport. If Archery is, so is Darts. * Off-Topic*

[Carbomb]

It might be counter-productive. If Brock Lesnar came down to the octagon on a hoverboard from behind a giant video screen while a choir of sixty sings gospel songs and a million fireworks go off in the background, people might think UFC has gone too gaudy and ridiculous. UFC has to be careful in not borrowing too much from wrestling. Didn't they used to have silly wrestling-type stages and entrances at one point?

 

PRIDE did - in fairness, though, it seems to work when not everyone does it. PRIDE's Sudo Genki became known for having crazy, themed entrances, and he became very popular. Mind you, this was in Japan where the pop culture loves the gimmickry and the puro, for the larger part, doesn't - it's all arse-about-face.

 

I wasn't thinking so much about the gimmicked entrances, though - more just the spectacular entrance-ways and pyros.

[RJ Impact]

PITCOS brings up a point I was gonna ask, but when did UFC start/stop using stages, screens etc.

 

I was watching the Chuck Liddell 'Iceman' dvd and noticed his entrance, its a shame UFC dont use any entrance way at all but ofcourse they get more fans in without, maybe a small lighting rig at the tunnell they come out kinda like in 'Rocky Balboa'.

[GlennCullen]

PITCOS brings up a point I was gonna ask, but when did UFC start/stop using stages, screens etc.

 

I was watching the Chuck Liddell 'Iceman' dvd and noticed his entrance, its a shame UFC dont use any entrance way at all but ofcourse they get more fans in without, maybe a small lighting rig at the tunnell they come out kinda like in 'Rocky Balboa'.

 

Dana did away with it for being too pro wrestling. There wasn't any pyro for Strikeforce last week either.

 

Their shares price is undoubtedly going to take a hit but it was always coming, they couldn't sustain the high dividend forever as they just paying for it out of their cash reserves. I guess the strategy is that any hit the company takes from savvy investors buying for the dividend will be made up for by the new investors once it diversifies and becomes even more profitable.

[DJ Kris]

"he think's he's learned" christ, can we list Vince's branching out failures please.

 

WBF

XFL

the music labels

the production company that made No Holds Barred

 

what else is there?

Was the music a failure though? WWE's record label has been around since 1985 and has released many albums. I don't know how well they all did, but I know WrestleMania: The Album did respectably over here with Slam Jam actually getting into the top 5 in the singles chart.

 

Wrestling is what the wwe does best so why are they trying to change that. the XFL flopped and have you seen the wwe movies there midday channel 5 material , shocking. Just stick to what they do best i say.

I actually like the movies WWE have put out and I know several non-fans who liked 12 Rounds, The Condemned and See No Evil. Just from a financial point of view, Legendary looks like a massive flop and I know there were issues with The Condemned relating to lack of promotion, but the others all seem to have turned a respectable profit. In fact when you factor in the DVD sales as well as box office I'd dare say all were profitable.

 

I always reckoned that TNA, like WCW, couldn't properly compete or overtake on it's own merits, it needed vince to fuck stuff up. With this I reckon he might just do it.

Vince fucking up wouldn't automatically make TNA any better though. In fact I'm not sure how many former WWE fans would jump to TNA just cos it's the only game in town. I know I probably wouldn't.

 

I know he owns the majority of the company but isn't he now accountable to the company's shareholders though? Can't imagine they'd be too happy about losing their huge dividends and potentially having their shares drop in price due to his outside business ventures not doing well, on top of which aren't the big dividends the main attraction for people wanting to buy WWE shares?

This is what I wanted to say. Vince has a resposibility to the shareholders, so he can't just go gambling the future of the company just because he wants to. He has to make sure it's a sound business move.

 

2. If WWE feel they're under threat from competition, they'll pull their thumbs out of their arses and start bringing back the absolute, top-drawer stuff they did before.

I really don't think they will. WWE don't see TNA as their competition, supposedly they're in different businesses and unlike the WCW situation, I think Vince will just think who cares, they're in Wrestling, we're not.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

In fact when you factor in the DVD sales as well as box office I'd dare say all were profitable.

Their film division hasnt turned a profit since it started. They do well on DVD sales, but they take a massive fucking according to the WWE yearly reports. And is it really worth selling a few DVD's of their films, when they'd easily make that much by putting out another Steve Austin 3 Disc DVD and do it without the cost of making a film? They've already lost over $1 Million already in 2011. Thats why I found it odd that they are doing this now, since last year PPV's, ratings, house show attendance and their film division are down from the previous year. They still rake in a shitload of money, but you would think they'd want to improve on the areas of business that are suffering right now than go outside the box.

[DJ Kris]

In fact when you factor in the DVD sales as well as box office I'd dare say all were profitable.

Their film division hasnt turned a profit since it started. They do well on DVD sales, but they take a massive fucking according to the WWE yearly reports. And is it really worth selling a few DVD's of their films, when they'd easily make that much by putting out another Steve Austin 3 Disc DVD and do it without the cost of making a film? They've already lost over $1 Million already in 2011. Thats why I found it odd that they are doing this now, since last year PPV's, ratings, house show attendance and their film division are down from the previous year. They still rake in a shitload of money, but you would think they'd want to improve on the areas of business that are suffering right now than go outside the box.

Admitted I'm only using Wiki as a source so WWE's yearly reports (which I haven't read in a while) are obviously more reliable. But See No Evil had a budget of $8,000,000 and had a Gross Revenue of $18,564,467 + $16,490,000 in DVD rentals. Surely that's a profit if those figures are correct? The Condemned had a budget of $20,000,000, only took $8,635,138 at the box office but did another $22,300,000 on DVD rentals.

[LaGoosh]

Alot of times when people list down a movies budget they don't include promotion costs. The Condemned may have had a budget of 20 mil but the promotion costs are usually either half or more of the movies budget. So for a movie to make any profit it has to make at a minimum 1.5 times it's budget/promotion costs.

[The Total Package]

I dunno about Zuffa, the impression they've given all this time is that they REALLY don't want to touch wrestling with a mile-long bargepole.

 

There are loads of media companies out there who'd jump at the chance to buy a brand with the recognition WWE has, I think. They wouldn't be buying WWE, they'd be buying The Wrestling; there aren't many brands out there these days with such unchallenged status. I reckon Bischoff would buy it if he had the chance - pretty sure he's got the money to do it.

 

LOL that would be funny if Bischoff bought it and then renamed it WCW.

 

I know that Zuffa and Dana have disliking towards wrestling, but I figure they would buy it just so they could kill it off slowly themselves, isn't that what they did with Pride?

 

I never watched much of Pride but I know it was the leader in MMA, then UFC bought it and the rest as they say is history.

 

As for someone mentioning TNA taking WWE's spot, I dont think so, I think even if right now TNA were putting on class shows every week, their ratings would stay the same, if WWE went away most of those fans would just stop watching altogether, its the same thing that happened with WCW, when Nitro went away RAW's ratings didnt go up, those people just phooked wrestling off and never cameback, this happened with alot of my friends

[King Pitcos]

Alot of times when people list down a movies budget they don't include promotion costs. The Condemned may have had a budget of 20 mil but the promotion costs are usually either half or more of the movies budget. So for a movie to make any profit it has to make at a minimum 1.5 times it's budget/promotion costs.

I don't think a few adverts on Raw cost ten million, like.

[Yoghurt]

Darts isn't a sport, though, it's a pub game.

 

Absolutely nailed it, the "sport" is a pub game, which is why it benefits, bring some of the more grand, high campery into MMA would have the exact opposite effect. A lot of MMA fans moved away from wrestling because of this.